Heart Like Heaven - Heaven Part 11

A little bit come on, get it for Jesus Amen.

Give it up. May I sing sing these songs just

thinking about heaven and think about Jesus man just heart is

full of just gratitude for what God is doing A couple things

that's just happened recently that is grateful for is our

men's ministry. Yesterday I was just blessed to

sit at the table of guys that you know, people talk about

passion and say we passion about and talk about sports.

And it got to my table and it was just Jesus and it was really

cool to hear. And there's a man of my group

that kind of does Celebrate Recovery.

And he was talking about a man fell in a pit and you know, a

Christian guy walked by. I said, hell, praying for you,

rich man walked by. I said, give you some money.

He said, I'm the kind of guy that just jumps in the pit and

the guy goes, why are you down here?

He's like, I've been here before.

I can help you out and just point them to Jesus.

I've been I'm I'm in the right group.

Amen. I sat next to a guy.

He's older guy and just fantastic.

And he had shared his passion was that he had helped men

actually see their heavenly Father the way Jesus wants us to

see your heavenly Father because made us grow up with brokenness

and heard and all these different stuff.

And this guy is like legit, I just man, we need more of that,

Amen. Men find their purpose.

And so it was just really cool. Just very grateful for what God

was doing there, man. Our church has been growing

spiritually and numerically, and I'm grateful for Jesus, what

he's doing. Amen.

You can kind of sense it, you know, losing little seats here,

stuff like that. But.

It was cool I. Think Holly mentioned this a few

weeks ago. Their church had moved basically

from mid two 30s to about 270 over this course was last year

and it didn't, it didn't sound like super significant but

that's like 15% growth it was last year, which is just all

glory to Jesus. Amen and thankful for you guys

that have been inviting and sharing and loving and and our

team for your care. I know a lot.

We have huge team high scenes that serves and so all glory to

Jesus and I'm thankful for our team and grateful for what God's

doing. Amen so get up for a dream team,

get for a life group leaders give those to make a difference

for a church just paving the way for God.

Just make a move. So it's awesome.

Well, this week we have life Group community week.

So what that means if you're a life group leader, they're

canceling all the stuff they normally do, whether it's Bible

studies or the way or just different things.

And they're just making room for community.

And so we'd love to see every everyone of you guys out at a

life group this week. We'd love to connect.

There's no agenda, Amen. We're not selling anything.

There's no baiting switch. We're not even inviting out to

Easter. We just want to get to know you.

And we just believe that you just get people around the

people of God. It's just living proof of a

loving. God, Amen and.

This can sense the Holy Spirit and so we've been inviting this

last few weeks. I've been hanging out at this

little barbecue joint in the in Raymore called 816 BBQ.

It's been been awesome. I got a chance to meet the owner

a few times. He's there quite a bit had a

food truck forever. He loves Jesus, he loves the

city and so I got a chance. I've got his personal number.

I've been texting him back and forth and inviting out.

So if you show it to my grip on my night, I'm not going to say

something to come. But if he does get the best

barbecue in town, Amen. So this is going to happen, but

we have friends and family all across our city at the Jesus

Amen. And so if you got a brother or

sister, parents like people around, they could just come

just can't come with me. Hang out as soon introduce them

some friends. There's no other gender to it.

So be inviting and see what God can do.

There's a story in the Bible that's pretty cool about

somebody was invited and Jesus did this invitation to a lady to

well, the most like least likely person you'd ever talk to.

And he had to serve her and she served him and she was the first

one to know about the Messiah. And it's really cool as she

start relationship with Jesus and she went back to her town

where everybody knew her story and she said, there's a guy to

everything about me. You got to meet him.

He's the Messiah. And she brought these people to

Jesus and many of them came to Christ.

Amen. So one relationship changed

everything. But here's the part that's

really cool. I didn't know this a few weeks

ago, that that crowd of people that followed her to meet Jesus

was actually the catalyst in the beginning of the crowd.

That would be the miracle, the feeding of 5000.

Is that crazy? Like the biggest miracle you see

in the New Testament by Jesus outside the resurrection was

because a woman that everybody overlooked had a relationship

with Christ and went and told somebody, That's amazing.

Amen. So you never know who you're

going to bring in contact. It's just relationships.

The gospel goes out. So encourage it.

We have a great opportunity in front of us if you have a card

on your seat for life groups. You can just.

Find any life groups and click on it, get the address and just

show up to any of this week. We'd love to have you out.

Amen. So be a part of what God's

doing. Well, today I'm preaching on the

fullness of the gospel. This is an interesting topic.

I'll explain all about it throughout the day, but my

prayer is that you'd be so moved by heaven that would it would

change how you live and share the gospel on earth.

You'd see like the fullness of what God wants to do all across

the board. So I start with a question.

Is there any area of our life that is beyond the touch of the

gospel? You also quick to answer, right?

There's not. But sometimes we think there is,

right? Like many times we follow like a

partial gospel. Like is there any part of our

marriage or any part of the things we do for work or how we

spend our money or, or is there any, any atom in the universe?

Is there any isotope or mountain or nation or war?

Is there anything beyond the redemption of Jesus?

And it's kind of common sense. If you know Jesus, you're like,

well, yeah, of course you can do all things.

But do we live it out? Do do we do we live the fullness

of the gospel or we have a partial truth to what God has

for us? And so think about this verse

and we're going to do a little heart surgery today, if you want

to call it heavenly heart surgery, Amen.

Little heart surgery. And you know your heart by the

words we speak. And so you're going to find this

in Luke chapter 6, verse 45. It says this a good man brings

Luke 6:45

what good things out of the what good stored up in his heart.

So this is a good person, right? A good man, good things has good

stored up in his heart. An evil man brings evil things

out of the evil stored up in his in his heart.

For the mouth speaks what the heart is, what, what your heart

is full of, like what, what the fear and anxiety and the worry

and the criticism and the anger in, in the, in the, the put

downs or the, OR the compliments, all are flowing

from your, your heart. And so if you want somebody's

hearts at you, just look at what comes out of their heart.

You look at the words that people say.

And so they also want to spend some time looking at the words

that we say and we share. And if we're honest, many of us

have fallen to the trap that we believe the gospel is really

about salvation and that church is about knowledge.

Many people would don't say this, but they're saying this is

that we preach the gospel to the community and we preach the

Bible to church. It's just done by so many groups

of churches. And I grew up in that kind of

church. Like the gospel is for

salvation, but it really doesn't change the other things.

And I want to encourage you today that the gospel is about

everything. You just don't add the gospel.

You don't put like the ice in the gospel on a burnt cake and

everything's great. The gospel infiltrates every

molecule of that cake, infiltrates every part of your

marriage, every part of your life, every part of your

finances, every part of your heart, every interaction you

have, every relationship. The gospel is being woven into

every fabric of your being. But it changed our words.

So I'm going to look through some different areas.

We might have some words that are partially true.

I hear there's all times as a pastor, someone's going to walk

through them and God will just speak to you through it.

So #1 where it's about death and eternity.

And there's so many times we're in a, in a situation where we

lose a friend or fan member somewhere close throughout a

funeral. And there's just certain senses

that you see over and over again.

And one of the partial gospel senses I hear a lot is I'll

never see them again. There's many people have this

this bleak reality that people die and they slip slip into

oblivion like we'll never know them and it is destitute.

I've been to many funerals of people that I'm very close to

that were atheists and would believe like this is to cease to

exist. And when people believe that and

they see that there is obviously not true, but there's no hope.

Amen. There's a great despair.

Some people believe that death is the end.

It's the victory. It's it's the final victory and

there's this great confusion that happens at death because

you're face to face. And I think in America, like we

like to, it's just we try to avoid death at all costs, right,

like just a sense of death or around death and we just make it

all these things and the rest of the world.

It's it's it's just so different.

Like my wife was in Africa and somebody passed away in the

hospital. She was in the larrigue.

They would just take him out back and and literally put him

in the pickup truck and drive him to to a barrel spot it.

It was just just normal practice.

And here we have these funeral parlors and we just just people

don't even show up at all, like for their family stuff and then

sneak in the back and then leave.

And like death is just great confusion for so many people.

People say this, I'll never talk to them.

I'll never hug them again. I've heard this one quite often

and it it's, it's so natural. I can see myself saying this,

but I wish I had more time. I just wish I had more time.

And you see this and and it's it's human nature.

Like we want this here and now to last forever, but the reality

is you don't have to wish for more time.

If they know Jesus, you will have eternity with them.

Amen. That's good news.

Like, I really get excited because I've been to a lot of

funerals as a pastor. I've seen small caskets.

I've seen families in car accidents.

I've seen five kids that died at once in a car accident.

I've seen generations that are old and generations.

I've seen every person. Every type of person.

There's a pastor. I'm like, thank you, Jesus.

This is in the end, Amen. That this is just a partial

truth, like, well, yeah, we should have more time because

what I have time. And so the gospel is this, that

death is defeated, Amen. That the death that happens in

our body is just a temporary thing.

And that Jesus rose again and shaped death where it's just not

the end of the story. And one day we're resurrected

and our soul and spirit is united back to our bodies.

So I started thinking about this truth.

And you might have heard this old added adage.

You may have heard ashes. The ashes.

Dust to dust. What a poor representation of

the Gospel. That's actually the curse from

dust. Who came from dust.

You shall be returned. What a great place to put that

at a funeral. Right?

Like, OK, yeah, we died because of sin, but what better thing to

say? And I didn't write this.

I don't know who wrote this. It sounds like a, you know,

medieval, you know, liturgy. I don't know who did it, but ash

to ashes, dust, dust. It should be like from dust to

dust and from dust again, we were formed from dust.

We returned to dust with curse and then God resurrects our body

from dust once again. That's the gospel Amen that

that's a fullness of the gospel. And so I think a lot of times we

just given a partial gospel like the ads hopeless that we

returned to dust. But guess what?

That dust is the end of the story and a moment in the eye

and twinkling that we are changed and their body is raised

immortal. Think about eternity that you

have this time in relationships with your family and friends.

We talked about this before you get to dine with your family.

We talked about sharing coffee. Where's Hannah?

I'm going to call her out today. It was Hannah was out by the she

she didn't want me to stand up. Hannah.

Come on, Hannah. Come on.

Hannah. Yeah, I said I saw her earlier.

I was like, how are you doing? She goes, next time you use my

name, you're going to use my story.

And she goes, no, don't. I said we will, they'd be coffee

in heaven, Hannah. Oh man.

We get to dine together. We, we have friends, we get to

spend eternity adventures and hiking and, and just spending

quality time with each other. It's, it's, it's just beyond

what we could ever imagine. But a lot of times we think it's

bleak and it's, it's destitute and we don't see people.

There's a person asked us a few weeks ago, So how do we find

people in heaven if we have resurrected bodies and we don't

know what they look like? And I just encourage you.

There's a book I'm reading by David Burke called Imagine

Heaven and every story of somebody who's passed away.

So this isn't in the gospel, but this is what people have seen

and come back. Is it that they've gone and

there was family members and friends waiting for them as they

entered heaven? That's a pretty cool picture.

Amen. That, that, that you're not

going to go like, hmm, I wonder if I know anybody here, right?

Like Jesus is, they're watching this great cloud of witness is

seeing us from heaven and is watching and praying for the

things of earth. And you show up.

It's a family reunion, Amen. That's good news.

I just want you to know that the best hugs you're ever going to

get are going to come at the gates of heaven, Amen.

I mean, the full embrace of intimacy and love and the story

of God's redemption. I mean, we think we have made

right now, this is the worst it gets, Amen?

Like this world. I mean, you hate to say it, but

this isn't that fun, right? Like we strive and we have

burdens. Paul called life the burden of

life. And that's a great way of saying

it. Like we, we struggle through

life. But there's another side.

And you could be excited about that.

You know, many times we wonder how to say goodbye at a funeral.

We wonder what like, goodbye has so many meanings, right?

Like goodbye forever. Like, do I believe I'll see you

again? Like, what do you really say?

Like in your heart? Like, I know you can say

whatever words, but like, what do you really believe in?

And Diane, she was at her grandma's funeral graveside and

she came just found this amazing poet.

This poem is about all the different.

Forms we buy. And it came up with a really

good word and it was the words sayonara.

And it was like, OK, this is interesting, right?

And it means if it has to be this way, like it just has to be

in this moment, like I don't agree with death.

It's terrible. It was never meant to be this

way, by the way. Like we were never supposed to

fall into the curse. We made a choice.

It feels so unnatural because it is unnatural, Amen.

And just sign R, like if it has to be this way, it has to be

this way. I'm going to see you again.

And her grandma knows Jesus. She's watching this right now,

Amen. And we're going to see her

again. And we believe that.

And we have hope in that. If we hope in the resurrection,

we hope in the resurrection of her body.

And so we just have bold faith of what God is doing.

You can study this in the Scripture, but sayonara is a

great word. You know, if you're not ready to

say goodbye, I would say don't Amen.

Don't say goodbye. You're not saying goodbye.

I mean, this feels like eternity when you have separation of some

of you loved, you know, but if it's five years or 50 years or

whatever, you. Get all eternity.

You're going to spend with that person.

That's good news. Amen.

The world needs to hear this good news.

By the way, this is not what's usually preached at us at a

funeral. I've been to hundreds and

hundreds and hundreds of funerals.

I've seen people killed on the way to funerals, legit in car

accidents, like in ministry, you spend a lot of time next to

death. And thank God it's not the end.

Amen. But the fullness of the gospel.

Let's use it. Let's, let's build our life on

the entire gospel, not just, well, I know Jesus, but my life

is terrible. No, no, no, we know Jesus, but

we know what's coming. There's a whole complete side to

it. We wrote a core value when we

launched our church. And this may be a little salty

because I came out of a really legalistic background and sort

of this, this core value that says always only Jesus, somebody

say always only Jesus, always only Jesus.

And that just means the gospel permeates everything in our

life. The gospel is center of every

area of our lives. We don't separate the secular

from the spiritual. That's a whole nother world.

It's always only ever been Jesus in all areas of our life.

He is a sustainer in the solution to everything.

We don't preach the gospel, the community in the Bible, the

church. We preach the gospel in every

area of our lives through the church, placing Jesus at the

center of all things. We put nothing else in the

center, including any idol of man and even this Rico salty the

Bible itself. There is nothing else at the

center except for Jesus. I know if you've been to a

church that they preached the Bible, but you didn't seem like

the new God. You've been to those type of

churches where like they just know all the rules, but they

don't really love. There's no grace.

And we, for whatever reason, and maybe it's just because we are,

we have a lot of people that come to our church that come up

some pretty salty places. And they, they come with a lot

of a lot of a lot of hurt that they came and like, fathom the

fact of like talking to the Heavenly Father because they've

been wounded so much by honestly, church.

There are people that have been the seminary and Bible colleges

and you know, you know the Bible.

But do you know the God of the Bible?

How many guys know that the Bible is a door to step into the

presence of God? Like the goal is not to know the

Bible with the goal is to be transformed into, into the what

the Bible is into the license of Jesus.

And so if you know the Bible and you don't follow God, there's a

couple things I'll say about this.

One, Satan knows that you're a lot more like Satan than like

Jesus. Satan knows every part of the

Scripture enough to twist it, manipulate it, whatever.

The demons know it as well. The Pharisees knew the Bible

that they, they knew it so well they created laws on top of the

Bible so they they looked more holy.

They were actually the least holy people in the room.

Jesus never condemned anybody except for the Pharisees.

Like to know the Bible without knowing God may be the greatest

sin. It's still a sin of apostasy,

right? I mean, you got Matthew 7/20/21

right though those be on that day.

They'll say, Lord, Lord, we cast out these demons and great

miracles in your name and they'll say depart from me.

I did not know you work of iniquity like you knew all about

me here, but you didn't know me here.

It's been said that the greatest distance between hell and heaven

is 13 inches right. So I want to encourage you guys

like our church. It's it's it's not enough to

memorize a verse. It's not enough to open the

Bible and do your Bible say this is not check box Christianity.

Amen. Like you're not earning your way

to God by some kind of flatulence and being like torn

down because you just don't give a good enough because that's

where that religion goes. But the point of it is that you

would trust Jesus and it'd be the Holy Spirit would do

transformational work and we just point people to Christ.

I think a lot of churches over time have taken the pruners from

the Father's hand and pruned people instead of letting God

prune people. Like we just set the table,

Amen. We plant seeds, we water and the

Holy Spirit, God the Father shows up and he says, we're

going to cut that out of your life.

We're going to we're going to show you a better way.

Thank Dee Jesus. I'm, I'm a sheep.

I'm not, I'm not the guy holding the shears, Amen.

You don't want me pruning your life, Amen.

Dying says, Amen. I've tried lookout this.

Let the Holy Spirit do its work, Amen, But let get into God's

presence like you. You should feel better when you

read this scripture. There is there's there's no con

nation, but there's conviction. Like there's no shame.

But I think a lot of times, like people, I know what it is.

If if they don't show up to church and feel bad for going,

it's not church. That's crazy to me.

I found somebody that's been there before, right?

It's just, it's just weird to me, like the there's a goodness

of God and the kindness of God and the grace of God is what

draws people and what shapes people.

This is not a religion, Amen. It's a partial gospel just to

preach the Bible and not actually know God deeper every

time. So second area marriage and

relationships. And this is partial gospel, but

you hear this a lot. And then we we struggle through

this. If you're married, there'll be

two seasons, right? But you'll say our marriage is

beyond repair. You've been in those seasons

where it's like, this is just like, I don't see a way out.

Like we were in a pit or people never change.

Just in general, like I've just given up on people.

I mean, you, you may have a class of people that may be

Republicans, that may be Democrats, right?

And you're thinking, oh, this is too far, you know, and you

wouldn't like say it, but you may say it right in private or

this relationship is just too broke.

I mean, there's too much water to the bridge.

We, we can never go back. It's just too difficult.

We can give up on God's grace and God's restoration and his

resurrection power. I met a man probably two months

ago and. Opportunity to pray with him.

He was in a real difficult season.

I can't give you all the details, but he was separated

from his wife and not because they wanted to be, but there was

like a legal thing happening. I've never seen it before.

It was crazy. But he couldn't be home and

there and it wasn't, it was just a, it's a dynamic and I, I

can't, if I told you, you might go figure it out.

So there's a dynamic and he can't be home.

But then his wife started cheating on him and he was

sitting there and, and we're talking, he's got tears in his

eyes and he's, I don't know what to do.

Like I might, I may file, I have to file divorce today or

tomorrow. And I just don't know if I

should sign the papers or not. And I was like, listen man, I

cannot give you. Any direction, but I will pray

that the Holy Spirit makes it clear to you what you should do.

Like should you sign or should you not?

Because biblically he has every right to sign the paper.

Like, you know, adultery. There's there's grounds for

divorce in the Bible, by the way, right?

Abuse, adultery, of course, death.

That's a good. But I will say, if you have been

through marriage and God didn't bless your divorce, there's

still the grace of God because sometimes we jump the gun and

we're not who we're called to be in that season and we're so

bitter and all those things that blows up.

But God's grace covers that. Amen.

But I do think with maturity, we get stepped in and say there is

resurrection power. Maybe there's a chance.

And this band was just so great, so gracious, like he did not

want to, but he moved forward because he's just so tired of

walking through the season. He, I saw him again and I talked

to him. I said, hey, what's God doing?

He said, look, I've showed up. I talked to her.

I said, look, I got these papers.

I don't want to deliver these papers, but I can't keep doing

this. And his wife was like, I cannot

believe, like I put myself in the situation, like I've totally

screwed up. Like, I don't know how I could

ever bring your stuff back. Of course, he had a plan, right?

Ditch the side project, right? Like he had the thing and he

laid it out. In the last few weeks, they've

been working together and he didn't file divorce.

And I thought, man, what a great picture of like the patience of

God in the resurrection power of Christ and desiring what Jesus

can do, Amen. And I'm every season is a

different thing, right? So I'm not giving you like a

catch all, like what you should do in all the pieces, but just

giving room for God. And when people come to me and

they're like, Sean, should I get divorced?

And then they're like, I was like, have you given Jesus every

opportunity to restore this relationship?

Right now? I think I've counseled people to

be divorced because I think that grace has been given far enough.

Just be honest with you. There's a there's there's but

it's between them of God, obviously right, but give grace

and listen to the Spirit of God. And if you've messed up, no like

learn and next time like be wise as best you can and sometimes

you do all the right things that doesn't work out.

I get that seen it. But let's be the men and women

of God's calls to be Amen. And so the better confession is

this about marriage. Nothing is beyond the

restoration power of Jesus. Amen.

And God specializes in rebuilding what sin destroyed.

That's his specialty, not ours. We are terrible at rebuilding

things. If you're like me, he goes bad

the worse and the more I try the worse it gets.

You could ask Diane, anybody been around me.

It's like just stop working on it.

Like just let Jesus just trust God in this less of you and more

of him. So third year I'll share is

personal failures in the sin. This is where we like to really

have a partial gospel. And I've lived this and many of

you live this, but you'll say stuff like this.

I'll always struggle with this. They'll always be this way.

It's just who I am or I'm gone too far.

It's a real interesting thought. I think Satan is so good.

Like he'll throw a lure and you'll bite on it and he'll just

start reeling in. He'll hook you and he'll just

drag in and he'll throw another one and you hook it and it just

knows the same way He'll do it over and over and over and he'll

do your entire life if you let him.

What's interesting about saying these truths, it's a real

partial gospel. What you're really saying is I

know Jesus paid for every part of my sin and I'm not good

because of who I am good because Jesus is, but I have to earn it

still. And so I, I know what you're

saying, but I have to somehow prove the fact I deserve to be

loved by you. And So what you're ultimately

doing is, is that you're paying on the cross yourself instead of

trusting Jesus. So you're paying twice.

Does. That make sense, Like you're

like, you know, I know you're crucified and you died for

everyone of my sins. You wiped Far East from the

West. I know you love me.

You're not counting your sins against me, but I have to go on

that cross and earn it. There's like a deep

perfectionism there. There's a deep like insecurity

driving us to pay twice and you may say stuff like I'm too ugly,

I'm worthless, I'm not enough or I'm afraid or there's deep

insecurity or doubt or this unhindered drive to become

somebody because you have to prove yourself a validation.

Am I preaching today? It's literally just it's in our

soul and say nose like if I can just captivate your need for

penance and for flagellation and for you to earn this yourself, I

will just keep you in that cell your entire life.

And it's just what he does. This is the enemy's tactic.

And the gospel truth is that he creates new people and it says

this in the 2nd Corinthians 517. Therefore, if anyone is in

Christ, like if you know Jesus, you're a Jesus follower.

The new creation has come and the old has gone and the new is

here like you. You're a new creation like God

didn't like just sprinkle some Jesus on you, but the gospel

does not add Jesus to your life. The gospel is well, Jesus saved

me, so I'm I'm going to earn it still.

So I'm going to be a good person.

I'm going to say the right things.

I'm going to do the right things.

I'm going to treat people the right way.

I'm always going to be the right thing.

I'm going to strive for perfection.

When when you pray, did you say Lord bless my perfect effort?

Now I'm saved. Did they prayer that ever?

But we act like that, right? Like there's a difference

between perfection and confession.

Amen. You confess, Lord, I am not

good, but you are. You are good.

So you got to finish the entire sentence.

But you're a new creation. Jesus didn't just he didn't

sprinkle in your life. Matter of fact, you're not even,

you're not even a good person becoming better.

Somebody may have thought that your best life now, right?

Like you're just a good person and you just do some more good

stuff. That's not it.

The gospel is that you were dead.

Hello, dead. And you were what, now?

Alive to God. Amen.

There's not a single party that's not alive.

Like your soul and spirit were resurrected through Christ.

And so when you look down at yourself and you treat yourself

poorly or you're walking through insecurity and fear, you're

giving a lot of glory to yourself and not to the gospel.

Let me just be real honest. Amen.

And if you ever walked through the seasons, like we, we could

play that same record over and over and over and over and over.

So I can only expect like walk and like, I'm never going to

struggle. But I want you to walk out here

knowing the gospel truth. Like I don't want you to live in

a partial truth. The Bible says he picks our feet

out of the miry clay and he sets them on a rock and he puts a new

song on her heart. And we start what those terrible

version, but we start dancing. We started dancing.

I don't know about you, but we need some more Christians

dancing. Amen.

I mean, it's like we got saved with my reclay set on the rock.

And it's like just a terrible and we sit in this mopey, broken

position and we never get our eyes back on Jesus.

And somebody told you along the way, I don't know who told you

that you weren't good enough. Like who told you that?

Like who who told you that you would not measure up?

Who told you that you had to be good enough?

Forgotten to love you. Who told?

I'm Willie. Who told you.

I mean, maybe in your dad. That is my story.

I've never heard the words my dad.

I love my dad. All my heart.

I love my dad. But I've never heard the words.

I love you, son. I'd walk through that.

Amen. Thank you, Jesus, that I can

have a heavenly Father that loves me fully.

That was hard to do. That took some years of

stripping away with insecurity and fear like, but you know

what? I, I, I could just look at the

gospel and know this is better. And I, even though I didn't get

the words from my father, I get the words from God.

I have to trust God with that like and, and, and for years.

It's like you have to replace your earthly father.

You have the, your earthly father with the heavenly Father.

Like, I don't want to replace him, right, But I want to, I

want to know who my father is in heaven.

You know what the words are spoken by the Father to the Son

are in the Bible. Let me know you'll you see it

twice in the New Testament. You see it once the baptism and

once the mountain change figuration.

You know what the Father said to the Son?

You guys remember this for this is my Son, whom I'm what well

pleased and I love him. This ownership, this proud

moment and love. That's the words of the Father,

Amen. If you got somebody speaking a

word in your life and it brings shame and combination, those

words are not from God. That is not from God.

That is a small person making themselves feel big at your

expense. That's not from God.

And you need to be careful about what you LED in your heart.

And you, when you're young, you don't know any different, but

you get older, you get a choice to say, was that from God or was

that from man? Was that gospel?

Or was that just somebody's best effort or maybe their worst

effort? And anybody that has words over

you has power over you. And there's no greater power in

your life than the resurrection power of Jesus.

And some of us had to get real serious about the words we put

in our life because you can't lead somebody where you've never

been. If you cannot truly love

somebody, it's because you can't love yourself because the gospel

has not taken effect deep enough in your life.

Chase it down, brother. I took all the time and I

fellowed Jesus. I said, you know Jesus, you need

to get in this Bible. And you swim to the depth of

God's grace. You'll swim for eternity and

you'll never see the bottom. That's how you love yourself.

Amen. This is not a self help gospel

by the way. Just do a little better.

Change up your life, clean up your mess, then God will bless.

That's not it, Amen. You did not help yourself, The

ball says when we were yet helpless, Romans 5-6, Christ

died for us. There is nothing good in you

that could help yourself. So we all can obey, Amen.

We all can humble ourselves. We can look and say, Father,

just teach me. Forgive me for being so blind.

And we've, we've learned these things, we've learned these

patterns, but now we need to change that for the next

generation. Amen.

Here's what happens ultimately with all what I'm saying with

insecurity and fear and all these things on us is Jesus.

He unlocked the cell and we're still sitting at thinking we're

captive. I just believe today, and every

time you preach the gospel, it would just be amazing if

somebody would just look up and just walk out of the cell a

little bit and go, wow, that's what freedom tastes like, Amen.

Because we get used to where we're at.

I just believe that God has called us to step into his

presence and feel His goodness. I mean, you don't have to do

anything. He's like knocking on the door

of a heart. That's to Christians, by the

way. If you open the door, he'll dine

with you. And you with me should just be

in the presence of Jesus today. That enough, Amen.

Just go do some battle in your heart for the things of God.

Romans 81 says there's now no condemnation for those who are

in Christ Jesus. Amen, no condemnation.

So when you say you're not good enough, I got to major up, I got

to achieve things. I need validation.

I've got to be somebody. I don't have numbers, followers,

popularity, all these why are are you enough for Jesus down

the cross for you, you're enough.

Amen, because of Jesus, he loved you.

You don't have to be anymore. You don't have to be better.

You have to clean up your mess. You just got to embrace the

grace of God. That's real life church, by the

way. I went to church for a long

time. I never heard that message.

There's no air of your life that's off limits to God.

He's in no limits to God. Amen.

He turned sin into forgiveness, shame into dignity, broke

relationship into reconciliation, working into

purpose, suffering into glory and death in a life.

That's the gospel. He'll do it for you.

He did it for us. The Bible says that Jesus is the

Lord of every single thing in your life.

Ephesians 19 to bring unity to all things in heaven on earth

under Christ. It's the fullness of the gospel.

It's not you just get saved and and OK, it works out.

It's like, no, he wants every part of your life to be under

him and then God changes your life.

Last thing is culture in the world.

And you might think about this because I mean, if you very he

pushed the news out on us a little bit earlier.

It's a little bleak. It's a little interesting, a

little bit like, I don't know what's happening, but hopefully

this is right. Is this even true?

Can I trust what I'm reading right now and be at that point

yet with AI just kind of wondering, like, did that happen

or not? But you might say the world is

too far gone. Is this is too hard.

The culture is hopeless. You know, the city will never

come to Christ. I've seen pastors.

My city is too hard to reach. Just difficult.

I'm like, yeah, if it was easy, you know, Satan's got a hold of

it. Nothing will ever change.

You've been in that spot. Just kind of like give up on it.

Just seems like, Nah, the world is just this and that.

And we almost like keep the gospel to ourselves, like do

like, you know, communal living and this like, hey, I'm not

going to go out, you know, at night, like we're staying close.

I will say this about this. God is not finished, and neither

are we. God is not finished with the

culture in the world. We're still here, Amen.

And so we're not finished there. There's a purpose to why we're

still here. We don't, we don't like the

mess. We don't understand everything

that's going on. One day we will.

But God has called us right now to be salt and light and

ambassadors for Christ and be the hands of feet in Jesus and

the only Bible that most people are ever going to read.

He's called us to to be into the culture and not of the culture,

to shine a light into the darkness, which by the way, it

doesn't take the you don't, you don't remove darkness, you add

light. Right.

And there's a reason you're here.

And there's people who need to know Christ and be encouraged in

Christ to build up the church, those new Jesus, and to reach

those new Jesus if you're not living under that umbrella.

It would be pretty hopeless and bleak.

There's really no reason to be here.

But God has called us to step out into our culture, and if

he's not giving up, then neither have we, Cautions 119 says this.

For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, which

is Jesus. So every bit of God is in Jesus

and through him to reconcile to himself what all things, every

single thing is reconciled to Christ, whether things this is

interesting on earth or things where in heaven.

Every single thing by making peace through his blood shed on

the cross, Jesus reversed the curse.

Amen. He made right every single wrong

and everything is going to be reconciled to Jesus.

And so the resurrection of Jesus not just about saving souls,

it's about resurrecting and recreating all of creation.

So you think about people and systems and economy and nations,

like everything is under the resurrection power of Christ,

Amen. It's the fullness of the gospel.

So the question I'd like to ask today is how big is your gospel?

Like, how effectual is your gospel?

Like is there anything that you put and said, man, that's a

partial gospel? Like maybe the gospel you

believe in and maybe you preach is smaller than the gospel that

Jesus died for? Like do you have full

confidence? Like there's parts of my life

that don't look like Jesus, but they can.

And I know you've been to battle.

I know I can see the wounds, I've seen the tears.

I've been in counselors, I know who I'm talking to.

I've been there. But we got to step up to the

plate. Like the gospel is effectual,

Amen. If you apply it, there's always

healing. God always changes the parts of

you allow him to change. And it's a it's a fight every

day for I'm crucified to Christ no longer I live, but Christ

live to me and he crucifies himself.

How often, daily, daily you make a choice.

You're follow Jesus, you champion the power of Christ.

One day it's going to make perfect sense.

It may not be tomorrow or today, but it will one day.

Amen. There's a day coming when.

We're going to see. The resurrection of the dead,

the word dying, we're going to present heaven.

Then God does new creation or new heaven, new earth, and

there's a day where the our bodies come out of the tomb.

It's called the rapture and we go dust from dust to dust from

dust again. And there's a resurrection day

and there's a battle that's going to be fought and we're

going to see Jesus face to face and we're going to go to war.

And I want to talk about the resurrection day and and it's

better than me created. I've been reading this book,

like I was saying, but he has this great passage he wrote

about this and this is the fullness of the gospel.

So here's a little flavor of the resurrection day and just stay

with me. It's going to be a a few pages.

So. The Babel cry of 100 million

warriors erupted from one end of heaven to the other.

There was a war on the narrow isthmus between heaven and hell,

a planet called Earth. The air was filled with the den

of combat. The whales of oppressors begin

begins. Or being slain in the jealous or

sorry joyous celebrations of the oppressed, rejoicing that at

long last their liberators had arrived.

Sorry, the lights are great up here.

Some of the warriors sang as they slew, singing, swinging

swords to hew the oppressors with one arm with the other,

pulling victims up on their horses.

The long arm of the king moved with swiftness and power.

The hope of reward that kept the sufferer sane was vindicated

last. No child of heaven was touched

by a sword that day, for the universe could not no longer

tolerate the shedding of one more drop of righteous blood.

Heaven released fury. Earth bled.

It was the old world's last night.

Amen. At the lion's nod, Michael

raised his mighty sword and brought it down upon the great

dragon, It's muscles bulging at the strain.

Michael picked up the evil twin and cast the rhythming beast

into the great pit. The mauler of men, the hunter of

women, the predator of children, the persecutor of the righteous

shrieked in terror. The vast army of heavens

warriors cheered. The battalions of Karis, which

means grace, gazed upon the disseminated faces of the earth,

the scorched soil of the Old World.

Nothing had survived the fires of this Holocaust of things.

Nothing but the King's word, his people, and the deeds of gold

and silver and precious stones that done for him.

During the long night since Eden's twilight.

Soldiers dropped their weapons and the crippled tossed their

crutches, and they ran. The blind opened their eyes and

saw. They pointed and shouted and

danced, throwing their arms around each other, for each knew

that any now left on earth were under the King's blood and could

be fully trusted. The king gathered children upon

his lap and wiped away their tears.

The sound of a great multitude, like the roar of rushing waters

and the loud peels of Thunder, shouted Hallelujah for the Lord

God Almighty rains, lest rejoice me glad and give him glory.

For the wedding of the Lamb has come, and his bride has made

herself ready. All eyes turn to the King.

The entire universe fell silent, anticipating his words.

I will turn the wasteland into a garden called paradise, the king

announced. I'll bring here the home I've

made for you, my bride. There will be a new world, a

life filled blue-green world, greater than all that's ever

been. The shall lands are mine again,

and I shall transform them. My Kingdom has come, My will

shall be done. Winter is over and spring is

here at last. A great roar rose from the vast

crowd. The King raised his hands upon

seeing the scars, the crowds, the cheering crowds.

Remember the unthinkable cost of the great celebration.

Warriors slapped each other on the back.

The delivered hugged at their deliverers, enjoying a great

reunion. There was once that once parted

from them, the multitudes or innumerable began to sing the

song for which they've been made, a song that echoed off a

trillion planets and reverberated in quadrillion

places and every nook and cranny of the creation expanse.

Audience and orchestra and choir all blended into one great

Symphony, a grand cantata of rhapsodic melodies sustaining

harmonies. All were participants.

Only one was the audience, the audience of 1.

The smile of the King's approval swept through the choir like a

fire across a dry wheat field. When the song was complete, the

audience of 1 stood and raised his arms, then clapped his

scarred hands together in a thunderous applause, shaking

ground in the sky and drawing every corner of the cosmos.

His applause went on and on, unstoppable and unstopping.

Every one of them realized something that with undiminished

clarity. In that instance, they wondered

why they had not seen it all along, what they knew in that

moment, and every fiber of their being.

Was that in this person, in this place where all they'd ever

longed for and all they ever would?

Pretty good. Amen.

There's a resurrection day coming.

You may not understand everything about heaven and all

the things of God. There's a man of God that wrote

this. His name's Tom Albright.

It's actually Tony Taylor's grandpa.

He wrote a little devotional to heaven a few weeks ago.

He said my children were very small.

When they would hold my hand, it was too big for them to get a

hold of. So they grasped my finger and

that's all they needed. No matter that they knew nothing

of my their dad's ability or bind.

They had a hold of daddy and such as the grasp of my God in

heaven. I have a hold of him and more

importantly, he has a hold of me.

That's good, Amen. You don't understand every piece

of it and the Bible really ends in Revelation 21.

Five says, behold, I'll make all things new.

That's a good word, Amen. That's the full gospel that's

going to happen one day. You guys believe that that

picture, that feeling, this is all we ever needed.

It's all going to make sense. Thank you Jesus.

So Father, we come before you God, I pray for our church God

that we would have the full gospel.

God will come part every part of our lives, God, whether it's our

marriage or it's our inner thoughts of the secret sins of

self God, of the brokenness that we walk through.

God, I pray that we strengthen us today through your gospel.

How many today say in our house to say, I want the fullness of

the gospel? I've been leaving a partial

gospel, but today I want the fullness of the gospel, the

fullness of Christ. I want to know him in the power

of his resurrection and the joy of his suffering.

I'll know all pieces of Christ. That's you.

Just put your hands out in front of you and say, Lord, just touch

me. God, I surrender to you Again,

there's parts of me, there's words I've been speaking,

there's lies I've been believing.

My identity's been wrapped up too much in me or too much what

somebody else has said. God, don't put my identity in

you. Am I marriage in you?

No, I hope in you. Oh, I believe by other people in

you. God set my mind and my heart on

eternity. God on heaven.

I'll pray for one more group of people that's those of you today

that recognize that you need Jesus, but the gospel has not

touched you yet that you're a Sinner stranded in sin and need

the gospel to bust open the gates of hell, the gates of sin

in your life and step into Jesus into his presence.

The first time the Bible says that Jesus became sin and do no

sin that you might become the righteousness of God that says

you make confess you the mouth you believe that Jesus down the

cross for your sins that you rose again that you be saved and

forgiven and made new today if you need Jesus, if you need

heaven, you only get there through Jesus is the only way in

the Bible and his grace. Jesus loves you enough to save

you from your sin and give you life now that lasts for eternity

through heaven. So you even need Christ?

I've been looking around. If that's you need a star

relationship with Jesus, we should raise your hand high.

So I need Christ. Today I'm not going to call you

and make it weird because I need Jesus.

Come on, see your hand to be able to I need Jesus today

relationship with Christ. There's no shame they'd be

coming for a season. You're like, man, I don't know.

Today you can know see your hand as well.

If that's you just call it to your father.

Father, thank you so much for sending Jesus.

You did for me what I could never do in a million lifetimes.

God, thank you for loving me when I was unlovable thus far

from you. God, forgive me for building my

life and myself, my own power, my insecurity, my fear if I've

wandered this world, but God, I'm coming home.

God, thank you for loving me. God, I pray forgive me for my

sins. God, I trust, redeem the cross

with me. I believe in you Jesus, and I

pray this in Jesus name. And the church said, hey man,

give up. Give some glory to God today.

Amen. Let them know you love them.

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