Urban Legends #4
Well, next weekend, it all starts, the series that everybody’s been talking about. It is called “Satan’s Sex Ed,” and I am very excited. I’ve got some fresh perspective. I’ve been studying hard for that. It starts next week.
Welcome today to all of our campuses and those all over the world watching via video. We are so glad that you are with us. Today, we are concluding the series called “Urban Legends.” Let’s do this. All of our campuses, if you will, would you look to the person to your right? Everybody look to your right. Everybody now look to left. Look to the person to your left. Very good. Now look at the person behind you, maybe a couple of people behind you. Go ahead and turn around. Look at behind you. Okay, you got them? Now, I want you to point at the one that looks like the biggest sinner. [laughter] Go ahead and … go ahead and … a lot of people are pointing at each other, so it feels a bit weird to point at a person you that think would be the biggest sinner. In fact, in a lot of churches today, there are a lot of leaders who are going to say, “We don’t even call people sinners. We don’t want to make people feel bad about themselves. We don’t want to talk about sin, and we don’t want to call people sinners. We just want to encourage people. We want to uplift people. We want to make people feel better about themselves,” which in some respects is good news, because we do need encouragement, and there are a lot of people that are discouraged, and a good encouraging message is important. But, if we don’t talk about sin, the reality of our sin nature, and it’s destructive power and it’s eternal consequences, then we, as the church, are doing perhaps the most incredible disservice to people that we could ever do with our entire lives. We water this down if we pretend like it is not a big deal. We are preaching a very, very dangerous message.
Some examples. You look around today and what is really, really scary is that, it is becoming increasingly difficult to distinguish between people that are believers and people that are not believers just from the outside. You look at the actions and the lifestyles. For example, if you look at studies today, you will find that just as many, if not more, Christians divorce as do non-Christians, and it should not be that way. If you look at generosity and how much people give, studies show that non-Christians are just as generous, and some studies say more generous than those who call themselves believers. You think about it. If you look at my life from the outside, and there is little or no difference about the way I do life than say, someone who doesn’t claim Christ, and there is no difference on the outside, at some point, you are going to have to ask yourself, “Is there a real difference on the inside?” What’s the problem today in the church world? I think part of the problem is that so many people today want to add Christ to their lives, kind of like a little add-on. “Yeah, I’m still cool hip. I’m still doing everything I want to do, and yeah, Jesus is my home boy, too.” Okay. We want to add Christ without subtracting sin. We want all of the benefits of calling ourselves a believer, but we don’t want anything that Jesus teaches to really affect the way that we do everyday life. We want a, we want a revival in our hearts without repentance in our lives. We want to add Christ without subtracting sin. Spiritual maturity, what is it? What is it? Write this down. Spiritual maturity isn’t just how much we know, but how much we obey. It’s not just, “Hey, dude, I want this Bible study, you know, and I memorized all of these verses. And I’ve been to this kind of Bible study, and I know all this about Christianity and about God and about Jesus.” Spiritual maturity isn’t just how much we know up here, but how much we obey, how much we live out, and wouldn’t you agree that most people who call themselves Christians have been educated way beyond their level of obedience. We know all this stuff, but we don’t live it. Urban legends.
Today, we are going to talk about some very serious spiritual myths, urban legends about sin. There are three of them that we will study. The first urban legend about sin, and you are going to hear this all the time when you come across people is, people will say this. Number one, they will say, “I’m not a bad person. You know, there are a lot of bad people in the world, but you know, generally, I am a pretty good person. Yeah, people by nature, they are pretty good.” Are you ready for this? “You are a very, very bad person. You are a sinner!” Welcome to LifeChurch.TV, where our role is to make you feel good about yourself. Haha … I mean, I’m a sinner. You’re a sinner. We are born with a sin nature, separated and bent toward sinfulness. We are, by nature, sinful people. In fact, this is what scripture says, I John 1:8. All of our campuses, you guys help me out. The Bible says that, “If we claim to be without,” what? “If we claim to be without sin,” what do we do? “We deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us.” The Bible says that there is no one that does good. We are sinful human beings, and we have to recognize that. If we don’t, we are in great spiritual danger. I will explain it like this. There was a guy one day that was in the dessert, and he was dying of thirst, and all he wanted was a glass of water, and so he went climbing over hill after hill after hill, looking for anyone, anything that had water. And all of a sudden in the distance, he saw a guy and the guy was screaming out, “Free neckties … free neckties …” and the thirsty guy looked at him as if to say, “Why in the world would I ever want a necktie?” The necktie guy offered him, “Hey, would you like a free necktie?” and he said, “Get out of my way!” The thirsty guy climbed over another hill, and there in the distance was the most beautiful fine dining restaurant you have ever seen. [laugh] Yeah, I know. Doesn’t make sense, okay? It’s a preacher story. They don’t have to make sense. Right? So, this guy goes up to the fine dining restaurant, and there is the fancy waiter guy, server guy, outside the door, and he said, “Can I just come in? I just need a drink of water.” And the guy looked at him and said, “I’m sorry, but you can’t come in without a necktie.” Work with me, okay?
If you don’t see your need for a necktie, you are not going to want a necktie. If you are taking notes, write this down. Unless we see our selves as sinners, we will not see our need for a Savior. Unless we don’t recognize that we are separated from God by our sinfulness, we will not see our need for a relationship with the Son of God, Jesus Christ, the Savior. So many of us, it feels good to say, “I’m not that bad of a person,” so we will compare ourselves with other people. We’ll watch the news and go, “Dude, that guy who just got arrested, he’s bad. She’s a mess. Can you believe what she did? She’s bad. I’m not that bad.” When we compare ourselves to people, we don’t feel that bad, but when we compare ourselves to a holy God, all of a sudden we realize this about ourselves. Isaiah 64:6, scripture says that, “All of our righteous acts,” everything that we have ever done that is right and holy and pure, all of that added up together are like what? Would you say that phrase out loud? “They are like filthy rags.” Now, how bad is that. Well, actually, in the Hebrew language, these filthy rags, what they are referring to very, very literally, I know this is disgusting. I’m sorry I have to say it, but they are referring to the rags that a woman would use during her minstrel cycle. Ugh. Okay? Your best attempt at righteousness is like that. In other words, it’s a very polite way of saying, “You nasty!” Okay? Our best attempt at righteousness in the eyes of God falls incredibly short. “I’m not a bad person.” No, no, no, no, no. We are very, very sinful in the eyes of God, and unless we recognize that, we are not going to see our need for Jesus.
Urban legend number two, if you are taking notes, and this is so common, in fact, I would guess that most of you probably believe this, and that is the legend that all sin is the same. All sin is the same. Now, why is this legend so common today? It is common because people will use this legend to justify their own sinfulness. What will you hear? You will hear this. You will hear, “Hey, who are you to judge me, Christian person? You’re a sinner, too, and, and my sin is no worse than your sin. All sin is the same.” In fact, a lot of people will say, “Well, doesn’t God say that all sin is the same?” Actually, God never says that. Now, when is all sin the same? And let me be very, very clear, all unforgiven sin is the same in that it separates us from a holy God. The punishment for unforgiven sin is the same, and that is hell. All sin does separate us from God. Let me be very clear about that, but the consequences, both on earth and in eternity for our actions are not the same. If you are taking notes, write this down. Our obedience, or our disobedience, it influences three things. First of all, it influences our rewards in Heaven. If you are obedient and you do some right things, scripture says you will be rewarded in Heaven, and that is very, very good news. Our obedience, or our disobedience, secondly, it influences punishment in hell. Now, let me just say first of all that hell is a very real place that you don’t want to go and you don’t want anybody to go there. It’s more horrible than you can ever imagine, but scripture is clear that there are some actions that people will commit against the heart of God that will lead to a more severe punishment in a place called hell. Okay?
Third thing, if you are taking notes, is this. Our obedience or disobedience, it also influences consequences on earth. There are some sins that you can commit that aren’t going to wreck your life as fast. There are other sins that you commit on earth that they are going to, they are going to hurt very, very badly very, very quickly. For example, let’s say that I was late to church today and so I was going five miles over the speed limit and blew through a light that was just turning red, got pulled over, got a ticket. I sinned. Chances are pretty good you’d forgive me. I could pay the fine. I could still drive, and chances are, I could continue to be your pastor. If, on the other hand, let’s just say I got a wild hair one day. I was bored. I stole all the money from the church, went to a foreign country, and joined a naked co-ed skydiving club. Haha. Okay? First of all, that’d be nasty, but second of all, I would no longer be your pastor. There would be more severe consequences for that sin than for the sin of speeding. There are different consequences for our sin, both on earth, and eternally. Let’s look at a couple of examples from the word of Jesus. Luke 12:47-48, Jesus said, “The servant who knows his master’s will and does not do what his master wants will be beaten with,” how many blows? Say it out loud. “He will be beaten with many blows.” If you know the right thing to do and you don’t do it, there is a severe punishment. But, verse 48 says, “The one who does,” what? Say it out loud. “The one who, the one who does not know and does things deserving punishment will be beaten with,” how many blows? “With not many, but few.” Different levels of punishment. Old Testament, there were eleven sins that were worthy of the death penalty. There were hundreds that were not, but eleven, if you committed any one of these eleven, Old Testament says you deserved to die. New Testament, I Timothy 3 and Titus 1, they show us certain actions that would forbid a person to be involved in church leadership. Different consequences. Jesus, again, Luke 20:46-47, Jesus said, “Be aware of the teachers of the religious law! For they love to parade in flowing robes (Look how holy I am) and have everyone bow down to them as they walk into the marketplaces. (The religious righteous have just arrived. Bow down to me, I am so holy. Okay?) But, Jesus said, they shamelessly cheat widows out of their property. (Okay, they have an outward view of being religious, but inwardly, they are hypocrites.) Because of this, Jesus said, their punishment will be,” what? “Their punishment will be greater.”
Urban legend number one, “I’m not a bad person.” Yes, we all are. Urban legend number two, “All sin is the same.” Yes, all unforgiven sin separates us from God, but all sin is not the same. Number three, and this is played out almost every day in lives across the world, and this is the legend that people believe, “Well, shoot! I’ve already sinned, so I might as well continue. I’ve already blown it in this area, so what the heck. I might as well keep on going.” Where will you see this? Let’s just say I’ve got a young boy, a young girl, and they believe God’s standards of righteousness and they say, “You know what? We are going to wait until we are married to share in the gift of love making.” They really, really mean this. And then, boy and girl meet, and they get the tingly-winglies, goose bump feelings, watch the extra squirts of cologne, sniff ... “She smells so good,” and her leg with no hair touches his leg with hair, and feels good, and next thing you know, they give away their virginity. Huh, blew it. “Well, since we’ve already done it, we might as well keep on a going.” And you will see people who had made a decision early on, “I will be a virgin when I marry,” and because they blew it at a certain age, they’ll have eleven sexual partners before they get married.
Where else will you see it? For me, before I was a Christ Follower, I wanted to make good grades in school, but I knew I would never, ever cheat … until the first day that I did. Cheated once, cheated again, and again, and again, and again. I already did it once, might as well keep on going. We know we are not supposed to look lustfully at something, so we don’t. One day we are on the computer, and oh, ho, ho, ho, ho. And we do, we’ve already done it once, might as well keep on doing it.
II Peter 2:20 says this … Some of you on our campuses, right now, you are going to relate to the power and the truth of this verse. Scripture says this, “If you have escaped the corruption of the world by knowing our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ (you have met the freedom of Christ), and you are again,” what? Say it out loud, at all of our campuses, “You are again entangled in it and,” what? “And you are … you are overcome.” Scripture says you are what? Say it out loud, “You are worse off at the end than you were at the beginning.” You know the life and the power and the forgiveness of Jesus, but you step back into the destructive power of sin. You will be worse off than you were even a long time ago. That’s why this next principle is true. Write this down. The most miserable people in the world are not non-Christians, but instead, Christians living in sin. Some of you, right now, you know this. The most miserable people in the room right now are not those who are not believers in Christ and doing whatever they want. It is those who are followers of Christ who step back into the destructive power of sin, and you are miserable, and you know it, and you ache because everyone else thinks that you are okay, but on the inside, you are dying in your sin. Why is sin so destructive? Because it is incredibly progressive in nature. It may seem small and inconsequential one moment, but then it grows, and it grows, and it grows, and it grows, and it kills, fulfilling the message of the evil one who came to steal, kill, and destroy everything that matters to the heart of God. It is progressive. I will explain it like this. This is the year that we are retiring our year above-ground pool at our house. It needs to be retired. I’ve convinced our kids that an above-ground pool is the best pool. They feel sorry for all of you with those trashy, cheap, in-ground pools. Haha. Okay? They just, they feel like you just … they pray for you. So anyway, my above-ground pool … I’ll go out there and I’ll replace more liners than I can count. What will happen is, I go out and one summer, I went out and the water level is down about that far, and so I filled it back up, and the next day, I went back out there, and the water level is down again, and I was like, “That’s weird.” I did that several days in a row, and then I thought to myself, “Hmmm, self. There must be a hole in the bottom of that there pool.” And so I got on my goggles and played like I was aqua man and went down to the bottom of the pool, searching for the hole, and I finally found this little hole. I went to the store and I bought this little pool patch thing you can put on it, and I tried to patch the pool. I say tried, because I’ve not successfully fixed anything in my whole life. Haha. Amy is like, “Why don’t you call the pool guys?” I said, “I can do this,” and she just laughed. I can’t fix anything. If you ever see me underneath a car, my legs hanging out, looks like I’m working on it and you think I’m fixing it, I’m not. Call 911, something bad has happened, okay? That’s just the way it is. So, I tried to fix this little pool, and I’m down there working on it. I looked at little hole and it was about this big. I was looking at it, and it was kind of looking at me. I thought, “Is this hole getting bigger?” And it looked bigger all of a sudden, then bigger, then about the size of a dime. Then it looked like a nickel, then it looked like a quarter, then … boom! Boom! Ha … it takes about 24 hours to fill one of those suckers up with water. It takes about 24 seconds for one of them to empty whenever they explode, and to wash me out the side of the pool in this river of water [laugh]. It’s progressive. It starts small, and it grows … and it grows, and it grows until it leads to destruction.
James 1:14-15, don’t forget this verse. “Each one of us is tempted when, by his own evil desire, he is dragged away and enticed. Then, after desire has conceived, it gives birth to,” what? “It gives birth to sin, and when sin is full-grown, it gives birth to death.” What’s the problem? People want to add Christ without subtracting sin. They want revival without repentance. Spiritual maturity, it is not just how much we know. It is how much we obey. The problem is, many of us have been educated way beyond our level of obedience. What do we do? Scripture says that we repent. Everybody say, “Repent.” One, two, three, “Repent.” All of our campuses, one more time. “Repent.” Okay? The church of Laodocea in Revelation, Revelation 3:19, Jesus was talking to this church, and this church is like a lot of us today. It was full of people that had an outward view of faith, kind of an outward look about them. They looked very religious, and they, they had all these material things, but scripture says they were very, very lukewarm. Jesus said this to them, He said, “Those whom I love, I rebuke and discipline.” He said to them, “So be earnest, and,” what? Say it out loud, He said, “Be earnest and repent.” One more time, “Be earnest and repent.” It is all about the “re …” What do we do? We “re.” “Re” just means to go back to. “Pent,” what is the penthouse in the apartments? It is the highest place in a building, okay? We go from the lower ways that we have been sucked into by the evil one, and we return to the higher ways of God. We repent. “Re” turn, “re,” “re”. Years ago, I did a word study on words beginning with “re,” and I found out all these different “re” words, and I put them together in one sentence. I want you to hear this sentence, and more than hear it, I hope that you will live it and experience it. It’s all about the “re.” It’s all about the “re.” It’s all about the “re.” When you rebuke the enemy, and return to God by repenting of your sins and receiving Christ, your spirit will be reborn, your mind renewed, your life will be rebuilt. You will be reconciled by the redeeming work of Jesus Christ, and while you rejoice, you will reap the rewards of a relationship with Jesus, causing real revival to break free. It’s all about the “re,” returning to the ways of God.
What do people say about Christians? “Just a bunch of hypocrites. They say one thing and do another.” We want to add Christ without subtracting sin. Can I just say to you, when you really experience the freedom of Christ, you don’t want to live in that sin anymore, and if there is no noticeable difference from the outside, at some point, you have to question is there the reality of His presence on the inside. When is the last time your heart has broken because you sinned against God? When is the last time that you have worshipped and not been able to stop, because God has more grace than your greatest sin? It’s not a game. We’ve got one shot, one shot. Sin is not a joke. It is not something to avoid. It is something to address. Let God deal with it. When you rebuke the enemy and return to God by repenting of your sins and receiving Christ, your spirit will be reborn, your mind will be renewed, your life rebuilt. You will be reconciled by Christ’s redeeming work, and while you rejoice, you will reap the rewards of relationship, causing revival to break free.
All of our campuses, let us repent before God for our sinfulness. “Father, we thank You for Your grace that is greater than anything that we could ever imagine, and we thank You that Your mercy is available to those who are in Christ. God, we thank You that new life is available to those who would turn to You today.”
All of our campuses, here’s what I would like for you to do today, and we are going to take this even further in our LifeGroups, but I want you, in your own mind right now, to give a name to the dominant sin that is affecting your life. Give a name to it. It may be pride. It may be greed. It may be rebellion. It may be lust. It may be anger. It may be unforgiveness. It may be a rebellious heart. It may be a critical attitude. It may be the desire to control. Give a name to it. Give a name to it, and we are going to take that to God, and we are going to humbly ask Him to forgive us. We are going to worship Him for forgiving us, and then we are going to ask Him to take that away, remove that barrier so we can be more intimate with Him, and more faithful to Him in this world.
At all of our campuses, as you reflect on it right now, what is God showing you? You say, “Yes, God is showing me one, or maybe two sins that I really need to let Him deal with.” As you grow closer to God, He will reveal your sin. He will lovingly convict you. You will become more aware. Let’s take it to Him and let Him deal with it. All of our campuses today, that’s you and you see a weakness, a sin, a destructive power separating and hindering your relationship with God, would you lift your hands high right now? Just all over the place. All over the place. “Father, we ask in the name of Jesus that You would forgive us for these sins. God, we thank You that, in Christ, there is forgiveness, and God, we owe You all of our life because of Your grace and because of Your forgiveness. God, we confess this to You, and we thank You that whoever confesses sin to You, God, You are faithful and just to forgive us and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”
Now, as you are praying today, don’t just confess to God, but I am going to challenge you to confess to someone else. We confess to God for forgiveness, but remember, we confess to people for healing. The scripture says, “Confess your sins to one another and pray for one another that you might be healed.” Right now, decide who you are going to confess to. It might be your LifeGroup. It might be a prayer partner. It might be a college buddy, a teammate. It might be your spouse. Decide right now who you are going to confess to, and commit that to God. Say, “God, I am going to confess, so someone else can pray for me.”
“Now, God, we ask that You would set us free from these sins.” As you continue praying today, there are a lot of you here that your story may be similar to mine. I grew up going to church some, and I called myself a Christian like most nice people do, but the truth is, I didn’t know the life and the reality and the power of Jesus Christ. I called myself a Christian, but I was not one. I was deceived. I was not following Jesus. Others of you, and just the thought that you are in church is like, “Wow!” You know, you are afraid the walls aren’t going to fall down on you or something, but right now, you are feeling very, very drawn to God, and you are not sure what that is. Let me just explain very clearly that that is the Spirit of God, who has been working on you since the day you were born to draw you into a relationship with God. You might think to yourself, “Well, okay, maybe I want to come to God, but there are some things that I need to clean up first.” Let me just tell you very bluntly, you can never get clean enough. You will never, ever, ever achieve that status, so you come to Him today just as you are. That’s why God sent His Son, Jesus, because you needed a Savior. Jesus is the Son of God in the flesh, born of a virgin, without that same sin nature that we inherited at birth. That’s why He lived a sinless life. That’s why He was able to be the perfect sacrifice for us on the cross, when He died for our sins, but He didn’t stay dead. God lifted Him from the ground, raised Him from the dead, and now scripture says, “Whoever calls on his name will be saved.” You cannot be saved by good works, by religious activities. The Bible says it is only by the grace of God, through faith in Jesus, that you can be forgiven and saved.
All of our campuses, there are those of you, God’s been working. God has brought you here. Some of you, you have called yourself Christians, but you realize, “I’m really not following Christ. Jesus, save me.” Others of you, the weight of your sin is very real. It is a heavy burden. Today, you are handing it to God. Say, “Forgive me. Change me. Make me like new.” At that moment, you will be forgiven, and you will become a brand new creation. “I turn from my sins. I turn toward You. Jesus, save me. Forgive me. Make me brand new.” That’s your prayer today, all of our campuses, “Take my whole life, Jesus. I give it to You. Be the Savior, be the Lord of my life. I want to be a disciple of Yours.” If that’s your prayer today, lift your hands high right now. All of our campuses, lift them up and leave them up in the air, if you will. Let me just meet you eye-to-eye. Right back over there, God bless you. Others of you, right over there. Two hands up saying, “Yes, God.” Others of you. “Yes, Jesus, I surrender.” Right back here in this section. Right back over there. God bless you. Others of you saying, “That’s my prayer.” Right over there, surrendering your life to Jesus. “Jesus, take over. Forgive me. Change me.” Others of you, “Forgive me of my sin. Be the Lord of my life.” Right back over here in this section. Right there in he middle. Right around there, sweetheart, God bless you. Right over here on this side. Back there toward the back. Others, “Yes, Jesus, forgive me of my sins. Change me.”
Pray with those around you. Just pray out loud. “Heavenly Father, I am a sinner, and I need a Savior. Jesus, forgive me. Make me brand new. Make me like You. Because You died for me, fill me with Your Spirit, so I can live for You. Take my whole life. Make it Yours. In Jesus’ name I pray.”
