Responding in the Moment Matt 7:7-12

you And the last thing your life will shine.

Consume me from the inside out. Let justice and

grace become my embrace. To love you from the

inside. Thank you. Thank you. We choose to wear

a crown that isn't scarred to win my heart. What

kind of love tells me I'm the reason? You've

done it already. Praise God. This is going to

be something you've never seen before. So hold

on. Even though this is a text that you may have

heard before. I hope you have. My goodness, it

would be terrible if you hadn't. But this is

going to be something. Okay, here we go. Alright,

so the sermon title is Responding in the Moment.

The text is Matthew 7, 7 -12. I am going to read

that to you now. Amen. Thank you, sir. Ask, and

it will be given to you. Seek, and you will find.

Knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone

who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and

to him who knocks it will be opened. Or what

man is there among you? When his son asks for

a loaf, we'll give him a stone. Or if he asks

for a fish, will he not give him a snake? Will

he? If you then, being evil, Know how to give

good gifts to your children. How much more will

your Father who is in heaven give what is good

to those who ask him? In everything, therefore.

In other words, after all of that that we just

read, because all of that is true, in everything,

therefore. Treat people the same way you would

want them to treat you. For this is the law and

the prophets. The first thing I want you to see

in this text that is very obvious, if you don't

know this, if you do not know this point that

I'm about to give you right now, then I'm sorry

to say it's probably that you're not saved. And

you might want to think about it kind of seriously

and ask yourself if that's true, what do I need

to do? And it is this. God is responding. God's

not dead, and he's checking his mail. Email is

fast. I sent an email to my wife with some details.

She has the notification turned on her phone.

I was sitting in the living room. I pushed the

button send. I heard one, not even a second,

like a quarter of a second later, she received

the email in the office. And I thought, you know

what's funny about that? Because it left my phone.

It went to the cell tower. It went to the internet,

probably toured Europe, came all over the place

and back to her cell phone. One room away, 10

feet away, less than half a second later. Email

is fast, but calling out to God is faster. I

could tell you a dozen stories about how people

said, I am going to, I see God wants me to, and

they confessed the need for God to do something,

and God was already miraculously intervening

on their behalf before the words had ever gotten

out of their mouths. I think I'll start tithing,

and the phone calls are coming, and the money

is aligning, and so on, and it's already done

before ever. They've written a check. I think

I'll start praying more. And already they feel

the presence of God at work in them and affecting

them before they ever have actually prayed any

more than they had previously. I think I'll start

studying the word of God and taking the Bible

in more. And already it starts cropping up in

them and they begin to remember verses that they

had memorized way back in the day and how God's

word can work daily in and out just because they

made the commitment before ever they actually

picked up their Bible again and began to read

more words or listen to more sermons online or

anything like that. God is responding. He's not

dead and he's checking his mail. And there's

no faster moving mail than prayer or a commitment

to God. Here in these verses, it says, when a

person seeks, they find. When a person knocks,

it's opened. He says, look at you evil people.

When your child asked for a loaf, would you give

him a stone? When your child asked for a fish,

would you give him a snake? Who do you think

God is? That God would be cried out to? by a

people that desperately need him to intervene,

and he would just ignore them. No, God is responding.

In Mark 11, verses 24 to 26, it says this. It

Mark 11:24–26

says, Therefore I say to you, all things for

which you pray and ask, believe that you have

received them, and they will be granted to you.

That's Jesus. Whenever you stand praying, forgive

if you have anything against one so that your

father who is in heaven will also forgive you

your transgressions. But if you do not forgive,

neither will your father who is in heaven forgive

your transgressions. And so this verse says that

God is not dead and he's checking his mail. And

if you will lift the things that you care about

up to God, he will hear you and he is actively

responding to prayers. But notice. It also says

that you have a responsibility. You have a call

by God to forgive others their transgresses against

you. And if you will not forgive them, then God

will not forgive you either. Thereby saying that

God's response is tied to something. And here,

that something takes its form in forgiveness.

In Galatians 6, 7 -11, it says, Do not be deceived.

God is not mocked. For whatever a man sows, this

he will also reap. See, people start to think

that God is not responding. That they can do

this or that, or they can fail to do this or

that, and that God is just going to sit on his

hands. He's not going to do anything. But Paul

tells the Galatians very clearly, God is not

mocked. Don't start to think that someone's getting

away with something. Do not be deceived. He says,

for the one who sows to his own flesh, that means

when you do what your body wants instead of what

God wants, the one who sows to his own flesh

will reap from the flesh corruption. But the

one who sows the Spirit will from the Spirit

reap eternal life. Let us not lose heart in doing

good, for in due time we will reap if we do not

grow weary. So then, while we have opportunity,

let us do good to all people, and especially

those who are of the household of the faith.

So again, this understanding that God is not

mocked, and that ultimately He will pay back

every bit of... our doing on this earth, this

understanding of that is tied then deeply to,

he says, doing good to all people and especially

those who are of the household of faith. In John

14, Jesus says, I will ask the Father and he

will give you another helper. There's a response

for you that he may be with you forever. That

is the spirit of truth whom the world cannot

receive because it does not see him or know him.

But you know him because he abides with you and

will be in you. God is responding. In Joel 2

.32, Acts 2 .21, and Romans 10 .13, essentially

the Acts verse and the Romans verse are quoting

the Joel verse. It says, if anyone calls upon

the name of the Lord, they will be saved. That's

how I got saved. I called upon the name of the

Lord. I'm like, I don't know what this is going

to be. I don't know what's going to happen. I

don't know what I'm going to have to do. I don't

know what I've got to give up. I don't know what

life's going to be like, but here's what I know.

I can't die and go to hell. That can't be the

end of my story. And so I need salvation. And

I said, Lord, will you save me? As if I wasn't

sure. And he said, oh yes, and he did. Those

who call upon the name of the Lord will be saved

because God is actively responding. So saith

the Bible all over the place. The second thing

to see on this text then is that everyone is

on a journey to meet God. Every single person,

lost or saved, doesn't matter, smart or quote

unquote dumb, ignorant, informed, weak, poor,

rich, healthy, unhealthy. Every skin color, every

social background, every economic standing, everybody

is on a journey to meet God. In Hebrews 9, 27

to 28, it says, a pretty famous verse that you

may not remember the reference, it says, inasmuch

as it is appointed for men to die once and after

this coming the judgment. So Christ also, having

been offered once to bear his sins, to bear the

sins of many, will appear a second time for salvation

without reference to sin to those who eagerly

await him. God is responding. And everyone is

on a journey and God knows it. And God knows

exactly what response those people need. And

essentially, his greatest response then is sending

Jesus. But notice that we are on a journey because

everyone will die once and then comes the judgment.

Unless, of course, Christ comes first and then

we'll skip right to the end. 2 Corinthians 5,

2 Corinthians 5:6–10

verses 6 to 10 says this, Therefore, being always

of good courage and knowing that while we are

at home in the body, we are absent from the Lord.

For we walk by faith, not by sight. One of my

favorite verses. We are of good courage, I say,

and prefer rather to be absent from the body

and to be at home with the Lord. In other words,

we'd rather that there. If you walk by faith,

not by sight, you will realize that it's going

to be better there. It doesn't matter how good

you get it here. When you get there, it's going

to be better. So all your efforts to make it

better here are going to come up feeble compared

to what it's going to be like there that's already

being prepared for you. And there's nothing you

can really do about that. It's already being

prepared for you. If you are a follower of the

Lord Jesus Christ. He says, we are of good courage,

I say, and prefer rather to be absent from the

body. and to be at home with the Lord. Therefore,

we also have as our ambition, whether at home

or absent, to be pleasing to Him. For, here it

is, we must all appear before the judgment seat

of Christ, so that each one may be recompensed

for his deeds in the body, according to what

he has done, whether good or bad. Who's each

one? Everybody. Everybody is on a journey to

God. Doesn't matter what they're doing right

now or whether you like what they're doing right

now or whether you can communicate with them

or understand them or what your barriers might

be. Everyone, everyone, everyone is on a journey

to God. Each of us will answer. It may well be

said that all of us will experience regret. The

truth is there are things in my background now

that if I allowed evil spirits to get a hold

of me, I regret them now. I think about now,

oh, it's almost like a traumatic flashback when

I think about some of the terrible things I did.

But I also realize that evil spirits are trying

to slow me down from doing what and being what

God would have me do and be now. And so I push

that stuff away and I get on with the business

of the Lord. But in that moment, all of us are

going to hear about all the things that we did.

Now, judged by the righteousness of Christ, I

understand you can still go to heaven. It isn't

that we did not honor God the way God would have

had us do. But the chief thing a person will

be judged for is what he has done with the Son

of Christ or with the Son of God, who is Christ.

So in other words, Jesus did not come to condemn

the world. You recognize that? Jesus did not

come to condemn the world, but they're condemned

already by what they have done with the Son of

God. So the question is, what did you do with

the Son of God? And if you're here today and

you did not accept the Son of God fully to be

in charge of your life, you're still taking part

of that for yourself or letting something else

take place or anything else rise up into the

presence as a God, get your worth, get your love,

instead of all of that being dedicated to the

Lord, then you've got a problem. And your problem

is, you're ultimately going to stand before God

because you're on a journey. And everybody's

journey, in some sense, will meet at that point.

Everybody, everybody will answer. And I would

submit to you that everybody will have regret.

But the ultimate question is, what have you done

with the Son of God? In that moment, maybe again,

we'll experience, like, for the first time, an

unending gratitude. Why do I say that? Because

I feel like if we were experiencing unending

gratitude now, we wouldn't be sinning against

God like we are. Even accidentally or incidentally,

we'd be thinking about, Oh, I shouldn't do that,

right? If we were eternally grateful. Once you

get there and it's no longer a matter of faith

and our faith fluctuates day by day as to whether

we make the right decision or not, whether we

were found faithful or not, when we get there,

that'll be done. We'll be like, yeah, it was

all true. Here I stand in front of Jesus. And

he says, well done, good and faithful servant.

Come on home. But still, there's that moment

where you're like, oh, I shouldn't have done

that. I shouldn't have done that. I shouldn't

have done that. And it's probably going to go

by in a blink of an eye because time there is

not like time here. It's not like you're going

to spend an hour regretting it. It's going to

be quick. But the truth is, from then on, eternal,

unending gratitude that we have been accepted,

that we did accept Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior.

Unending because it will no longer be in faith,

but it will be seen. Unwaning and waxing. That's

what waning and waxing means, going up and down

like the moon does. Regardless, we are all headed

to that meeting. All of us are headed to that

meeting. And then Jesus says, in light of that,

in light of the fact that God, you can get lost

in the... seek and find and knock and he'll open.

You can get wrapped up in those words. There's

a lot of good sermons in there probably. But

in light of the fact that God is responding and

in light of the fact that we are all on a journey

to that moment at which we will stand before

God, in light of all that, it says, therefore,

because all of that is true, treat others as

you would want to be treated. It's an interesting

command, actually. James warms that it probably

will be our tendency to be partial to certain

people over other people. He says, if however

you are fulfilling the royal law, according to

the scripture, you shall love your neighbor as

yourself, you're doing well. But if you show

partiality, if you choose some people over other

people, for example, you're committing sin and

are convicted by the law as transgressors. For

whoever keeps the whole law and yet offends in

one point, he has become guilty of all. For he

who said, do not commit adultery, also said,

do not commit murder. Now, if you do commit murder,

but do not commit... I'm sorry, if you do commit

adultery, but do not commit, I'm going to say

that again. Now, if you do not commit adultery,

but do commit murder, you have become a transgressor

of the law. So speak and so act as those who

are to be judged by the law of liberty, for judgment

will be merciless to the one who has shown no

mercy. Mercy triumphs over judgment. I get it

that the world is filled with people that make

your skin crawl. I get it that the world is full

of people that make you go, I'm talking to them,

but they're just not hearing me. Or they're doing

things that I can't hardly stand to be around.

I don't know what percentage of society is like

that, but I'll tell you that on some days it

feels like 99%. People that I just can't be around.

They're just not doing the things that I can

tolerate. Judgment will be merciless to the one

who has shown no mercy. We think about correction,

vengeance, hate, or sin. Leviticus 19, 17 -18

says, You shall not hate your fellow countrymen

in your heart. You may surely reprove your neighbor.

In other words, you can correct them when they're

doing what's wrong, but you can't hate them in

their heart, in your heart. And this is the problem.

What we do is we don't want to reprove because

society says you can't correct somebody. Society

says none of your business. Society says leave

me alone. Society says shut up. That's just your

opinion. Walk your own truth, which is all a

falsehood, by the way. Society is pushing you,

lying to you. The Bible says you can. reprove

your neighbor. That means you can go to the person

who lives in the same country as you. Whether

they're in the church or not, you can go to the

person who lives next door to you. You can tell

them when they're doing something wrong. Even

though you don't know them. You may not know

their first name. You can be in the grocery store

and you can see a parent that's disrespecting

their child. It's probably hurting them maybe

or psychological abuse or even a child that's

disrespecting their parents. You can walk up

to somebody that you don't even know and you

can say, You really should do this. And I understand

that's not going to save them. And if they would

correct it and make it better, it's not going

to make it any better for them. And yes, it'll

be a lot easier for you to keep your nose out

of it. But the scripture says very clearly, you

may surely, you surely should, you may surely

reprove your neighbor, but you shall not incur

sin because of him. In other words, you don't

do anything that would be sinful against God.

You don't hurt them. You don't get an angry feeling

in your heart. You don't abuse them verbally.

You don't blow them up on social media. You don't.

Slash their tires or storm off saying bad things

over your shoulder. You don't do any of that

because you don't incur sin even though you see

what they're doing is wrong. And I would take

that one step further and say you don't incur

sin as in you don't dismiss them. You don't forget

the thing that we're studying today that what

you ought to do to them is what you would have

them do to you. No matter how bad they are, you

do to them what you would have them do to you.

That's what it says. Back to the top of verse

17, it says, You shall not hate your fellow countrymen

in your heart. You may surely reprove your neighbor,

but shall not incur sin because of him. You shall

not take vengeance, nor bear any grudge against

the sons of your people. But you shall love your

neighbor as yourself. I am the Lord. That's like

a period there. He's just saying, you shall love

your neighbor as yourself. I am the Lord. You're

going to question me. Go ahead. Walk away from

me. Go ahead. We're going to meet again. I'm

not done responding. You will reap what you sow.

I am the Lord. Love your neighbor as yourself.

Mark 12, 29 to 31, Jesus answered, the foremost

is, talking about the great commands that essentially

sum up all of scripture, says the foremost is,

hear, O Israel, the Lord our God is one Lord,

and you shall love the Lord your God with all

your heart, with all your soul, with all your

mind, and with all your strength. And then in

verse 31, he says, the second is this, you shall

love your neighbor as yourself. Then he says,

there is no other commandment greater than these.

Oh. Be holy as I am holy. Oh, well, that guy

is not holy. I can't have anything to do with

him. Well, you just made be holy as God is holy

a greater commandment than love your neighbor

as yourself. Careful. He says there is no greater

commandment than these. There is no other commandment

greater than these. Recapping briefly then, we

have essentially three points that we noticed,

didn't we? The first one is that God is responding.

God's not dead and he's checking his mail. realize

also that everyone is on their way. Everyone

is on a journey to come before God. Everybody

and everybody that you encounter, that will be

true. If they're still taking breath, their brains

are still waving, then they're on their way to

meet God. They might have a while yet before

they get there in human terms, but it'll seem

like a blink of an eye measured against eternity.

So you may dismiss them for three decades, like

30 years. Then both of you get there. They're

there. You're there. And if they're saved, you're

going to spend an eternity with them after having

nothing to do with them for 30 years. Are you

comfortable with that? Everybody is on a journey

on their way to God. And then, therefore, treat

others as you want to be treated. It does not

say treat others as they treat you. It says treat

others as you want to be treated. And that brings

us to our conclusion already. It's a doozy, including

an object lesson that will probably take you

by surprise, most of you. And our conclusion

is this. We need to realize that in reading this

scripture and the scriptures that support it,

that it's not your image or my image that's at

stake. It doesn't matter what you look like in

front of people. It doesn't matter what people

think of you. It doesn't matter if they spam

your social media with nasty comments about your

hairstyle. It doesn't matter if they don't like

your shade of makeup or the clothes that you

choose. It doesn't matter whether you can accurately,

perfectly convey what it is that you're trying

to say or you stumble over your words because

it's not about your image at all. It's not your

image that's at stake. In Genesis 1, God said,

let us make man in our own image. But then things...

went downhill from there. Those who are made

in the image of God, Adam and Eve, the first

man and woman to ever live, they sinned against

God. They chose a form of provision that they

thought would give them what they desired outside

of God. An internet guru defines it this way.

Human beings are made in the image of God in

a few points. First of all, we have evaluative

thinking. That means we can think. We have the

capacity to evaluate circumstances, draw conclusions,

and we see God doing this all throughout Scripture.

God is responding, and he's logical, reasonable,

and faithful in his responses. Humans, like God,

can think, evaluate, and draw conclusions. We

were created in the image of God. Also, we have

purposeful choosing. Both God and humanity have

the capacity of agency. God and humans both have

the capacity to decide on a goal and a course

of action to reach that goal. Animals don't do

that. Nothing else does that. Humans were created

in the image of God. We have an emotional experience.

We know that people have emotions. We experience

our world through emotions. Our emotions can

lie to us and so on, but the reality is we experience

our world through emotions as we perceive them,

and they even affect our senses. People will

believe something is true, feel something is

true emotively, and then it makes them see that,

even though that's not what's actually there

to be seen. We are not detached machines. What

many people forget is that this is true of God

as well. God has emotions. The scripture is very

clear, both in the Old and New Testament, that

we see emotional expressions ascribed to God.

Our emotions come from the fact that we are made

in God's image. They're only messed up now because

the image is messed up. And then we have deep

longing. Humans have deep longings at the core

of the soul. Parents know the anguish of a child

who has scorned their love. We know the longing

for relationships to be restored and for the

broken to be healed. We cannot define such things

as simply expressions of emotions. They go way

deeper. You try to control your emotions, but

they're spewing out of some deep part of you

that is longing for something that's not yours

to have. Like when we lose a loved one and we

long to have them back or we long to have a reason.

We long to be able to bargain and we long to

be able to negotiate with the powers that be

and hope even God, if we believe in God. We defend

ourselves with our emotions against our own deep

longing for the person that we've lost and we

get angry. And because of sin entering in and

the effect of that sin being passed down, we

were all present in Adam and Eve's DNA. And because

of sin and the effects of that sin being passed

down to us, our heart was corrupted and twisted.

Instead of being inclined toward God, its basic

direction is now toward self. We want what we

want and we don't care what he thinks when we

are in our self, in our flesh. The mind, the

understanding that was given to us by God was

darkened. To put it simply, fallen humans simply

don't think straight. The heart gives the basic

direction toward self and so the mind processes

everything through that grid and devises strategies

to preserve the illusion of independence so we

think we can be okay without God. Since the mind

is now darkened, fallen humanity choices are

now foolish. It's not that we have lost the ability

to choose. It's rather that our choices are made

on the basis of a deceitful heart and a darkened

understanding. And so we think we can take what

we want or what we want. We think that evil things

will actually be good for us. How else to explain

choosing temporary satisfaction that ultimately

leaves us empty over the full satisfier of our

soul? We wind up in addiction. Dopamine addiction

even. Watching screens. TV. Reading. playing,

sex, music, all of these things we use to temporarily

satisfy when the full satisfier of our soul exists

where everything is silent, in a room with absolute

deprivation of sound and stimulus, just you and

God. Not only does fallen humanity experience

unpleasant emotions, but these unfulfilled longings,

these longings that we have in our soul for relationship

and purpose remain largely unfulfilled. And that

explains the search of most people. We crave

for that emptiness to go away, so we search for

some form of relief. Finally, fallen humanity

lives in a state of disconnection. That's the

one we kind of get. We look at the scripture

and we see very clearly that God kicked them

out of the Garden of Eden. We see that they didn't

walk in the coolness of the garden with God anymore.

We see that their relationship between them was

screwed up. And then as we get outside, we see

that it's a relationship between men and men

because we see Cain, Kill, Abel, murder and anger

and lust and deceit and slander and gossip. Idolatry

of all forms takes up residence in people because

the longing, the disconnection from God. We were

created to have. Jeremiah 2 says it this way

in verses 12 to 13. He says, be appalled. And

that means disgusted. It's like, be sick, oh

heavens. That's what he's saying. So the heavens

should be sick at this and shudder. Be very desolate.

That means alone, wiped out without anything.

declares the Lord, for my people have committed

two evils. The people of God have committed two

evils. One, they have forsaken me, the fountain

of living waters, to hew for themselves cisterns,

a cistern is a well, broken cisterns that can

hold no water. So the first great evil that they

had perpetrated was that they had found another

source. See, the lie that was perpetrated against

Eve was that God was somehow stingy, that he

wasn't giving her everything that was. And she

could just reach out and take it for herself

against God's wishes and find sustenance and

fulfilling in her soul, in mode of stability,

relationship, wisdom, clear thought, all just

by taking that fruit that she was not allowed

to take. And so God through Jeremiah reminds

us that the first of the great evils was that

we forsook God. And the second was that we carved

out. These cisterns, wells that have holes in

the bottom, they cannot hold water. We found

other solutions and people are still trying to

do that today. But when we are born again, when

we turn these concerns and all other significant

concerns over to the God of heaven through His

Son, Jesus Christ, which, by the way, is the

only way to have them dealt with, then we are

born again and we are given a fresh start, a

new heart, a new mind. Our transgressions and

our willingness to accept those transgressions

as the norm are gone behind us. That's what chapter

5 of 2 Corinthians is all about. And we are given

the sacred responsibility which mankind was created

for, which is what? To represent God. To represent

Him. To be created in His image. And an image

is a thing. I have miniatures that don't represent

anybody. But I have pictures that represent my

loved ones. And I don't go and talk to the pictures.

And I don't hug the pictures. And I don't lick

the pictures. We don't dance together. And we

don't eat dinner together. I eat dinner with

real people. And I hug them. And I don't usually

lick them. But I hold pictures in my hand. But

that ain't them. But the people are the people.

And we are supposed to be... miniature representatives,

if you will. If God is bigger than everything,

then we are miniature at best representatives

of the God of the universe. Created in His image.

And as a born -again Christian, that's what you

must do. His image is on you as a Christian.

His image is moving through you as a Christian.

And that's what's at stake. To this end, we are

His agents of forgiveness and His heralds of

righteousness and His ministers of reconciliation,

one and all. We become the body of Christ and

His body sacrifices itself for those who would

hear. Let me say that again. We become the body

of Christ and His body sacrifices itself for

an image in the minds of those who would know

God. You just need them to hear. You just need

them to see. You just need them to be reconciled.

Love others and do for them what you would have

done for you as an image bearer of the living

God. Now, there is an important aside here that

I have to say to you. It's important. It's very

important. And that is that snapshots are dangerously

misinterpreted. I've never played professional

football. But it would be entirely possible for

somebody to put me in a professional jersey and

uniform and pads and all that kind of thing and

then take me to a professional stadium with my

foot dragging across the line and I'm hovering

above the ground. I dive and catch a football

and someone who does not know me at all and I'm

wearing a helmet, whatever, and says Stevenson

across the back might think, oh, there's that

guy who played for whatever and think that I'm

a professional football player. Snapshots are

dangerous. What you see in a snapshot in a moment

in time, what you assimilate, causes people to

judge, causes people to feel a certain way about

people, and it can be bad. And it can be bad

for Christians. It's not what I'm talking about,

per se, and I'll show you why. At one point in

time, I met Elvis' half -brother at a conference,

and he told me a story. I'm just going to tell

you the first part of it so you can see the snapshot.

He said that he wanted to date a girl when he

was 17 years old, and she was a professing Christian.

And she said, no, I don't date. I can't date.

But what you can do is you can come to church

with me on Sundays and Wednesdays for youth group,

and we can see each other there. Not ride together,

but we'll meet each other there, and we'll see

each other there. And we're like, every girl

in the room right now is going like, oh, you

know, that's kind of a lot, isn't it? Doesn't

that make it seem like Christianity is kind of

really stodgy and, like, can't even date? I mean,

can't even date as a teenage girl? So that snapshot

makes her look kind of bad, right? It makes Jesus

look kind of bad because it's taking away from

us the basic things that seems like every right

in our society. I had over, I don't know, over

the last few decades, I've had at least three

conversations where I sat down with somebody

who was going to church, but they weren't going

to just one church. They were going here and

there and all over, and they weren't the church,

and they weren't doing ministry. They weren't

called to ministry in the church. They were just

kind of all over the place. And I said to them,

look, you've got to stop just going to church.

You've got to stop going to church. Because that's

not what it's about. It's not about just going

to church. It's about something more than that.

But if you take that snapshot, if there's that

conversation where I sit down with that person

and say, look, you've been coming to our church,

but I don't want you to come anymore. It's pretty

bad, isn't it? It's a pretty bad snapshot. Or

you sit down with somebody who's struggling financially.

Why are you struggling financially? I'm a Christian.

I've been struggling financially for years and

years, and I've never quite been there. We never

quite got there. And you say, well, I mean, I

hate to ask you this under these circumstances,

but do you tithe? Do you manage your money in

a biblical way? No, you know, I try to tithe.

I've done that up and down from time to time,

and I've been close. Sometimes I got close to

10%, whatever, like that. I say, well, you know,

if you're not going to do what God wants you

to do, then there really isn't any way I can

help you. That's a pretty bad snapshot, isn't

it? In that moment in time, that looks pretty

bad for the person who's saying, look, I can't

help you. I was at the life station. I had two

young ladies in the back of the room, and they

were taking turns coming in and out because they

wanted to hear the preaching, but they had a

little kid with them who was like less than a

year old, and they were acting up. and they were

trying to feed him and everything. So they were

taking turns going in and out so both of them

could hear as much of the preaching as possible.

There's a man sitting two rows in front of them,

and at the end, he'd come up to me. I'd talked

to him multiple times before. I'd shared the

gospel very clearly with him. He'd come up to

me, and he says, I'm going to ask you a question.

He started asking me some questions about some

Old Testament verses. And I said, I'm going to

stop you right there. So I'm going to stop you

right there. I'm just going to say to you, did

I clearly explain the gospel to you, that you

need to accept Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior,

and if you accept him, you'll be saved. Then

after that, we can worry about all these other

things and maybe we won't even need to. Just

be born again. And he said, yes. And I said,

and you have not done that. You're not willing

to believe in Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior,

correct? And he said, that's correct. And I said,

okay, well, I'm just going to say it this way.

I'm done with you. I'm done. I've offered Jesus.

Jesus has offered himself and you're denying.

Now, I'm going to be blunt with you. There are

people in this room right now that's the same

way. Because you know the gospel. And instead

of Jesus being first in your life, instead of

him being Lord, which means he tells you what

to do and you do it. You're busy with your own

life, your own idea, fulfilling your own desires,

your own emotions. And so just the same as I

said to that person in a snapshot that looks

kind of ugly, I said, look, I'm just done. What

if God says that to you? And if you don't know

that that's possible in scripture, I'll show

you. It's a different sermon, but I'll show you

where it's absolutely possible. God said, look,

I offer, you deny, you decline. I'm done with

you until you settle this matter. And so, but

if you look at me in that moment saying to that

guy, I'm done with you. I've shared the gospel.

You won't listen. You won't accept Christ. I'm

done with you. And if you look in that moment,

that makes me look mean. It makes me look harsh.

It makes Christianity look judgmental, does it

not? Snapshots are dangerous. Had a recent conversation

with the person who professes to be a believer.

I love this person. I was under the impression

that this person loves me. In that conversation,

the person said to me, I was just about to start

to be faithful to God and do the things that

God wanted me to do. And now you and your church

have offended me and I'm not going to do that

now. To which I said to them, if you were going

to do it, you'd just do it. We're not going to

play that game. You're not going to blackmail

me. So don't say to me you were just about to

become faithful. I don't want to hear it. Now,

you take that snapshot. Does that not look mean?

Now let's go back over the stories again. The

story of Elvis' stepbrother. That young lady

that wouldn't date him that went to church, she

went to her church and got them praying. Twenty

-two years later, Elvis' stepbrother walks into

that church. He was in a hotel, read the gospel

in a Gideon Bible in a hotel, prayed to accept

Christ, and said, I've got to go to church. And

he went into that little country church outside.

I think it's, what is it, Memphis? That's where

Graceland is, right? Outside down there. And

he went to that little country church, and they

all... saw him come in and they got up and they

surrounded him and they were applauding that

he was there and they're like, what happened?

He said, I got saved. I don't know what's going

on. Why are you all doing this to me? And he

said, 22 years ago, they had put his name on

the prayer quest and they had not stopped praying

for him to be saved for 22 years. And that 17

-year -old girl who's now 39, married and with

six kids or something, living in another part

of the country, wasn't there. But her grandmother

was there and those people recognized that man,

the stepbrother of Elvis, the half -brother of

Elvis, and he was saved. saved and they had been

praying for him. And she said, as soon as we

get done with this service, I'm going to go call

my daughter. The girl that said, I can't date

you, but I want you to come to church. I'm going

to go call her because she's been praying for

you for 22 years. Now, does that girl look mean?

Does she look harsh? Does that snapshot speak

of reality? When she said, I can't date you because

you won't come to God. Does it speak of reality

now? No, it does not. The reality is that she

loved him. He didn't love her. She loved him

in the way that God wanted. She treated him the

way she would want to be treated. If she was

lost and going to hell, she would want somebody

to say what you really need. It's not a date

with a pretty girl, but God in your life. Jesus

Christ, the Son of God, to save you. Those are

true stories, by the way. The individual that

I spoke with, I said, look, several of them.

One walked away from our church, didn't come

back for years, and then said, boy, I screwed

that up. I should have been here the whole time.

Because it is another family that I went to have

that same conversation with. It was a Hispanic

family. And I'm not saying anything negative

about that. But when I went to go make my visit,

I was making a visit with a man and his wife.

And I got there. And all their kids and grandkids,

they were all there to visit with me. The pastor's

coming over. And I go in. There's an audience

of 13 people to talk to. And I told them all,

you've got to stop dating the church. You've

got to get in the church and be faithful in the

church and be the church. It's not about that.

And he said, well, you understand. He had come

to our church. That's how we got the conversation.

He said, well, you understand, if I do that,

it won't be your church because your church is

20 miles away. And I said, why do I care? I said,

I would love to have you, but you need to be

faithful and be the church and be fine with God.

So the very next week, they went to a church

in their local community where they had been

before, where they had a problem with the church

and a problem with the pastor. And he sat down

and had a conversation, joined that church, and

they're still there this day. It's been 20 years.

Now, does that snapshot where I said to them,

look, I don't want you to stop coming to my church,

does that make me look the same way as it did

then? No, it changes the image, right? So we've

got this idea. If you tell people what they're

doing wrong, if you reprove them, remember what

Leviticus said, you can reprove them. But that's

not love. And that's not true. You can reprove

and should correct. You can and should. And you

should point people to God. The verdict is still

out on the most recent conversation that I had

with this person. And I said, don't try to blackmail

me and tell me you're suddenly going to become

faithful because you could have done that all

the time. Verdict's still out. I don't know.

But the fact is this. God loves us. He wants

to use us as his image bearers. and it is not

your image that is at stake. It's His. The Christian

who confronts sin in a church member, the Christian

who tells someone that he has heard enough promises

to start being faithful, or tells someone that

they need to stop dating the church and become

faithful, or reminds them that tithing is biblical.

When I had that conversation years ago, I went

to Judy's house, and this is just one example,

but there are several. I went to her house, and

she said, well, I'm $180 short every month. There's

no possible way I can tithe. I said, well, how

much is your tithe? She said, well, it's like...

I'm like 80 bucks short. I'm like, so you're

$180 short. You tie, that's another $80. Now

you're $260 short. So it really is $180 short

or $260 short, that much difference really? I

mean, you're short anyway, right? And she goes,

well, you know, duh, that makes perfect sense.

And so she said, okay, I'm going to do it. From

now on, I'm going to tie. Took her to the doctor's

office, dropped her off, came back. By the time

we got back, she had a message on her answering

machine saying that they were no longer going

to require that she keep oxygen in her home.

That's $100 a month, just like that. And another

message on her answer machine saying that back

payment that you had on your oxygen, which is

almost $200 a month, you no longer have to pay

that now because you never used any of it anyway,

so we're going to take that off your bills. All

she did was say she was going to start, never

wrote a check, never gave a dollar, and the calls

were on her answer machine that balanced her

budget with her tithe in it. God is responding,

and everybody is on their way to meet him. And

therefore, we should treat people the way we

would want to be treated. And that involves love.

Sometimes the snapshot of what you're doing may

look harsh, but it really isn't. In the schools

or in Sunday school, when a teacher takes the

teenager's phones away and they're all like...

oh, I got to put my phone in there, right? I

saw a video online about how they're all walking

up to the thing, put their phone in there and

they're putting something else like their calculator

or whatever. They're keeping their phone in their

pocket because they don't want to give up. Like

it's the end of the world if you don't have a

cell phone. You do realize that adults who are

over 30, their childhood did not include a cell

phone. Their teenage years did not include the

internet. People were living and working and

enjoying themselves and doing tons of stuff before

you could ever get on social media. If you watch

sports or social media, you understand. That's

a new invention. In fact, the science is now

coming out saying that the electromagnetic waves

of your phone is screwing up your body. And by

the time we're, I'll probably be gone, but by

the time Ricky's old enough to be 75, we're going

to find out that cell phones are killing people.

And I don't know if the science is real, but

it's out there right now. It's not peer -reviewed

yet. The bottom line is, you don't need it. And

when a teacher tells you you don't need it, you

need to focus on this lesson, you need to learn

what I've got to teach you today, that's not

a bad thing. That's an expression of love. They

care that you get ahead from where you currently

are. When a police officer writes you a ticket,

everybody likes to be mad at the police when

you get a ticket, right? If you're a believer,

you shouldn't be mad at the police. You should

realize that police officer is literally dealing

justice, which is an expression of God's love

in our community. You know what it would be like

if we don't have police? Just go live in Detroit

for a while. You can't get a police officer to

come unless somebody's bleeding or actively stabbing

or shooting somebody. For a fist fight, somebody's

on the ground being kicked in the face, may die

in the next 30 seconds, they'll say, file a report

tomorrow. Make sure they get to the hospital.

Maybe we'll send an ambulance. Do they need an

ambulance right now? Okay, we'll send an ambulance.

No police, because it's not in the budget. We

need the police. And when they write you a ticket,

you should be grateful that you've gotten a ticket

because that's an expression of their love towards

you. All of these pictures, when you have experienced

Christ's love, loving others as he does, becomes

an incurable condition because his Holy Spirit

and your regenerated heart have this reinstated

purpose to love. The same love does not allow

you to continue to facilitate sinful behavior

or encourage ignoring God's offers of repentance.

Asking for repentance is loving your neighbor

as yourself because if you or I were in sin and

headed for hell or chastisement, we would want

to know that, wouldn't we? We would want to be

loved. We would want to be called to salvation.

Our job is not necessarily to respond. and therefore

protect our image, which we always want to do.

Explain why we did what we did. We want to say,

well, that really wasn't me, or I'm so sorry,

even though there's nothing to be sorry for.

Protect our image. Even though this may feel

like protecting our witness, or letting our light

shine, our job is not necessarily to prepare

how we should respond in order to protect our

image. Rather, our job is to learn to do unto

others the way we... would have them do unto

us. Is that not what the Scripture said? Because

our first -hand experience as humans makes us

uniquely able to understand what they're going

through and to do this, and because this is how

God calls us to represent Him. We protect and

guard and steward the image of God. More, we

are the image of God when we treat others the

way we would want to be treated. You came to

church today expecting a fairly normal sermon.

I don't know if that's what you're getting. I

hope you're hearing from the Lord. But now, you're

going to experience something that you've never

experienced before, because I'm going to stand

before you and take my pants off. You ready for

that? My shoes off because they're interfering

with my pants. Here we go. You don't have to.

It's all right. Let them see it, brother. It's

for the Lord. Okay. Here's my innerwear. Everyone

see my innerwear? Here's my innerwear. Because

Sean has never seen my underwear before. Okay.

Right? So there's my underwear. Right there.

Okay? Now, if you take a snapshot right now and

we stop right here, this is going to look like

not a very good idea. Right? It's probably shooting

across Europe right now. Right? Because it moves

pretty fast on the electronics of the internet

and that kind of thing. But last night, I had

a dream. I was standing before you. And my innerwear,

by the way, in my dream was white, but I couldn't

find my white pair today, so the Lord let me

use this pair instead. Standing in front of you,

preaching. I got up this morning, I'm getting

dressed, and I pray. Every Sunday morning, I

pray, okay, Lord, what do you want me to wear

today? He picks out my shirt, he picks out my

pants, and he picked out that I should wear innerwear.

I'm like, I want to wear innerwear in front of

the congregation. Lord, that's got to be kind

of weird. And he told me exactly how I was going

to do it, exactly what's going on right now.

What I want to say to you is, this is what it's

going to look like sometimes. You do not need

to protect your image. You don't. Whatever image

the world can see of you personally right now,

your mustache, your beard, your shiny forehead,

your big belly, or your tallness, or your shortness,

or your long hair, your short hair, your pinkish

lips, or your red lips, your bright lipsticks,

anything that you can make them see, it's all

going to be gone. And if anything about you in

person would lead you, would lead them to come

to Christ, the way you look, the way you talk,

the way you act that is not specifically Christ's

image, it's not the love of God, then the end

result of it is going to be they're going to

go to hell because they're going to get saved

by Tony or saved by Hannah or saved by Caleb.

And that's not how you get saved. You get saved

by Jesus. And so you need to realize that you

do not need to protect your image. Rather, you

need to learn how to exhibit His image in every

situation. And sometime it's going to come out.

that as you do some of that, maybe take off some

external trappings that you have, the way that

you look and so on, that if you strip down far

enough, get rid of just enough of the trappings,

suddenly, the message of Christ becomes clear.

I'm a member of New Heights Fellowship Baptist

Church, and I know... That God sent his only

son to die for us. And you may have to strip

off some layers. You may have to stop talking

about sports. You may have to stop talking about

what your opinions are. You may have to stop

talking about your job. You may have to stop

talking about your family. You may have to start

talking about Jesus. You may have to share the

gospel and so on. Now, here's the great blessing.

We have a God who is a great provider. And here's

what's going to happen. When you strip off that

other stuff and make the image of Jesus the most

important thing, then the God of heaven is going

to use you to represent him. And in so doing,

using you to represent him. Oh, wow. There's

no way. I can't get my underwear off. In so doing,

he may give you the kind of clothes that you

won't mind standing in front of. Not yet. People

are hard to deal with. They're frustrating. It's

a common phenomenon that Christians are offended.

Our sensibilities about how people act. Then

we feel we have to distance ourselves from them,

people who do not act according to what we think

is right. Pull away. And at that point, it simply

makes us impossible. We cannot represent Christ

the way we are called to. When you stop talking,

You have nothing to say. When you start living

your life as love toward the people that you

encounter, which is to say treating them the

way you would want to be treated, the image of

God is not only marred, it's lost. But if you

trust the Lord and let him strip some things

off you that you think you need and begin just

loving people and living this way, which is to

say doing unto them as you would have them do

to you. then Jesus will give you a set of clothes

that you won't mind being out in public in. Those

things we call the fruit of the Spirit. And that's

what it means when he says, you are the light

of the world. Hang in there when they tell you

to shut up and love them even though they are

not treating you the way you would want to be

treated. Love them even though you are not being

treated the way you would want to be treated.

Let Christ's commanded love for them overrule

your fear, your anxiety, or your concern for

appearances, and just deliver a gospel -centered

existence into an otherwise ignorant situation.

And if you have a new heart, then you must never

stop saying or showing, I love Jesus, no matter

what they do to you. If they throw stones, literally.

Break bones, literally. Crucify, literally. Burn

us at the stake, literally. That's the examples

that we have. Real people who are ordinary people.

Most of whom would never take their pants off

in public. Crucified, stoned, and burned. No

matter what they do to us, we must not fail to

represent Christ. If you fail to represent Christ,

you throw away everything. Let me say that very

specifically. If you fail to represent Christ

in your relationships, you throw away everything

that Jesus died for. I love to think that Jesus

died so I can go to heaven one day. That's awesome.

but that is not what he died for. He died for

new life, and yes, that means eternal life for

all of us as we represent him and the Holy Spirit

resides in us. Don't throw away what he died

for. You may still be saved, but as through fire,

as even the image of you, the image of you, the

image of you must be burnt off so that the image

of him can remain on you for an eternity. It's

not your image that's at risk. Stop worrying

about what you look like. and get busy loving

people and doing unto them what you would have

them do unto you. If we fail to exhibit Him,

we fail in every way. I ask the praise team to

come forward at this time and lead us in the

final hymn. I would encourage you today, if you

realize that you're not exhibiting Christ in

your life, repent and turn to God and make Him

first. If you realize that you're not loving

people and doing unto them what you would have

them do unto you, even though you know they may

not, right? If you're not behaving that way,

if you're not treating people that way, then

you repent. It's not my command. If it was, you

could just ignore me. These are the words of

Jesus. Treat others the way you would have them

treat you. And remember, that is because we know

God is responding and everyone is on a journey.

Therefore, we must. And it's not... Our image,

that's at stake. Stop it. It's pride, arrogance,

evil spirits that make you think that you can't

look a certain way to get the job done. God willing,

you never will. But if he called you to take

your pants off in public, and you were sure it

was him, and souls were at stake, if he called

you to take a bullet in your brain because you

refused to renounce the name of Christ, you better

do it. Just be sure it's him. And then do whatever

he's called you to as you exhibit the image of

Christ on earth. As we sing, you respond if the

Lord's leading you to do so.