He is Good | When Jesus Disagrees with You | Mark 11:27-33 | Coleton Segars

The teaching text for today in our series, He is Good, going through the Gospel of Mark.

The teaching text for today comes from Mark 11, verses 27 through 33.

Mark 11:27–33

This is what Mark writes.

He says, They arrived again in Jerusalem, and while Jesus was walking in the temple courts, the chief priests, the teachers of the law, and the elders came to him.

By what authority are you doing these things?

They asked.

And who gave you authority to do this?

Jesus replied, Ask, I'll ask you one question.

Answer me, and I will tell you by what authority I'm doing these things.

John's baptism, was it from heaven or of human origin?

Tell me.

And they discussed it among themselves and said, If we say from heaven, he will ask, then why didn't you believe him?

But if we say of human origin, they feared the people, for everyone held that John was really a prophet.

So they answered Jesus, we don't know.

And Jesus said, Well, then neither will I tell you by what authority I'm doing these things.

This is the word of the Lord.

I want to begin with a question.

Um, and the question is, how much do you think Jesus agrees with the way that you live your life?

How much do you think he agrees with the way that you live your life?

If he just took a stroll with you today or like next week, and he watched the same TV shows that you watched, would he be sitting there like, love it, crushing this, so good, let's binge it?

Would he say that?

Um Would he agree with how you spend your time?

Would he agree with uh the way that you spend your money?

How much I door dash Taco Bell?

Um probably not.

Um Would he agree with the way that you talk to your spouse?

The way that you talk to your kids?

Would he agree with the things that you think about throughout the day?

Would he agree with how much you drink, what you wear, what you post on social media?

Would he agree with how you date, who you date, how much you pray, how much you give time to reading the scriptures, how you go to church or how often you go to church?

Would he agree with how you talk about others, think about others?

Would he agree with how you talk about yourself and think about yourself, whether too high or too low?

How much do you think that he would actually agree with your life?

And would it be, I don't know, like 50%, 70%?

Some of you are just very like just a 100%, 100%, he agrees with everything that I say.

Anne Lamotte says this about that idea, she says uh this really famous quote.

She says, if you can say you can safely assume that you've created God in your own image when it turns out that God hates all the same people that you do.

And like in our day and age, man, like when you believe that God hates all the same people that you do, and he would agree with every single thing that you do, because I adapted the quote, I would adapt it and say this you can safely assume that you created a God in your own image when it turns out that God agrees with everything that you do.

I I I if you believe that everything that I do, I think God's okay with every single thing that I do because that's me.

Then I would say that you've created a God in your own image.

Because the truth is he likely disagrees with you and likely disapproves of your life and my life more than he actually agrees and approves of those things.

And it actually makes sense if you think about it.

God is infinite and we are finite, he's perfect and we're not, he's pure holiness and we're stained with sin.

He's not tempted to sin and we're tempted all the time to sin.

Like it makes sense that he would disagree with us more than he would actually agree with us.

And to me, I don't think this means that he doesn't love us.

I think it just means that he just disagrees with us.

Um but we live in a culture that tells us, like, look, hey, if you don't agree with every single thing that I do, if you don't agree with my lifestyle or any of the things, and like if you don't fully agree, then you cannot love me.

Um and so if we take that cultural idea and we place it on God for ourselves, then it can be like he disagreed, he pushes back against my life, he must not love me.

And we, but according to the scriptures, like we know that that's not true because the most substantial way that God has ever disagreed with us was over our sin.

And yet, in that disagreement, he chose not to punish us, but rather to be punished and to actually go and take on the cross.

And so at the same time, the most extreme disagreement that God has with us, what he chooses to do is actually lay down his life for us in love.

And no greater love uh has any one than this than to lay down your life for your friend.

And so, in the midst of his disagreement, it's not I hate you, therefore I disagree with you, or I disagree with you, therefore I hate you.

It's like I disagree with you, and actually, according to the scriptures, I love you, therefore I must disagree with you.

Like I have to disagree with you if I love you.

And we know this if you're a parent, like you I disagree with my kid all the time.

And it's not because I hate him, it's just because I'm like, you're wrong.

You're just wrong.

Uh he said something the other day, uh, he lied to me, and I said, Hey man, did you just lie to me?

And he was like, I didn't lie to you, the lie slipped out.

And I was I was like, but whose words were they?

Well, they were my words, but I couldn't stop it before the lie came out.

And I was like, man, that's super creative.

I'm taking away your screen time anyways, but that's that's really really why.

And like, I disagree with you a lot, but it doesn't mean that I don't love you.

I disagree with you for your good.

And I think there's something similar here.

Jesus loves us and therefore he must disagree with our decisions.

He loves us and therefore he must disagree with some of the things that we want to do, some of the things that we do.

And so the question becomes what is your response?

What is my response?

What is your response when Jesus disagrees with you?

Do you share the cultural idea if Jesus disagrees with anything I do, then that I just don't want anything to do with him.

What do you do when he disagrees with you?

How do you respond?

In this text, we see three wrong ways of responding to when Jesus disagrees with you, and three ways that I think that we all struggle with, three things that I think that we lean into when Jesus disagrees with us.

We have this little bit of a Pharisee spirit in us as well, the same way that they did.

And so as I go through these three things, the idea is that you would look at them honestly and humbly and go, where also do I struggle in this way?

Where do I also question some of what Jesus' authority is?

Where do I where do I do some of these things?

And I want to say, just before I begin, I don't know how you'll receive this message.

Um I, in my opinion, it should be this very freeing thing that's really great.

Um, but it may be hard because I do want it to convict and I want it to cut a bit at some of the things that we naturally move into when we disagree with Jesus.

I do want it to do that.

And being a pastor is such a weird thing because at the end of the day, y'all know me.

I want to go out after this, have a huge celebration lunch, and just enjoy the heck out of just spending time with you guys.

But then I also have to do this thing right before this to where I'm like supposed to like tell you the truth and preach the scriptures and tell you where your life is out of whack with the scriptures and actually do that with my own life as well.

And so I'm not approaching this message from a space of superiority, like I figured this out.

It's not that.

But it is a space of going, here's something true that I think that we struggle with.

And I think if we continue to struggle with, we're gonna miss out on what Jesus actually wants to do in our lives.

And so I want to approach it that way.

And so if it is a more stern message or it sounds like that, that is not the intent.

But I have prayed all week.

Like, Lord, would you please just convict them of the spaces where they do these things?

So it's not like a man judging or telling somebody they're wrong, but that the Spirit would do it in this very gentle way.

And so I just want to preface.

It might be heavy, but we'll get to the end of it.

And next week's gonna be a lot easier.

Here we go.

All right.

Three wrong ways of responding to Jesus when he disagrees with us.

The first that we see in this text is to question Jesus' authority.

One of the wrong ways of responding when Jesus disagrees with us is to question his authority.

You see it in 27 and 28 verses.

Uh they say uh they arrived in Jerusalem, Jesus was walking in the temple courts, and the teachers of the law and the elders come to him and they say, By what authority are you doing these things?

They asked, and what who gave you this authority?

And the reason that they question Jesus is because of what Jesus has done recently and what he said about them.

If you remember a couple weeks ago, Jesus roars into the temple and starts flipping tables and makes a whip and driving people out, and he's doing all that stuff, and he's telling these people, you have made my father's house a den of robbers.

Like you are doing it wrong.

I am in stark disagreement with the way that you're functioning in your religion.

Like this is, you lead over it and you're doing it all wrong.

And that's what he says.

And so the reason they question question him is because ultimately, at the end of the day, they question his authority because they're like, I we just you disagree with us.

And what's wild is like if Jesus had roared into the temple and looked around and been like, scribes, Pharisees, elders, teachers of the law, you guys are crushing it.

You're doing so good.

Like, I love, I mean, there's so many cattle here.

This is amazing.

I love the money sound of the temple.

That's really good.

Like if they would have said that, they'd have been like, thanks, man.

Really appreciate that.

Thank you for agreeing.

We, we, I, you know, honestly, it was Caiaphas's idea, got to give credit.

Um, but like, we just thank you so much for agreeing with us.

Like, if he would have agreed with them, what he would have done, and what they would have done, is like they would have used his words and taken those words and then gone to people who push back a little bit, like, hey, even your own Jesus like agrees with us.

Like they'd quote him and say he really liked the cattle idea.

Like that's what they would do.

But because Jesus actually pushes back on the way that they're doing things, because he disagrees with them, they question him.

And to me, this is a common response that we all have.

And I think you've seen this, you've been in arguments on this, and if you go on social media, you'll probably see it even more.

But if we can find a Bible verse that agrees with our view, if we can find a Bible verse that agrees with our decision, our lifestyle choices, our politics, if we can find a verse where Jesus agrees with us, we use that thing.

We harp on it, we memorize it, it becomes a life verse.

I'm gonna use this everywhere.

And then we use it as a sword to defend ourselves and to defend our position and defend everything else that we want to do because I have God's backing.

He says in his word that what I'm doing is okay.

And when we can find one that agrees with us, we use it.

But the hypocrisy comes in for all of us.

We become hypocrites when we don't do that with the places where Jesus' word disagrees with us.

When we look at his word and we go, I love this because this allows me to do what I already want to do.

I hate this.

And so I'm not gonna actually let that one actually slip into any Bible study or any conversation that I have.

That's where the hypocrisy comes in when we find verses that disagree with us.

And so we question his authority like these people do.

And to me, like honestly, it could sound like a bunch of different things.

I don't think we're ever gonna really ask the question, like, what authority do you like have Jesus to say that?

Like, we I mean, especially in the South, we know that he has somewhat some authority in our lives.

But I think the way that we do it, it sounds like this.

Here's how we question his authority.

Uh, we we hear a verse that disagrees with us, we're like, ah, is that really a big deal?

Is that really a big deal?

Uh is that really important?

You know, does whatever Jesus is saying about my life, does will that really make a difference in my life?

Is that really something that I have to do?

Is that really what he meant?

Can I reinterpret that and spin that a little bit to where it doesn't actually say what it's supposed to say?

So we question his authority in those ways, but more often than not, I believe the way that we question Jesus' authority sounds like silence.

We just do not allow it to have any space in our lives.

We just will not hear it.

We don't talk about the verses that disagree with us, we pay no attention to them, and we just don't allow them to actually speak into us.

Anybody uses those things, we drop out of that conversation or we remove those people from our lives because these are the verses that make sense, and these are the ones that God says everything I'm doing is good.

These are the ones that disagree with me.

I don't want anything to do with those, and so I'll just silence those things.

And this has happened in history.

People have actually changed the Bible and written new Bibles, and so three in particular.

One is Thomas Jefferson, one of the founding fathers.

People say that our nation was built on Christian values.

I'm like, this dude cut out chunks of the Bible, and he was one of the founding fathers.

So Thomas Jefferson did this with the Jefferson Bible.

He literally used scissors, used scissors to cut out all the miracles.

Jesus performing supernatural acts such as turning water into wine, walking on water.

He just cut that stuff out.

He cut out the resurrection.

Our the only reason we're Christians is because we claim that Jesus resurrected.

And so he's like, I like the Bible, I just don't like this resurrection part.

Like, then you can't like any of it.

He cut out the resurrection.

Jesus' any any of Jesus' divinity, supernatural claims, angels, demons, prophecy, most, I mean, it's honestly most of the Bible he cut out.

Supernatural events, anything Jefferson deemed unstoppable, or excuse me, unsupportable, or distraction from Jesus' moral teachings.

And so he just cut out all those different things and he used that Bible for himself.

Slave owners did this, and they created what they called the slave Bible.

It was officially titled Select Parts of the Holy Bible.

So at least they said, like, we selected some parts for you.

And slave owners would give this Bible to the slaves and give them the Bible.

But the Bible was heavily edited to remove passages that could promote freedom or equality.

So it only contained about 10% of the Old Testament, half of the New Testament, and many books of the Bible, such as the Psalms and Revelation, were entirely excluded.

Sections emphasizing freedom and hope, passages that slave owners determined could instill a dangerous hope for freedom, were removed, including the entire book of Exodus.

The entire freedom out of slavery.

Just remove the whole thing.

Verses on equality, such as Galatians 3.28, which states that there's neither Jew nor Greek, neither slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus, was omitted, omitted to prevent slaves from dreaming of equality.

And so these are the parts I a slave owner saying, these are the parts I need to continue doing what I know is wrong, and the Bible clearly disagrees with me.

I just need to remove those things.

If I remove them, then I don't actually have to deal with the fact that God disagrees with the way that I'm treating other people and the image bearers in his name.

And then, of course, there's always Hitler.

Good Lord.

The Nazi approved Bible.

I'm not even going to try to say that in German, but it was basically the message of God, is what they called it.

The Nazi-approved Bible was a de-Judaized Bible, systematically removed all the references to Jewish people, which makes sense because they wanted to kill them all.

Jewish history, any elements considered incompatible with Nazi ideology.

The entire Old Testament was removed, as the Hebrew scriptures were seen as the root of Judaism.

They're not wrong, but notice they silence them.

References to Jesus' Jewishness, any verse that mentioned Jesus' Jewish heritage, so anything like aligning him to King David, to Abraham, Pauline epistles, the letters of Paul were significantly cut down, removed, because Paul was viewed as having corrupted Christianity with his Jewish ideas.

Like, it's just nuts.

The Gospel of John was drastically condensed because it was considered to be tainted with Jewish influence.

Any positive reference to Judaism, all references to Jews, Jewish tradition, Jewish people, cut them out.

Terms and titles of Hebrew origins, words like hallelujah, Jehovah, Jerusalem, were replaced with German alternatives.

Any passage emphasizing mercy was removed, such as the blessing for the merciful on the Sermon on the Mount.

The goal was to remove the inherent ties between Christianity and its Jewish origins in order to align it with its Nazi, anti-Semitic, racist ideology.

Anytime this has happened in history, it hasn't gone great.

Like it's always been like, why'd you remove those parts of the Bible?

Because we wanted to kill people or oppress them.

Like, hmm.

And so if we if we practice silencing portions of the scriptures on our own, it's clearly not going to lead us into better spaces.

We need all of it.

Otherwise, we have a corrupted version of it and we will also become corrupt.

But it's important to notice they did not argue with the verses that they disagreed with.

They didn't go against Jesus and say, like, I'm going to take my knowledge and I'm going to fight you against your knowledge.

They know they can't do that.

But what they can do is they can just cut them out, silence them, and make them not be heard.

And I just wondered as I was reading some of those things, I just wondered, if we had a Bible based on your life, what would be included and what would be excluded?

Like if there was like, here's the Bible of my life, and I got, I I love the Psalms, but honestly, I hate Leviticus.

Like we'd all leave Leviticus out.

Let's be honest.

Like, we don't want that book in there.

That would have killed in seminary.

Thank you for one person.

But if we had a Bible of our own lives, what would it include?

What would it exclude?

Because I think we have a tendency to do these things.

We have a tendency to harp on the verses that we love that agree with everything, single thing that we want to do, and a tendency to cut out and paste in our own Bible.

We just, the difference is like we don't mass produce this scripture.

But you know, you got your ESV.

If you're really holy, you got your KJV.

If you're not so holy, you got your NLT.

But like all of us, we have our MPT.

You got your my personal translation.

It's the Jesus agrees with every decision I want to make translation.

Like that's that's the one.

And that's the one that we talk about the most.

That's the one that we hold our uh hold up to the most.

That's the one that we fight with when other people use other parts of the scriptures to fight against us.

Like my my my personal translation, honestly, uh doesn't have that verse in there, so I'm not gonna listen to any of that.

We do the exact same thing.

We quote the parts of the Bible that agree with us and support our views, and we cut out the parts that don't.

We may never actually literally question his authority, but we do question his authority by simply avoiding the spaces where he wants to speak.

And so we do not allow him to disagree with us because we silence those particular parts of the scriptures.

And so the question is, where do you do that in your life?

Where are the verses that you just harp on and hold to, but then there's other ones you're like, honestly, I don't really want to think about that one.

Ones like love your enemy, honor everyone.

Not in this culture, this current political climate, I don't think honoring everyone really fits in our current political climate.

And it's like, but it says it in there, so what do we do with that?

Don't gossip, give sacrificially, love your enemies, turn the other cheek, return good to those who treat you with evil.

As much as it concerns you, live at peace with everyone, as much as it concerns you, live at peace with everyone.

There are just verses in the scriptures that I think don't get as much play.

Songs that we like on Amazon Music or Apple Music or something like that, they get a lot of play.

And then we get a thing at the end of the year that's like, here are the songs that you listen to the most.

I wonder whether that would be true of the scriptures.

Here are the verses that we get.

We we quote these the most, we listen to these the most, and here are the ones that we don't focus on the most.

We just silence them.

Where do you question Jesus' authority simply by silencing the verses that actually disagree with your view, the way that you want to live?

So that's the first.

Second, the second response we see from the Pharisees and the teachers of the law is that they seek to discredit Jesus.

They just want to discredit him.

And so they ask that question in verse 28 By what authority are you doing these things?

They asked.

And who gave you this authority to do this?

And they don't actually want to know, they just ask it in order to discredit him.

William Lane in this commentary says this he says that the question that the Sanhedrin, these people, that they asked was consistent with their responsibility to request credentials from an itinerant rabbi.

They're supposed to do this.

And so they're allowed to.

We rule over the synagogue here, we rule over the temple here, and so we're gonna ask you a couple of questions about your authority.

And so it is consistent.

Therefore, though, the question had to appear to be unbiased and open-ended, befitting the climate of a debating porch, which is what they were doing.

However, whatever answer Jesus gives, the conclusion is the same, he must be arrested.

If he attests that his authority is from God, the charge is blasphemy.

If he claims secular authority for his act of cleansing the temple, the charge is insurrection.

And so either way, they just want to discredit him.

If he says, My authority comes from God, that's blasphemy, you're a heretic, we can arrest you.

If you say your authority is from man or you have your own authority, it's some from some other government, then it's insurrection, you're a lunatic, and we can arrest you.

They just need him to answer.

Just say God or man, and then we will know, the people will know, you're either a blasphemer or you're a lunatic, and we don't have to listen to you.

And what they're trying to do is they're trying to find any way to say, see, he said we were wrong, but this is why we don't have to listen to him.

He, his words disagree with our lives, but here's why we don't have to listen to them.

And it's super creative, it's very clever, and it's a great question.

They just happen to be going up against someone more clever, more wise, and all the rest of it.

But it's really creative what they're doing because they're trying to figure out a way to figure out why don't I have to listen to your words?

And they do that by trying to discredit him.

And I think we do the exact same thing.

We're super creative in how we try and discredit Jesus.

Like we hear something that goes against us, and if we can't silence it, we just try to figure out a way to go, like, why doesn't that align with my life?

How can I figure out a way to get out of it?

And so, just the brilliant handful, not from me, just the things that I've heard in my time as a pastor for 20 years, um, and then some that I've just personally used to avoid conviction of the spirit.

Um, here are ways that we try and discredit Jesus.

One is the feels, the feels.

I got them all on the screen there.

The feels is like Jesus' way just doesn't feel right to me.

Honestly, I would love my enemies.

I just don't feel so good about that.

Like, I just don't, that doesn't feel right for me to love my enemies.

I I want to be sacrificial.

I just don't feel that I can do that right now.

And what we never get around to is like your heart is deceitful above all things.

Like this is never supposed to be based on your feelings or what you feel.

If parents only love Their children when they felt loving.

Children would be neglected and not loved well enough.

And so the idea of going like, I'm only gonna be obedient when it feels like being obedient.

That's not the way that we're called to live, but it's like it doesn't feel right.

And so if it doesn't feel right, I'm not gonna do it.

And somehow our feelings override the scriptures.

Um, we got the your truth, my truth.

This is an older one, but it's still it's still used.

Um, Jesus' word doesn't match with my truth.

You have your truth, I have my truth.

Those things are incongruent.

Um, but Jesus wants me to be my true self.

That's not a Bible verse anywhere.

Um that truth works for you, but not for me.

That actually can't be true of a truth.

You would never say that about gravity, but it's fine.

Um gravity works for you, not for me.

The snowflake situation.

This is um, I know what Jesus says.

I know he says to forgive, but my situation is completely different.

I'm a little snowflake, I'm I'm just unique in this way.

That I know that I'm supposed to give sacrificially of my money or whatever.

I know I'm supposed to do this or do that.

But honestly, not this situation.

My situation is uniquely different.

Here's why I don't have to do what Jesus says.

Forgive, give, love enemies, show honor, any of those things.

Like, honestly, I would, but this situation, you don't know my situation.

You don't know what I've got.

You want me to forgive?

Do you know how they treated me?

Like, certainly, Jesus, if he knew my situation, he wouldn't tell me to do that.

And it's like, then you forget that Jesus is on the cross being crucified and he's forgiving the people who are crucifying him.

And so there's a little bit of like, you can say that your situation is harder, and I don't doubt that it wasn't difficult, but to say that you don't have to because your situation is unique, no one's situation is more unique than his.

The cultural argument, what God has commanded was only applicable in a in in that particular culture.

It doesn't fit in this current culture.

God once commanded, this is something that somebody said this to me, God once commanded no tattoos, and I see that you have a tattoo, so all the scriptures are on the table now to pull off the shelves, and we don't have to do any of that.

I'm like, that is, we should talk about that.

That's none of that's whatever you just said.

There's so many things wrong with it, I can't actually address all of them in one particular space.

But like the cultural argument of that does it does, there is a cultural lens that you have to read the scriptures through, but to to look at certain things that are culturally irrelevant for for now based on back then, and then to say, therefore, all of the scriptures are culturally relevant doesn't stand up.

Um that's the cultural argument, people use that.

Proof texting, this is a this is a favorite of um people, just snagging a random verse out of the Bible, cutting it out of its context in order to do whatever you want.

And so, you know, you hear this like I can do it's football, I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me, and then both teams are running through banners that say the exact same thing, and they all think they're gonna win.

It's like both of y'all are gonna lose because you're taking the scripture out of context.

Um people do it with like where two or three are gathered, there I am in your midst, and this is why I can have church at the beach or at the lake.

And it's like, that's not what it meant.

Go to the beach, go to the lake, it's fine.

Nobody actually cares, but don't use the Bible wrong.

Um, so proof texting is just snagging verses.

God says, Don't judge, you're judging me.

Uh, I get that one on, you know, you can hear that a lot when you're like, it's not judgment, actually, there's actual evidence of your sins.

I'm not, I'm no longer judging, I just I can actually see it.

And so it's not judgment.

Um, but he who's not without sin, throw the first stone or whatever, and they they're just trying to get out of this thing.

Uh some people minimize it.

This isn't that big of a deal.

God forgives my sins, so why does it matter if I do this?

If He's gonna forgive me anyways, I might as well sin.

People justify their sin.

I know this is sin, but they made me do it.

I only did this because I was tired, I deserve this, I need this.

God would understand, we try and justify it, and we're going through these faster.

Comparison.

Comparison is I know I'm doing this wrong, but it's okay because I'm not as bad as that person over there.

Like, I know that I sin, but they really sinned, so mine's not that bad.

Uh, and then the Bible is outdated and therefore irrelevant, um, that the Bible is just old and old things should be silenced and discredited.

So Tim Keller says this about that.

He says, society makes judgments through what C.S.

Lewis called chronological snobbery, namely the assumption that whatever has gone out of date is on that account alone discredited.

Many people now denounce actions or positions as having no business in the 21st century, as if every chapter of history is by definition better than the one before.

Whatever is old is outdated and no longer applies.

And so it's just a handful.

But all of these are ways that we and people just we naturally shift towards trying to.

Jesus disagrees with this thing that you want to do.

Like he just disagrees with that thing and we naturally shift to how can I spin it?

How can I discredit it?

How can I do something to where I can continue doing what I'm doing and feel like it's not sin?

How can I do that?

And we're just looking for a way to say, I know what the scriptures say, but that doesn't apply to me.

I know what the scriptures say, but I don't have to do that because.

And we're trying to find a way through in order to figure out how to do those things.

And when we do that, whatever that is, whatever leads us to that space, it sounds like a good argument, but honestly, it's just this exact same thing that they're doing.

You're just discrediting what Jesus is at.

You're just like, here's why you don't have any credibility in my life.

Here's why I don't have to do this.

And we're seeking to discredit him in that way.

And so, where in all of those things, which one of those you're like, yeah, I've used that one.

I use that one currently.

And some of you may be sitting in the room and going, I currently I still have questions about the cultural one.

Like, how much of this do I have to continue moving forward in if some of this is culturally outdated?

And so, where do you seek to discredit what Jesus actually wants us to do because it disagrees with what we want to do?

All right, that's number two.

And then the third thing that they do when Jesus disagrees with them is they just refuse to admit that they're wrong.

They just will not be wrong.

We see this in verse 29 and 33.

It says Jesus replied, I will ask you one question.

Answer me, and I'll tell you by what authority I'm doing these things.

John's baptism, heaven or human origin.

And then they discuss it and they're like, Man, if we say from heaven, he's gonna say, then why didn't you believe him?

And we'd be wrong.

Um but if we say human origin, they fear the people, then the people would think that we're wrong because they held him up as a prophet.

And so they said, We don't know.

And Jesus said, Well, then neither will I tell you by what authority I'm doing these things.

And so they just refuse to admit.

They're in this debate, and they have a great question, and they think they got him.

And then Jesus responds, as it was normal in the debate, if if they were if Jesus was asked the question first, Jesus gets to respond with a question, or he gets to answer the question.

That's the way the debates went.

And so Jesus responds with a question, and Jesus gets them, and he gets them stuck in this space, and they don't want to admit that they're wrong.

They don't want to be held in account by either Jesus going, Why didn't you believe it if you say it's from God?

You're the God people, you're the temple folk.

Like, why wouldn't you believe this stuff?

You don't want to say that, you don't want to be wrong in that way.

And then in the same way, you don't want to be held as wrong before the people because they held him up as a prophet.

And so, either way, you refuse to admit that you're actually wrong, and what you do instead is they just bow out.

They just say, Look, like, look, we're, you didn't prove us wrong, Jesus.

We're just disinterested in this anymore.

This uh used to happen with the pharaohs of of of old.

Um, they used to have this, like, if they'd go into a battle um and they were losing, uh, they wouldn't say that they lost the battle.

They would just say, I grew disinterested in this battle and I went home.

I didn't retreat, I just grew tired of this.

And like, that's what they're doing here.

It's like, we're not wrong.

We just we gotta go.

We're just gonna leave.

They just refuse to admit that Jesus got them.

And they could have just stopped right there and been like, Boy, you're brilliant.

How'd you get out of that?

Like, all of us, the entire Sanhedrin comes together, which I don't know how, it's like a hundred people or something.

All these people show up together to ask him this question.

We put all our heads together on how to get you in this thing, and we didn't do it.

You're amazing.

It was a time of repentance that should have happened, but they can't be wrong.

And to me, I think we struggle with the same thing.

Some people, when you tell them that they're wrong, their response is to bully.

They just get super angry, they blow up, they build up, they get so mad.

And what it normally does, it's a way it's a defense mechanism to admit that they've made a mistake.

But what it normally does is it gets the person who's telling them that they're wrong, it gets them to back off.

And they're afraid, they get scared, they don't want to press anymore because they don't want the person to blow up anymore.

And it's like, you know what?

Never mind, this isn't worth it.

But it's just a defense mechanism.

They know all I have to do is get angrier than you are, and I'll never have to admit that I'm wrong.

On the reverse side of that, you have people who just, when you tell them that they're wrong or they did something wrong, they get their feelings hurt so badly and they get so quiet.

And then, again, it's a defense mechanism of not having to admit that they're wrong.

What it does to the people that are telling them, hey, you've wronged me in this way, what it does to them, then that person feels pity for that person.

They're like, oh, I don't want to make them feel bad.

I don't want to make them cry.

I just, I just wanted them to say they're sorry, but they got so sad, so then they stopped talking about it.

And what it is, is just a way of avoiding having to admit that you're wrong.

Other people do it by denying or deflecting to someone else or something.

Uh, I'm not wrong, they are.

The only reason I did that is because they did it.

Um they deny that it's wrong altogether.

Still, others uh just avoid anyone or anyone who would disagree with them.

That's a different way of silencing them.

They just avoid it.

This is what you get with people who go to counseling and they just can't go to a counselor because they keep going from counselor to counselor to therapist to therapist because the therapist challenges them and what they they tell them that they're wrong in those ways, and they're like, that therapist didn't work.

And it's like, the true reason the therapist didn't work is because they told you you were doing something wrong.

And then you eventually find you a therapist that tells you everything you're doing is right.

And you're like, I love this one.

It's like, of course you do.

You're paying them to tell you yes.

Like, that's what that is.

But there are people out in the world, I mean, if in the world, us, we struggle with this.

Like, anybody that tells you you're wrong, we just cut that person off.

I'm not talking to them.

I cannot have anybody disagree with my choices.

And so if you disagree with anything that I'm doing, I'll cut you off.

I don't read the scriptures, can't go to church because they disagree with some of the things that I'm doing.

Don't want to be told they're wrong.

Again, all of those things are just ways of avoiding having to actually admit I am wrong.

And the issue with all of those, with the Pharisees or with us in the ways that we practice these things, the issue with all of these is if you or I, if we never admit that we're wrong, we'll never get better, we'll never develop, we'll never grow, and we'll just stay exactly the same.

Because if something is broken or wrong or needs repair, like it demands to be repaired.

It's broken.

There's something, if my arm was broken, the pain of it would demand repair.

There's something about it.

But if you're never wrong, then there's nothing to address.

Then you can sit there and say consistently, like, well, it's not me, it's someone else.

And so it will just stay the same the entire time because you're not wrong, and therefore I don't need to address this.

And so you'll just stay the same.

And you actually see this happen here with the Pharisees.

If you notice, this story just ends like super abruptly.

It's like, okay, then neither will I tell you.

End.

End of story.

I'm not going to tell you anything either.

And you're the audience is kind of left wondering, like, what happened next?

And it's like, nothing happened next because they refuse to admit that they're wrong.

And if you refuse to admit that you're wrong, you just hinder whatever God actually wants to do in your life.

And you actually put an end to it.

And that's exactly what happens here.

And I think this happens in our situations.

There are places in our lives where we're desperate for change, you're desperate for healing, you're desperate for fulfillment, you're desperate for things to shift and to change.

But if we refuse to be wrong, if we refuse to have any part of it, if it's somebody else, the only reason I feel this way is because of them, then we're never going to actually address the thing that's actually available in us to actually shift, the thing that we're actually more in control over.

And so, for instance, if Jesus' words speak into your marriage and say, hey, what's wrong with your marriage isn't him or her, it's you.

What's wrong in your marriage is the way that you talk to your spouse.

What's wrong in your marriage is the way that you refuse to be wrong.

And if you if you don't change that, if you refuse to go, no, it's not me, it's it's them, then what will stay the same is the way that your marriage currently is.

Because if you're unwilling to address and unwilling to actually see that you've done anything wrong, then it's just gonna stay there.

And I'm not saying they don't have any part in it on the other side.

But if the scriptures, if Jesus' words speak into your marriage and say it's your fault, not theirs, or it's your fault, and I don't want to talk about theirs right now, I just want to talk about yours, and you go, No, it's not my fault, then we stop whatever he actually wants to do.

If his words call you to parent differently, you read his word, or you're here in church, or something, he calls you to parent differently and says that your current way is wrong, and you go, what's wrong with your child isn't your child.

It's the way that you're parenting your child.

That's what's wrong.

But if you go, no, it's not me, and it's like, okay, then your parenting's gonna stay the same, nothing's gonna shift, that child is gonna stay that way, and your family dynamic is gonna continue to function that way.

Because what he's trying to do in disagreeing with you is to get you to move past where you're stuck and into something else.

If his word disagrees with how you spend your money, what's wrong with your finances is is you.

It's your greed, it's your gluttony.

It's the like you just need those things and you know you can't afford them, but you need them so bad.

Like what's wrong with your finances isn't that there's not enough money in the world.

I could give you all the money in the world, you would still overspend.

Like you would still do that thing.

But if you refuse to be wrong in that, like, no, it's not me, I just need more money.

No, it's not me, it's something else.

No, it's not me, it's something else, then you will just stay in that situation over and over and over again.

If he says, what's wrong is your pride, what's wrong is your unwillingness to forgive, what's wrong is your greed, your selfishness, you are stuck where you are because of you.

When he says that, not out of hate, but out of love, when he says that if you refuse to be wrong, then nothing will actually change and you will just stay there.

And that's what happens with the Pharisees.

And our lives will never be shaped by Jesus.

It all just stays the same.

And so, those are the three.

How do you respond when Jesus disagrees with you?

Because the likelihood is he disagrees with you a lot more than he agrees with you.

How do you respond when he disagrees with you?

I do want to reiterate, it is not because he doesn't like you or because he's mad at you or angry with you that he disagrees with you.

It is actually out of love.

He disagrees with you.

We were in the mountains this past week.

Jesus disagrees with us the way a guardrail disagrees with a car about to run off a ledge.

Like, see that image.

There's a guardrail that's gonna crush my car if I veer off the ledge.

And I, if I did that, and then all of a sudden I veered off, hit it, and it disagreed with my car and crushed it, but my family was safe.

I would kiss the guardrail.

I'd be so thankful that I didn't roll off this cliff and do a thing.

Jesus is disagreeing with you and with me in our lives, like a guardrail disagrees with the car about to fall off a mountain.

He's like, I'm not trying to hurt you, I'm trying to help you.

I'm not trying to harm you, I'm trying to lead you in away from harm.

I'm actually trying to protect you, not steal from you.

Guardrails on a mountain aren't sitting there trying to steal your fun and your freedom.

Like, I just want to be free, guardrail.

It's like, freedom is death.

Like, what's wrong with you?

Jesus is the same way.

It's like, I'm not trying to hurt you, I'm trying to keep you safe.

Jesus is disagreeing with how you spend your money, with how you treat people, not to steal from you, but to set you free.

He disagrees with your sin, not because he's trying to make your life harder, but because he's trying to actually set you free from death.

He disagrees out of love, not out of hatred.

And for for us, like the the way that when Teddy was growing up, he didn't want to move from diapers to using the bathroom.

Maybe that's true of everybody, but he was really against it.

He just hated it.

I disagreed with that plan.

Long-term diaper wear, okay?

Maybe later on in old age, but not here when you're a teenager.

Um I disagreed with that.

I did that out of love, right?

Like, out of you're gonna want to get married one day, bro.

Like, you're gonna want to sit at dinner and not go to the bathroom in your britches.

Like it's fine now.

It's not fine later.

And and and like Jesus is disagreeing with us in a similar, like that was out of love, and like it's I'm not a cruel tyrant for saying, sorry, you can't be wearing diapers playing 10-year-old baseball.

Like, I just you can't slide in a second, and then we just can't play anymore.

Like that has to change.

Sorry, we needed some levity, it was dead in here.

I wasn't being a cruel tyrant.

I was saying that because I love him, because I want him to grow, I want him to develop.

Jesus is disagreeing with you.

Things that you want to do in your life, decisions that you want to make.

He is pushing back out of love, he is opposing you out of affection, out of what he knows is actually best.

It's the same way.

The most perfect way that I think that you see that Jesus loves you in the midst of his disagreement is the cross when he is crucified.

The cross reveals what how how strongly does God disagree with sin.

Someone must die.

Someone must die.

And so, what does sin require?

A death.

Someone's gonna bleed.

Someone has to be crushed in death.

I just I hate sin so badly, I want to kill it.

And that's what I want to do.

And so that's how much he disagrees with it.

But the cross also on the other side of it shows and reveals how much does he love us.

And he's like, I love you so much.

I hate sin with such a disagreement that it must die.

But in order to kill it, I will kill myself.

I'll kill my son so that you don't actually have to die.

I will punish my son so that you don't have to be punished.

I will condemn him to a death so that you can actually be set free.

I hate it so badly and disagree with it, but I love my people so much that I'm willing to take care of it myself.

The cross is this perfect thing of like, what will he, where what is he trying to do in his disagreement?

He is trying to be kind to us.

Because if he had his option where he was like, he had the ability to crush all of us over the disagreement over our sin.

He had the ability to do that and he chose not to.

He's like, I don't actually want to crush you.

I will be crushed so that you don't have to, I will be punished so that you don't have to.

And so it's this space of going, what is he trying to do when he disagrees?

He's like, he is trying to love you well.

And so for us, we need to see his opposition and we need to see his disagreement as a kindness and not as something to discredit, not as something to question, and not as something to refuse.

We should see it as like you are actually trying to lead me into better spaces.

I believe that there are things in your life that he wants to do.

I just know that because I know there's things in my life that he wants to do as well.

There are things in your life that you also want.

You want this stuff, and he's like, I want that stuff too.

The issue is y'all disagree, you and God disagree on how to get there.

You want it, he wants it, you disagree on how to get there.

And if you continue to question his way and you continue to discredit his way and you continue to refuse his way, you're never actually gonna get the thing that you want that he also wants to give you, because he's not gonna force his way on you.

He's never gonna do that.

But there are things that he wants to do that you're also longing for.

You just disagree on how you actually get it.

And if you would just stop opposing him and actually just humbly go, like, look, all right, fine, I'm gonna do it your way.

The cross reveals that even in disagreement, you love me a ton.

So I'm just gonna trust that I'm gonna do it your way.

If we would humbly just receive his way, I think the things that we long for and the stuff that he longs to give us, we would actually experience those things because we'd stop fighting over who gets to steer the wheel.

And so for you and for me, we need to consider, man, do we do these things in any ways?

Do we question him, discredit him?

Do we refuse to be wrong?

And if so, repent and just come home, come back to him and go like, I'm sorry.

I've been trying to do this my way.

I didn't realize I was questioning, discrediting, and refusing to be wrong.

But now I see it and I don't want to do that anymore because the things that you long to give me are the stuff that I actually long to receive.

And honestly, I'll I'd rather have those things your way than not have them at all, which is my current experience.

And I think for us, he just wants to give us things.

The issue is our own pride, being willing to lay those things down and receive it the way that he wants to give it to us.

And so my encouragement to you is just respond to him with humility.

Don't look at his words to you and question them, discredit them, or refuse them.

They may be hard to hear, but receive them as something he's trying to bless you with.

Don't fight him on those things.

Rather, just let him lead you to where he wants to go.