SIN IS SERIOUS

Welcome to the Awakening Church podcast.

We pray this message encourages you and provides the hope and light of Jesus Christ.

Thanks for tuning in.

Good to be with you.

Hey, if you got your rooted book, go ahead and grab that.

We got extras in the back if you need one as we dive in.

And just uh coming up, I just want to share next Sunday is what we're calling advanced commitment night.

Those that have been a part of this journey, if you're new, you're just figuring things out.

You're like, what is this church about?

We got to get to hear a little bit of it.

But if you're a part of our community, if you're a paysetter, a leader serving uh next Sunday is a big deal.

Uh evening is where we believe leaders go first, and we're gonna do that together.

And so uh you can scan the QR code to this slide, advanced commitment night.

Next slide.

Okay, there we go.

Uh and go ahead and um hope that you join us.

You gotta hear a little bit of how awakening began.

I thought I'd give you a little bit of the backstory as we begin.

Um so my wife and I, uh when we started out in full-time ministry, we took a job, a youth pastor job in Atlanta, Georgia.

We were there for three years.

Um there that we saw a bit of the dark, broken side of church.

Um, you know, integral leadership issues with the leaders, mishandling of funds.

I'm so grateful for how our leadership uh does that with transparency of like uh holding what we do here.

Um even as we ended our time there, they uh withheld over a month's salary from us.

Now, yeah, we're a little, you know, we had a mortgage there, you could actually buy a house there.

Um, and um it was$160,000.

But um they we had a mortgage there, two small kids, and moving, and all of a sudden I had no idea how we're gonna pay for any of it.

Uh, you know, and uh and at the same time, so I was like, I I saw this car, we were gonna sell it, and it's gonna want to sell it for$5,000 and go, okay, that's awesome.

You know, that'll provide for it.

And then God tapped us on his shoulder and said, you know what, there's a family in your youth group that has four teenagers and they don't have a lot.

Why don't you give them the car?

I was like, that's not a very good idea because that's how I was gonna play for the moving expenses, all these sort of things.

Uh, and we said, okay, God, here we go.

So we gave them that car literally a week before we moved back here to San Jose to work at Westgate Church.

Um, a courier shows up at our door, knocks on the door, hands me an envelope, I sign for it, and I opened the letter, and it says, Heard you're moving out of the area, sad to see you go.

And it's from a guy I met once, like a year ago.

Sad to see you go.

Heard you could use some moving around money.

And in it was a check for$5,000.

Like the exact amount.

And what I love is like all the way back in that moment when we, you know, that God like developed our hearts, like when we have almost nothing, we were able to trust him with everything because we've discovered over the years, have so many stories of how God has shown up and provided that we experience the God who's able when we trust him beyond our own ability.

Well, we moved to uh back here, we start at Westgate Church in 2007, 19 years ago.

And we start this little ministry uh for college young adults called Awakening, September 2007.

And as we start this ministry, um, we had about 30 college that were showing up, and we had explosive growth right from the beginning.

It went from 30 down to six.

Uh didn't say which direction.

Yeah, it went the wrong direction.

Think about this.

We had a full band and like six people.

It was so awkward, you know, and we'd kind of circled up.

Hey, what's going on?

Uh so you know, September, October, November, December, I was like, why even meet?

Let's take a couple months off, regroup, reset.

And during that time, I remember one morning I was in my office over at Westgate, and uh like the Holy Spirit of God just put this prompting as I was spending time with Jesus, like, hey, um, you got some unforgiveness and some bitterness in your heart towards the leadership at your previous church.

And there's that, like that wrestling, right?

I'm like, yeah, I have every reason.

Like the way they acted and responded, they withheld over a month's salary.

Like, we had two small kids, we had a three-month-old.

Come on, God.

You know, that was my argument with them.

He's like, Yeah.

You you need to own your junk.

Like, they haven't owned theirs.

Yeah, but what about your unforgiveness and your resentment and your bitterness?

And so I was like, okay, fine.

I'll call my former boss.

Well, then we'll call and let's say his name is Jason, because that's his name.

So I pick up the phone, and this is in the days you picked up the phone.

Um I'm like, hey, Jason.

He's like, hey.

I'm 26 years old.

I don't really even know how to do this right, if I'm honest.

My unforgiveness, I'm sorry.

And it was like the most short, awkward phone call of my life.

I mean, it probably lasted a minute, right?

Um, and his whole response was, okay, bye.

I was like, that was it.

But something in that moment like broke.

God was doing something in the spiritual that was beyond that moment in my heart and in my life.

He knew that there was things that he needed to work in me, stuff that he needed to root out of me before we could ever step into what God had for us.

There was like some soul work.

In January, so fast forward two months later, in January, we start this, yeah, no, we like before we start back gathering all six people.

We were like, let's hold a uh, let's hold like a leadership meeting, see who would be into it.

We had 30 people show up to our house.

Like, where are you guys?

Where'd you come from?

We had this little living room, everybody packed in on the ground.

And we sat together and we just opened the Bible to Matthew 28, 18.

It's the great commission, therefore go and make disciples.

And we said, What does it mean for us?

And as we sat on that floor, all of us, and we're praying and writing and talking on a little whiteboard.

We pinned these words, which became our mission back then and our mission today, that we exist to awaken this generation to new life in Jesus.

And in that moment, God started something.

And we saw a group of 30 grow to 60, to 80, to 100, to several hundred, so over 400 before Westgate said, Why don't you go start something, uh new movement for this generation?

And I learned an incredibly valuable lesson, that God will work deeply in us before he works greatly through us.

That God longs, and this is why I believe like this moment, this sermon, is I believe one of the most important, if not the most important moment of the entire rooted series.

It's because honestly, when we're talking about a long-term building, that's not a big deal for God.

We talk about 5 million, 10 million, 20 million, 100 million, that's the same as a$5,000 check to God.

Those are little things.

In fact, for Jenny and I, as we've been on this process and we've gotten to talk to so many people, what I get most excited about and what I believe God is doing through this is God is actually preparing us for the place he's already prepared for us.

Like what's way more important is those moments and these moments as a church where we begin to go, God, what do you want to do in us?

What do you want to form in us?

What are the things that you want to root out of us?

That we might be the kind of people that you can take and use to bring your hope and your life and your healing and your gospel to a hurting, lonely, world.

We're in this series as we're teaching through Psalm 90, it's the prayer of Moses.

And in Psalm 90, we see six core foundational truths for a deeply rooted life in a transient, ever-changing world.

Week one, we started with God is great.

Week last week we looked at life is short, eternity is long.

Today, sin is serious.

Go ahead and turn to your neighbor and say sin is serious.

I bet you never said that to anyone before.

And some of you are like, oh, why did I show up today?

I should have read the emails they send out.

Friends, I really believe this is gonna be perhaps one of the most powerful moments for some in your spiritual journey.

God has a word for us and he wants to bring healing and wholeness.

If you got your Bibles, would you open up to Psalm chapter 90, verse 7?

Psalms 90:7

Psalm 90.

Listen to what Moses writes as he continues.

In verse 7, he says, We are consumed by your anger and terrified by your indignation.

Whoa! That's intense, Moses.

Consumed by your anger?

Terrified?

That indignation, the word indignation is like wrath, comes from a root word for burning.

It brings up the question like, does God lose his temper?

Is he unpredictable?

Does he just take it out on people?

What happened to the God of love, Ryan?

Maybe that's the God of the Old Testament that he's angry that we've heard about.

I mean, should we be afraid of God?

The divine wrath of God is not a holy uh temper tantrum, by the way.

Divine wrath of God is God's settled, judicial, righteous opposition to evil.

God does not lose his temper ever.

His wrath is his holy love reacting against that which destroys what he loves.

Uh I was born in Dallas, Texas, grew up in Santa Cruz.

Before we moved, we lived in uh outside of Dallas, a rural area.

My brothers, they were um in junior high at the time.

I have twin older brothers.

And they would walk to school, and they would walk to school through this long open field and go to school, and then they'd walk back through this open field, and uh every day they would get bullied.

Uh on their walk home from school.

A group of bullies uh would beat them up, they would yell at them, chase them.

My brothers would, you know, try to find different ways to go.

They would run, one was faster than the other.

That's a whole nother story.

My mom catches wind that she's got these bullies, you know, against her twin boys.

My mom's got to be the most sweetest human on the planet, by the way.

You you talk to her and go, This this woman wouldn't hurt a fly.

She's quiet, she's introverted, she's just so kind and tenderhearted.

But you mess with her kids.

She literally goes out and goes into that field and hides behind a bush at the time.

And those bullies come across, and my twin brothers are walking out there, and she jumps out, and those bullies run.

That's the divine wrath of God, by the way.

Mama Bear.

The divine wrath of God is actually his holy love against evil.

Well, why, why, why?

Why, Gnosis?

Why, why, why are we here?

What do you mean?

He goes on to say, what what what is this wrath about?

He says, You have set our iniquities before you, our secret sin in the light of your presence.

He says, There's the problem here.

And the first thing I love that Moses does is he is the great leader, lawgiver of Israel.

And the way he says it, he doesn't say you have a problem, does he?

You like you have a really big problem, and let me tell you why God's not happy with you, but I'm the leader, I'm at it.

He says, Notice Moses says, our iniquities, our secret sin.

I think one of the easiest things for us to do is we look around at the world, we see how broken, we see how messed up the political landscape is, we see all the issues and the problems out there, and we can see other people, maybe it's your coworkers or your classmates or or or even family members, and you go like, oh, they really need to get it figured out.

They are, woo, they're a mess.

What I love Moses says, it's like, no, we're a mess.

Because the truth is, we're all in the same boat together.

The problem is not just out there, the problem is in here, the problem is every single one of us.

I love how I don't know that I love it, but Ecclesiastes says it this way, indeed.

There is no one on earth who is righteous, no one who does what is right and never sins.

Romans says it this way, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.

We're all on the same boat.

Church, by the way, I think we should look a whole lot more like an AA meeting.

Instead of covering up and faking it and pretending like we're fine and casting judgment on anyone who's like at least honest.

Hey, my name's Ryan.

Thanks.

And I'm part of the problem.

I'm a sinner.

And I desperately need Jesus.

And I wake up daily to the reality that I desperately need his work, his saving.

We're all in the same boat together.

But I think the wrestling in our culture in our day, because we don't talk about this, like, what's the big deal?

Iniquity, Ryan.

He uses the word, we don't, what in the world is iniquity?

Like, what is that?

Oh, I'm glad you asked.

Thank you.

I actually have a definition for you.

Iniquity is the twisting or distortion of what is right and true.

It is activity that is morally crooked.

It refers to our legal standing of being guilty of wrongdoing and deserving a just punishment.

It's our natural bent away and twisting what is good.

Let me just give you a few things, what sin is.

First, sin is offensive, and we get this part of it.

Because if anybody lies to you, it's offensive, isn't it?

Anyone uh puts you down, that's offensive.

Anybody that um manipulates you or um uses you, that's offensive.

Uh when I was a teenager, thank God we didn't have the internet like this, it was the dial-up AOL.

It took, I got addicted to pornography.

Just hooked on it.

Fast forward, go to college, and tried to quit, tried to break, tried to do all these sort of things.

Like now I'm studying God's word and going to ministry, the amount of shame and guilt and condemnation I felt and wrestling, I was just sucked in on this world.

In my mind, this is weird.

I just I don't know where I got it, but I hear a lot of us have had this thought, like, oh, I'm gonna get married, that'll fix everything.

No, I just brought that with me into that.

Oh man, it hurt my wife so badly.

It's offensive.

Painful.

It brought shame.

It's actually offensive to whatever human being that you're objectifying and using as a commodity for your own consumption.

It's offensive to the God who created that person in his image that you would devalue for your own lust.

It's offensive to who God made me to be.

Dehumanizing, degrading who he created me to be.

Sin.

It's offensive, and sin is repulsive.

It just is like I, and I don't have a better way to explain it than this.

I apologize, it's maybe my youth pastor day's coming out.

But it's just repulsive.

We don't get it, because we go like it's just a little bit, it's not that big of a deal.

It's just a little lie, it's just a little lie, it's just a little, it's just a little, you know, lapse of integrity.

I want you to imagine that we go out to eat together and the waiter or waitress comes up to you and has this, you know, beautiful flamignon or salmon, or if you're vegetarian, vegetables.

And and they set it before you.

And they go, Oh, I hope you enjoy.

The chef prepared this.

This is fantastic.

Um, I just a heads up.

I just want to give you, it's not a it's not that big of a deal.

I but there's just the there's a tiny little bit of poop in it.

Excuse me?

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

And it's not that big of a deal.

Trust me, it's fine.

I mean, the chef works so hard on this.

It's a Philadelphia, it's actually Kobe beef.

This is fantastic, it's awesome, but there's just a little bit of poop, you know, and and so, and so, like, it's not that no, you what would you do?

Oh, it's just a little bit.

That's not that big of a deal.

Friends, we send it back when there's a hair in it.

See, that's what sin does.

It contaminates, and it's like, oh, it's just a little bit.

No, it's actually repulsive because ultimately what it does is it's destructive.

Sin is destructive.

And we've experienced that.

Uh you know, Romans again says, for the wages of sin is death.

Death just means separation, by the way.

Sin always creates separation, division.

It creates relational division, it creates emotional division even within yourself, spiritual devastation and death, separation between God.

The reason we have physical death is because sin entered the world and it created chaos, and ultimately the consequences of it is death.

And we've watched relationships be destroyed, marriages be ruined, friendships.

You set our iniquity before us.

Our secret sin in the light of your presence.

Secret sin, the hidden things, the wrongs we rationalize.

What we sleep cover up, sweep under the rug.

Try to ignore.

We blame, we excuse, we minimize, we defend.

Because that's what we do.

And that's what we've done since the beginning when it entered into the garden with Adam and Eve is we just hide, we cover up, we try to just we we feel it, we feel the shame, we feel the guilt, we feel the conviction, and so we just try to go pretend as if it's not there.

Secret, by the way, I love that he says, your secret sin in the light of your presence.

Like nothing is hidden from God.

He sees it all.

It made me think of this, and this is um ultraviolet light.

Yeah.

You know Halloween.

This even uh it's got a strobe version.

That's fun.

Now, here's the interesting part about ultraviolet light, and we know this, we get this, is that if we took the lights down and we walked into a hotel room, which I've seen some of those TV shows, right?

And you walk into a hotel room and you have this light and you begin to shine it over something that looks clean, that looks nice, that it begins to reveal some things that are there that are you cannot see with under normal light.

And just because you can't see it doesn't mean it's not there.

And if you ever watched one of those shows, which I have, and then it made me not want to go to a hotel.

Once you see it, it's really hard to unsee it.

Now, part of the reason we begin to hide is we're afraid to be exposed and the light to show some of those things, and we're afraid, like, man, like what if I really reveal what's in me, what is there?

Like, would anybody love me and that sense of yeah, wrath of God?

Like, I get that, so I'm in hiding.

Listen, friends, listen, listen, listen.

God does not shine his light into your life to hurt you, to shame you, but to heal you.

In the light of his presence, he is bringing this to light because what's what you're holding on and what's in your life is hurting you.

It's destructive, it's a cancer growing.

It is not the spotlight of the police trying to catch you, it is the lamp of a surgeon that wants to do what's necessary to bring healing and wholeness.

Why?

You know this.

Nothing good grows into the dark.

How many of us?

Jesus wants to bring healing and wholeness.

And it's our hiding that keeps us from experiencing what he really wants to provide.

Remember, church needs to be a whole lot more like an AA service.

Hey, my name's Ryan.

Yeah.

I used to be addicted to porn.

I still lust, by the way.

This morning, my wife and I got in a little tiff, a little argument this morning.

My response was out of selfishness, not kindness.

The other day, uh, I was at the park and some guy was chirping at my son, you know, as we're shooting uh balls.

I could have ignored it.

I didn't.

I didn't sin in my addressing of it with him.

He was a 30-year-old man that was talking smack to a 16-year-old.

But I gotta confess, you know what happened in my heart after that?

I came up with the best way to tear that guy down.

I'm telling you, it was good.

Because I worked on it.

Every time I was rebounding for myself, and I'm rebounding, I'm like, I'm playing out a story and I'm playing out something, and my heart, good night.

I'll tell you, I could have torn this guy up.

The next day we go over to shoot and I see him and I realize, man, this guy, I begin to see his state.

I think he's living out of his truck with his dog.

Oh my heart, that I would want to respond in such a way that just, like, honestly, like, there's a part of me like I just wanted to give it to him.

That's just me this week, guys.

What we keep hidden keeps us from becoming whole.

In this moment, God wants you to experience freedom that for some you've not experienced because you've been in hiding.

He wants to shine his light in your life and what you're walking through, not to hurt you, but to heal you.

And we resist it and we run from it.

And so we miss out on his grace.

I just want to maybe just run a few of the things that maybe he wants to shine a light on.

Maybe it's the sin of our words, which the Bible speaks a lot about.

Grumbling was a main problem for the Israelites.

Did you know grumbling's a sin?

Slander talking negatively about someone, cutting down their character and reputation.

Gossip talking bad about someone behind their back.

A critical spirit where I'm just constantly critical.

Maybe it's the sin of our hearts.

I was sharing my sin of my heart that way.

Didn't act on it out there, but gosh, man, my heart.

Maybe it's lust.

Maybe it's greed.

My response there, that was pride.

Definitely pride.

Maybe it's envy.

Sin of our wills.

Things where we go, no, my will, not your will.

My way, not your way.

Like God has clearly said, this is my will for you, and we go, yeah, no, no, no, thanks.

Maybe it's in regard to our finances.

Jesus talked a ton about that, by the way.

Maybe our sexuality.

I was really clear about that.

Maybe forgiveness.

Maybe our integrity.

I sat in that office journaling nineteen years ago.

And the Holy Spirit nudged me.

Ryan, this is what you need to deal with.

And part of me, as he was shining that light, my defense mechanism was, but they haven't.

Yeah, that forgiveness piece?

They haven't owned up to their part.

God's like, let me take care of them.

You just take care of you.

And I believe for some, this moment is one of those moments.

The truth is, we need forgiveness, we need cleansing.

The beautiful reality is at the cross, God's justice, which is his wrath poured out on evil, and his mercy, his undeserved, unearned favor, not giving us what we deserve, perfectly meeting.

See, I think one of the questions we wrestle with is this: like, why can't God just ignore it?

Why can't God just forgive it?

Why can't He just excuse it?

Like my friend lied to me and I said, it okay?

I don't talk like that.

Why do I say it's okay?

I don't know.

Anyways, what's wrong with me?

Why don't you imagine that somebody uh stole your car, took it for a joy ride, and then totaled it.

You're standing into the court.

The person has been caught, and the judge looks at that person and says, It's okay.

It's fine.

You're free to go, it costs you nothing.

You're gone.

Wait a second, that's my car.

I paid for it, they have to pay for it.

It costs me, it costs me something.

It is completely unjust that they don't pay for it.

See, if God ignores sins, he would both be unloving and unjust.

The gospel is this.

God looks at you and I because we're the ones that stole the car.

And he is the judge, and he takes off his robe and he stands in our place and says, I will pay for it.

I will cover it with my life.

Isaiah 53 says this, but he, speaking of Jesus, was pierced for our transgressions, crushed for our iniquities, and the punishment that brought us peace was on him, and by his wounds we are healed.

We all, like sheep, have gone astray.

Each of us has turned our own way, and the Lord has laid on him what?

The iniquity of us all.

That sin is so serious and such a big deal that God in Jesus came down to deal with it, lived a perfect life, died on the cross, taking our place, defeating death itself, so that those who place their trust, those who say, I accept your offer, he says, forgiven and clean and free.

Welcome to the family.

That's the gospel.

Your life doesn't need another self-help book.

You need saving.

For some, you need to respond to Jesus for the very first time.

Jesus, would you save me?

I am lost and dead in my sin and I can't save myself.

Would you come and forgive me and make me clean?

I believe you came for me, you died for me, you rose again, defeated death.

Would you come into my life and make me new?

And today's the day of salvation.

And for many of us in this room, we're walking around carrying a load that Jesus has already paid for.

That he's already covered.

That we keep secret because we are afraid to bring it into the light, and so we live in guilt and shame and condemnation.

Romans 8, therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.

That we'd be a people of the light, which steps into the light, says, okay, okay, reveal it, reveal it.

Because this isn't to harm me, this is to heal me.

Reveal it.

Would you show me?

And when somebody shares it, it'll go like, oh yeah, me too.

Yeah, me too.

I'm having my name's Ryan, by the way.

So here's how I'd love to close.

I would love for us to take a moment where we allow the Spirit of God to just speak very personally to each of us.

Would you ask the Holy Spirit to reveal anything to you that you need to confess?

I went through a list and I shared a good number of my own.

There might be some other things.

Jesus has already covered it by his death.

Then confession.

Would you just name it honestly?

You have a three by five card.

Here's what I want you.

Just write it down.

And as we take communion to remind ourselves of Jesus' body broken for us, his blood poured out for us, that he stood in the gap for us, that he has already covered it.

We come forward bringing the things that we have carried, and so many have been at such a weight for you, and you leave it at the foot of the cross.

Just drop it on the ground and grab his body and blood and thank him.

Thank you, Jesus.

I receive your forgiveness if we confess our sins.

He is faithful and just and will forgive us and purify us from all unrighteousness.

Where you receive his forgiveness, you experience his cleansing work.

Ben, you guys can go on and come on up.

And I just want to give you time.

Respond to what the Spirit is doing and how he's leading.

We hope you are blessed by this message.

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