← Lakepointe Church with Josh Howerton
Lakepointe Church with Josh Howerton
The Lie That Keeps "Good People" Out of Heaven | There Is More | Pastor Josh Howerton
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Hey, guys, thanks for checking out this Bible teaching. Every week, we release a podcast that corresponds to the sermon. It's like a little bit of a deeper dive where we hit some things that didn't make it into the sermon, some theological concepts. We talk about things that are going on in our culture and how to think about them from a biblical perspective. We call that podcast Live Free. An episode releases every Monday that corresponds to the sermon. If you would like to check out Live Free, just go to the Lake Pointe YouTube channel and look for the podcast tab there. We'll see you at Live Free. Now enjoy this Bible teaching. All right, Come on, Lake Point family. Amen. All right, here we go. Here we go. Hey, let me just go and do it one more time. Can we celebrate? I think it's like 3,000 people graduating rooted this weekend. Come on, man. Let's go, let's go, let's go, let's go. Amen. I see you. I see you. I got my rooted group right down here. That's our little rooted group. Come on, man. Amen. That's awesome. I got my rooted group here in this service with me, so I'm gonna preach a little extra hot. It's gonna be fun. I'm excited. I also wanna do this. I'm gonna take a risk. Where's that couple that I fist bumped on the way in? Who? You're starting merge this week. Where you at? I need to okay this dude right over here. Hang on. I want to give this guy this. Especially the dude. An applause, but both of them. During the Love Life series in week one, I was telling Christian dudes that love Jesus to look for girls that were like, greeters that were servant of the house and, like, just go up there and ask them out, man. And that dude did that. Week one of Love Life, and now they're in merge exploring marriage. Come on, man. In Jesus name. There you go. Come on, man. I press you to ask permission before I did that, but. So heads up to all the single dudes in Lake Point that actually love Jesus and are going to act honorable with girls. I need you doing that a lot more often. Right? Single ladies. Is that true? No. Is that. I'm never doing what I just did again. I'm never trying. No. No more assists at Lake Point ever again. Y' all have been hanging. Hey, I do want to keep you. Give you a heads up. We got to. I want to remind you of this. So for years, what people have always told me is, hey, Pastor Josh, the weekend after Thanksgiving, all my lost Family members come in, and it would be really awesome if we had something that was like, super evangelistic. Share the gospel with them. Okay, so we test drove this last year. Gonna test drive it again this year. We'll see if it actually sticks. The weekend after Thanksgiving, November 29th and 30th, we're gonna kick off the Christmas series with one week and one week only of Christmas at the movies. It's gonna be awesome. Like, I reverse engineered the entire message from exactly what you would want if you had a family member coming in that either didn't know Jesus or like, you know, walked away for a little bit. And I don't want to help them. Like, the whole thing is exactly for that person. And it's just. It's going to be fun. So heads up. That's November 29th and 30th. That's get all your one mores there. And then again, I'm just going to keep giving hints. If you're not willing to even put in an invite to get somebody there. This is a little hint you might be with the French call les enpetemps. Okay, that's it. That's a little. Okay. That's the only time I'll ever speak French ever, ever, ever, ever, ever. Okay. All right, here's where we are. We are in week. I don't know, I think it's like 36 of a series that we're just calling. There is more. Where we are preaching verse by verse through the book of Acts. Why are we preaching verse by verse through the book of Acts? Because the whole book of Acts is this. It's a unique outpouring of the Spirit and thousands of people get saved, a whole bunch of churches get planted, and. And the gospel goes forward. And if you've been paying attention around Lake Point for a little bit, like, man, just look around. Like, it's not every day you get to sit in the middle of miracles. And what we are seeing right now in our church is exactly those things, like, man, unique outpouring of the Spirit, thousands of people getting saved, Gospel going forward, planting churches here and all around the globe. And whenever that happens, what we want to do is we just want to grab onto the word of God and go, man, God, what do you want us to do? Because we are men and women submitted to the lordship of King Jesus. And we want to live our lives under an open heaven for his glory. And so we're just going verse by verse through the thing. And today we're getting to Acts, chapter 24. Now I want to open this up with. I'm a big CS Lewis fan. CS Lewis one time he wrote up, he wrote a little short story and he imagined a scene where Satan has a little demon all staff meeting and he imagine, he said, imagine a scene where he and his demons were having this discussion and Satan, he says, I'm a read it. Satan cried out in a loud voice, who will go into the earth and persuade men to accomplish the ruin and damnation of their souls? What message will you use? He asked. How will you say it so that men and women, boys and girls, will turn away from the things of God? The first demon stepped forward and responded, I will tell them that there is no heaven. Satan frowned and replied, no, that will never work because the book of truth about heaven talks about it and promises it to be a place where there will be no tears, death or pain. People will never believe that there is no heaven. A second spirit glided forward and said, I will go and tell them that there is no heaven, hell. And again Satan responded, that's not going to work either. If nothing else, the conscience of man convinces him that someday there must be a reckoning for his deeds and actions. In fact, the book of truth has more to say about hell than it does heaven. And we could never convince them there is no hell. So there was a long pause and then Satan added, I need a message that will appeal to all classes ages. After a long pause, another dark spirit glided forward and said, I have the answer. I will go for you. I will not tell the people there is no heaven and I will not tell them there is no hell. I will convince them there is no hurry and that they can decide tomorrow, every day for the rest of their lives. Today in Acts 24, you might read the most tragic story of anyone in the entire book of Acts because you are going to hear about a man who believed in a form of heaven. And he believed in a form of hell. And he spent years of his life hearing preaching from the most anointed preacher in the entire New Testament. But that man died in his sins and he is in hell today. Not because he didn't believe in heaven or hell, but because he did believe that there was no hurry. Now this is one of these passages. I gotta get like a little running start before I jump into it. So this is the previously on Yellowstone part. So in Acts 22 and Acts 23, the apostle Paul has just in these two chapters, he's been attacked by the Jewish people. In these two passages, because for reason, I'm going To show you here in about 60 seconds. The Jewish people at that time, they viewed Paul as a heretic. They thought that he was preaching a heretical gospel. And so 40 Jewish dudes in Acts 22 and 23, these guys, this is actually a little interesting. Side note, they were Jewish assassins. Most Bible scholars think they were the guys called Sicari, these little Jewish assassin dagger guys. Which. Side note, little fun fact. That's where that movie that you should not watch with your kids called Sicario, that's where that movie got its name from. These dudes. So 40 of them make a little blood pact in Acts 22 and 23. And they're like, we won't eat or drink anything until that guy Paul is dead because we gotta shut him up to stop preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ. Now, weird little thing happens. It quote unquote, just so happens that Paul's nephew. Stay with me. Paul's nephew, he hears about the plot, tells Paul. Paul tells these Roman officials, and they surround him with 470 Roman soldiers and stick him in. This is like 20, I'm joshing this thing. Instead, they stick him in witness protection. They put him in a little witness protection program and then they. So these 470 dudes, they escort him to this area called Caesarea in Judea, to a Roman governing official, a dude named Felix. Now, that's not Felix the cat. If you're older than me, that's not Felix Hernandez. If you like baseball, that's not my thing as much. And somebody told me this week there's a really famous Korean rapper named Felix. Not her either. Okay, this is Felix, the governor of Judea. Now this is interesting. This is the. We're going to, we're going to nerd out for about 30 more seconds. This is the only person in the, in Roman history that starts as a slave in Rome and ends as a governor. So if you ever get this thrown at you as a Christian. Oh, you can't believe the Bible because the Bible condoned slavery. I don't have time to talk about it. We go, we go deep dive on that on the podcast this week. You need to understand that thing. But this is a guy who starts as a slave, ends as a Roman governor. Now he is married. Just keep, keep this in your head. All this, you're going to need all this. He's married to a woman named Drusilla. Okay? Now, Drusilla comes from this little family line that's prominent in the Bible. They were called the Herodians. The Herodians are Like if you took Game of Thrones and Burning man and they had a baby, that's like the Herodians, like, just a rough, rough, rough family. Okay, rough. Drusilla's Jewish now, check this out. This is interesting. She's the daughter of King Herod Agrippa the first. Listen. The grandson of. Of King Herod Agrippa the Great. Now, for the super Bible nerds, you're gonna be going, whoa, whoa. King Herod Agrippa the Great. If you go Back to Luke 2 and Matthew 1, King Herod Agrippa the Great. That's the Herod that issues the decree to kill all the Jewish boys in Nazareth two years and under. Because he's trying to kill Jesus. Because he is a king, instinctively knows that Jesus is a threat to his power. But because he's a king. But we know Jesus is a king of kings, and he knows that. And so he's like, bro, that guy's a threat. And he's like, I gotta get rid of that guy is what he's doing. Okay, so Paul here is standing in front of the great granddaughter of the guy who tried to kill Paul's Lord that he's preaching here in Acts 24. Now, I'm not gonna read everything that happens up to this, but this is how this chapter closes when Paul is presenting the Gospel to Herod and Drusilla. Now at all of our campuses, would you do this? I just like the OG Church kid in me just likes this. I think it's good for us. Would you please, if you are physically able, stand out of reverence for the reading of God's Word? Four verses. Here. Here's what it says. It says, several days later, Felix came with his wife Drusilla, who is Jewish, and sent for Paul and listened to him as he spoke about faith in Christ Jesus. As Paul talked about. This is the whole sermon right here. Watch this. Paul talked about righteousness, self control, and the judgment to come. Felix was afraid. Really interesting. The Greek word there is that he literally began to tremble and said, that's enough for now. You may leave. When I find it convenient, I will send for you. At the same time, he was hoping that Paul would offer him a bribe. So he sent for him frequently and talked with him. When two years had passed, Felix was succeeded by Porcius Festus. But because Felix wanted to grant a favor to the Jews, he left Paul in prison. And all God's people said, amen. You can have a seat. All right, now, here's the thing. So Paul talks. I'm going to be very brief here. Paul talks to Felix about three things. Righteousness, self control, and the coming judgment. Now here's the question that when I'm reading this, I'm like, bro, why these things? Why righteous? There's a lot of stuff you get talked about. Why righteousness, self control, and the coming judgment. Well, I want to walk us through these, and you're going to see exactly why. And these are the things that you need, okay? So number one, number one, you must understand, Listen, you must understand what God says about righteousness. You must understand what God says about righteousness. Now let's do a little. Let's put our thinking cats for a second here. Christianity's view of righteousness is different from every religion, worldview and philosophy that has ever existed. It's categorically different in the most important way. Here's how. In Christianity, or in every other religion, worldview and philosophy that's ever existed, righteousness is something you must have, but it has to be achieved. Okay? So in Islam, it's the how devoted are you to the five pillars? In Buddhism, it's how stringent are you along the Eightfold path in Mormonism? And listen, I love you. And so I'm gonna keep saying this even though I get a ton of pushback every time I say it in Mormonism. And Mormonism is a cult. The difference between a false religion and a cult is a false religion is just a totally different religion. A cult is another religion pretending to be Christianity. That's what Mormonism does. Mormonism has a totally different view of how someone gets to heaven and receives righteousness than Christianity. In fact, I'm just gonna read a quote from Mormon doctrine. Through this covenant relationship, they say followers of Christ. And when they mean Christ, they mean something different than Christians do. Followers of Christ are assured salvation from the eternal consequences of sin. And if they are obedient, there it was. So it's something that in Mormonism is achieved. And now some people are here at some of our campuses. You may go on, yeah, get all those religions. But I'm a secular person. Can I just tell you, if you watch the lives of secular people, they are just as devoted to righteousness that must be achieved as other religions are in secular quote unquote religion. Secular humanism. It looks like this. It's like, be devoted to this cause, wave this flag. Put the pronouns in your bio. March for this activist thing. And if you do those, you're a good person. And if not, do better. That's kind of the vibe. Okay? You can keep going. Orthodox Judaism, adherence to the law. This is what Felix and Drusilla are going at. Legalistic Christianity, it may feel like this. Don't drink, smoke, cuss, chew, hang out with those who do. It doesn't matter. All these things. In every other religion, worldview, philosophy, righteousness is something that you achieve. But listen, Christianity is categorically different. Because in Christianity, whereas religions divide the world into good guys and bad guys, Christianity divides the world into bad guys and Jesus. And he's the only good guy. And so what we do. What we do is we're like, hey, bro, good people don't go to heaven. Listen, good people don't go to heaven because there aren't any. There aren't any. Good people don't go to heaven. Forgiven people go to heaven. And so what we believe, this is the Christian message, is that righteousness literally cannot be achieved. Work your way up. It's something that can only be received because the Son of God came down. He lived a perfect life. He died a perfect death, not just for you, but instead of you. And when you place your faith in him, he takes the righteousness that he earned and he clothes you with that righteousness. And now when God looks at you, he doesn't see your sinful flaws and he sees Jesus. Righteous perfection, it's received. That's your only hope. This is what we say. The Westminster Catechism just says, that's our only hope in life. And death is what it means. Okay, now, I just need to do this just really fast because I want to tell you exactly what I think Paul did for Felix and Drusilla. Because some of you are like, so here's what the Bible says when it comes to righteousness. Here's the Bible. There is no one righteous. No. Not one book of Romans. There is no one righteous. No, not one. Now, whenever I say that, there's always some dude. It's like, yeah, I am, bro. I got it. I'm doing real good. And people say stuff like this, hey, good. Your average. Drink a beer. Drink a beer. Watch a game. Religious dude in Texas, what he thinks is like, bro, good people go to heaven. I'm a fairly good fella. Good stuff outweighs the bad stuff. I'm probably gonna get in 7 out of 10. That's how he thinks. Okay. For real. I didn't mean. That'd be funny. They didn't laugh last service. Y' all are great. That's great. All right, well, if that's you, just real quick, I wanna give you A test. And I want you to take the same test that Felix and Drusilla had to take real quick. Okay? So here's what Paul did. I think he went back to their scriptures, Old Testament, ten Commandments. This is basic morality. All I'm gonna do, I'm gonna give you only four of them. I'm gonna give you the same four I think he gave to Felix and Drusilla. I want you to see how you do. You keep your own score, but you got to keep your score to yourself. Okay, so here we go. And so we're going. Ten Commandments. And I like to do this because I just like teaching my people the Bible. And I'm going to try to teach you just a couple hand motions to help you remember these. Okay? So number one, here's what you got to know about Felix. I'm going to talk about this in a second. The Drusilla girl he's married to is his second marriage, and it started in an adulterous relationship. I'm going to go deeper on that here in a second. So. So it starts right here. Now, will you do this? Hold up seven fingers. Even take your fingers out of your armpits and just, you know, do the thing. Oh, seven fingers. Okay. Seventh commandment is you is. Watch this. Seventh Commandment. So here's all these people. Here's two other people, and they're going, duh, duh, duh, duh, duh, duh, duh, duh. You should not commit adultery. Seventh commandment. Now, you can explain that at your kids later. That's what that means. Okay? Now, some of you are like. For some of you, honestly, that one hits the hardest because actually, you know, you have committed that sin. And the whole reason you stumbled in here is because you know you're a sinner and you know you're in need of a savior. And I would say you are not far from the kingdom of God. Okay? But then a lot of you, here's what you just did. You went, oh, bro, awesome. I'm one for one, bro. I'm doing good. Okay, well, here's your problem, is what Jesus said in the Sermon on the Mount. He said, if you've even looked lustfully at a person in your eyes, thought a lustful thought in your head, Jesus said, it's not about hands, it's about heart. If you've ever done that in your heart, he said, you are guilty of adultery. You're a Seventh Commandment breaker. So I'm only going to ask people who are 18 years old and up. Because it's weird and creepy if the other people do it. But I'm going to ask this. If you are 18 years old or older, and if at any time in your life, even one time in your life, you have ever thought even one lustful thought, had one lustful inclination, taken one lustful glance at anyone, at any time in your life, even one time, would you please raise your hand loud and proud, okay, but look around, look around, look around. People with their hands up are the adulterers. People with their hands down are the liars.
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That's what you just got. So I. One. I probably got two commandments right there. It's one. You're over one. Some of you are over two already. So that's number one. Now here's the other thing about this Felix dude. He was also. You guys just need to know this. Like, my prediction is, you will see this firsthand at some point. Not exactly this. Throughout the Bible, politicians in the Bible hate clear Bible teachers. They hate them. So there was a dude when Felix was alive, he was a high priest named Jonathan who was honest about the unlawfulness of Felix's marriage. And what Felix did is he went gangster. And he orders Jonathan to be assassinated by the sicari in the middle of the temple. So he assassinates a high priest in the middle of the temple. Murder. Now do this. Where everybody do this. Hold up six fingers. I know you. I know a lot of the dudes are like, this is stupid. Just do it anyway. Do it anyway. Okay? Do it. Do it like this. Now, here's what it is. Put like a gun like this. That's. You shall not murder. You shall not murder. Six commandments, Sixth commandment. Now, some of you. Some of you are like, yes, man. Okay, I missed the first one, but I got the second one. Now, some of you are not even getting that. Mesquite Campus. You're not getting that over there. That's a joke. That's a joke. That's a joke. That's a joke. I love you. Hey, listen, we all give it up for Mesquite Campus. We love the Mesquite Campus. That's a joke. That's a joke, man. My favorite what the Mesquite Campus tells me is we're holy with a little bit of hood. That's what they tell me. Okay? That's what they tell me. Okay? Now again, some of you are like, bro, okay, I got one. But again, Jesus said in the Sermon on the Mount, if you have even hated your brother or sister if you've ever hated your brother or sister or even you've called them, fool had a heart to yell an expletive is actually what it does in the Sermon on the Mount. Then you're guilty of adultery. So let me ask you this. Have you ever been watching a game and a ref blows a super obvious PI call in the fourth quarter on your team and an explosive rage bubbles up out of you in the fourth quarter of the cal? Or have you ever been on i30 east trying to cross a bridge? What are you clapping for? Commandment breakers. I'm literally outing you as commandment breakers. That's what's happening. Well, listen, listen. Me too. Just unpastoral words. Just sort of want to. And what I'm saying is, if that's you, commandment breaker, you owe for two. Now, the other thing, you actually have it in this passage. Did you notice this Felix dude? He's like, I want to bribe. The reason he keeps pausing. He's like, I'm hoping he'll bribe me. Bribery is theft. Okay, now do this. Hold up nine fingers. Nine fingers. Then put one down and go to eight. Because in some countries, they chop off your finger if you steal something. 8th Commandment. I don't know if that's true, but it's really helpful for the hand motions. You shall not steal. You shall not steal. Now again, that's another one where a bunch of people are like, okay, man, Ms. Verse 2. Got that one. I don't steal. You're gonna say that, and then you go home and log into your parents Netflix account. What are you clapping for? Okay, Or. Or I'll say this. You say you don't steal. Why am I finding lake point pens at every restaurant in Dallas? I don't give away lake point pens. Y' all taking all my lake point pens. Our lake point pen budget is getting real high. Cause y' all a bunch of thieves. You're commandment breakers. You're eighth commandment breakers. So that's O for three. And then in this passage, you see it right here. Felix, he just openly lies. He's a duplicitous man. He says one thing, but he does another thing. Go to this one. Go to this one. Put your pinky back. Here's why I'm doing this. Cause you go. Here's how it works. Ninth commandment. You go from the eighth and you go, ha, ha, I lied. I do have a pinky. Commandment number nine. You shall not lie. You shall not lie. Now some of you are like, hey, man, you calling me a liar? Yep, I'm calling you a liar. I'm calling you a liar because you are a liar. Some of you. I got you on the first one where you didn't raise your hand. You, Kevin, you lied. The other one, for a lot of you, here's what's gonna happen in, like. Here's what's gonna happen, like, six weeks is your kids are gonna wake up on Christmas morning, and then you forgot to tell the grandparents, don't buy any noise, toys or screens, by the way, heads up. Tell the grandparents that. And then so your kids are all of a sudden, they're gonna turn on the screen, that little thing's gonna pop up that says, I have read all the terms and conditions. And you're gonna scroll, scroll, scroll, scroll, scroll, and check it, and you will not have read all the terms and conditions. Liar. Liar is what you are. Okay? So watch this. You are no different than Felix. You are 0 for 4. Listen to me. I mean this in all seriousness. There is no one righteous. No, not one. Not one person. So Paul comes to him. He's like, bro, you gotta understand righteousness. There are two ways for you to try to be righteousness. You can either try to achieve it on your way up by perfectly obeying 616 commandments, perfectly your entire life. And here's what's gonna happen to some of you even if you try to balance the equation, like, well, I wanna get more right than I got wrong. You remember in college you would get, like, just past the midterms, and then you'd be like, oh, I'm not gonna pass this class. You would get down and start doing all your math. What grade do I got to make on the final exam to pass the thing? And you would have an oh, no moment, because you would realize, I got to make 176% on a final to pass. Okay, well, listen, bro, I'm serious. Some of you little. Great. It's getting gray up there. Can I be real honest? I'm not joking. You're way past the midterms. And if you are honest with yourself about the grade you would have to make to make it up, you ain't going to get there. So you can either try to achieve it, or here's what you can do. We can receive it. We can receive it. And here's how you receive it. You put your faith in Jesus Christ. And in that moment. Watch. Listen. In that moment, you are what theologians called imputed with the righteousness of Christ. He takes his righteousness the Bible says at the cross, God made him who knew no sin to be sin for us. Why? So that in him we might become the righteousness of God. What that means is that when Jesus went to the cross and. And he had nails driven through his hands and he choked to death on his own blood, he was becoming all of the sin that you've ever committed in your life. All of it. Every affair, every abortion, every divorce, every theft, every lie. He became all of it. Why? So that if you put your faith in him, he became as you were, that you might become as he is. He makes a great exchange with you. You take my righteousness and I'll take your sin. And. And when you bend your knee to the lordship of Jesus, he makes that trade. He gets your sin, you get the righteousness of God. Righteousness can only be received. Come on, somebody, man. That's the best news we've ever heard. You can receive that righteousness is what he says. Okay, so Paul reasons with them about righteousness. I gotta hurry. Number two, he talks to them about self control. Okay? You must believe what God says about self control. Now, this is weird. Like, bro, why self control? This does sound weird. I think for two reasons. I'm gonna abrogate this real. Number one, he says it because. Think about this. Virtually every sin that you ever commit is downstream of a lack of self control. Gluttony, addiction, adultery, pornography, gossip, wrath, greed. All of them are because you had a desire and you did not exercise your ability to control or restrain. This is why Proverbs 25:28 says this like a city whose walls are broken through is a man who lacks self control. So think about this in the same way. If there's a city and it's got no defensive wall, the enemy can come in and steal, kill and destroy anytime he wants with no resistance. If you become a man or a woman with no self control, by the way, the book of Galatians, Galatians 5 says that self control is one of the fruits of the spirit. I didn't. This isn't in my notes, but it is my heart. A lot of charismatic people are like, oh, bro, the sign of being filled with the spirit is a prayer language. Can I say this? I am not very impressed with your prayer language. If you got no self control, one of the marks of the fruit of the spirit is self control. Galatians 5 is what it says. Okay, so number one, this is why. This is why. But then, number two, here's the other reason. I told you I would click on this so Felix and Drusilla, they got hit. They got. It's like very Jerry Springer in this thing. Felix and Drusilla have a background, all right? So this confusing. Stick with me. Felix's first wife was also named Drusilla. My brother had a type. He was into Drusillas, okay? His first wife was the granddaughter of two very famous people, Mark Antony and Cleopatra. Okay? But then I think she dies. Then he finds a second Drusilla, but she's married to another king. They start having an affair. And he eventually, in the midst of their affair, he entices her to divorce her husband, you know, come away with him in this adulterous relationship. And that's how their second marriage starts. And they essentially are like. So we're like, oh, brother. They're saying stuff like this. We couldn't help it. In the Roman Empire, they would say things like, the heart wants what it wants. In First Corinthians 7, written to Romans. What the Roman people were saying about sexuality and sex is they were saying things like, well, the food's meant for the stomach. Stomach for food. I mean, I can't help it, bro. They're going, when I got an appetite, when I'm hungry, I eat. When I'm thirsty, I drink. When I get the other kind of thirsty, you know, this is what they were doing. So I think Paul is there. Think about the spine of steel on this man. He's reasoning as a Christian with the great granddaughter of the guy who tried to kill Jesus. And here's what I think he was doing is Felix and Drusilla were saying, oh, what? That doesn't count as a sin because our desires were too strong. And we were born with these desires. And, you know, we. Who. Who could expect us not to act on these desires? And Paul, a man who cared about righteousness, comes. He says, actually, no. Like, let me talk to you about self control. Okay, now I have to just say this as a little aside. Like, I just want. Let me. Let me pastor my church for a second. This. It is interesting to me that the specific area of self control they lacked is the same area of self control our culture lacks. In the area of sex, sexuality. I'm just gonna use a big Bible word. I don't care what you think about it. The word fornication, that's like a Bible word. Okay? Now here's why I'm saying this. When I did the Love Life series three months ago, I read the emails. I pray with people in the lobby. Here's what I figured out Real quick, by the way, I'm going to shoot you real straight. Y' all going to have to loosen up for the next two minutes. What I realized real quick is that the biggest problem in our church, one of the problems in our church is that the single people in our church are having too much sex. And by that I mean any at all. And the married people in our church are not having enough. For real. I mean, for real, you're going to have to loosen up for the next few minutes. I mean that. So let me just like, let me just be clear about what the Bible teaches, because this is an area of self control that the Holy Spirit is urging you towards. Listen, because he loves you and he doesn't want you to destroy you. So what the Bible teaches is that word fornication just. The Bible is very, very clear that you should not have sex with anybody that you are not married to. You do not have sex with people that you think you're going to be married to that you wish you were married to, that you're someday going to be married to or that you used to be married to. What the Bible says is that you should not have sex with anybody that you are not currently married to. The sin, there is the sin. It's called fornication. That's what the Bible means. Now conversely, let me swing the other way for married people. And I mean this. The Bible gives you and me, listen, I'm in this with you. It gives us a command. 1 Corinthians 7 literally says to husbands and wives. It says wives. It says, husbands, give to your wives their conjugal rights. Because your body doesn't belong to you, it belongs to her. And then it says, wives, give to your husband his conjugal rights. Because your body doesn't belong to you, it belongs to him. First Corinthians 7. Now all the dudes who are new to the church are like, I like this church. Good church, good church. Just found my life verse. Going to put it on a coffee cup and get a tattoo right over here. That's what it says. Okay, so here's, Let me condense this first. Thessalonians 4. This is what the Lord is urging us towards as people who are consecrated to God. It is God's will that you should be sanctified. Big word just means holy. That you should avoid sexual immorality. The Greek word is porneia. That's where we get the English word pornography. It's a catch all term for any sexual sin. And whenever, listen, whenever God says, don't he means don't hurt yourself. That's what. He loves you. Okay. That each of you should. And here's why Paul's talking about self control. Should learn to control your. Your own body. What the Bible is saying, you're not an animal. You're not an animal. Animals live by raw instinct, raw desire. Side note, it should not surprise us that we have a generation that is plagued by sexual assault. Here's why this is insanity. You can't spend an entire generation teaching a generation they're nothing but purposeless animals and then be surprised when they act like animals. You can't do that. So. So he's saying you should learn to control your own body because you're not an animal in a way that is holy and honorable, not in passionate lust like the pagans who do not know God. So whenever people. Drusilla, Felix, like, we couldn't help it, man. Whenever we get these urges, we had to act on them. Let me just say this in a straightforward way. In our culture, people treat sex like it's like a human right? And you can't. Like, if you. If you can't express it in any way you want, you're going to die. Let me just say this in a straightforward way. You don't have to have sex. You're not doing it right now. Just keep doing that. You're doing great. Some church online couples, like, you know, it's like, it's also a joke. That was a joke. That was a joke. You use the. I didn't say that in the other sermon. We're going to use the Sunday. We're using the Sunday sermon. So let me just. Okay, Romans, come back. Romans 12. Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God's mercy, listen. The Lord Jesus went to a cross and gave up his body so that he could purchase yours. Your body does not belong to you. It belongs to the Lord. And this is what it says. Offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God. This is your spiritual act of worship. Okay? All right, now, last one. Let me shut her down. The third thing he talks to to Drusilla and Felix about is he talks to them about the judgment to come. Now, I didn't plan for this to be the sermon right after the Run to Win series. So it's interesting to me. The Lord just lined this up like this. So let me be brief here. So Paul starts talking to Felix about the reality of coming judgment. And he's like, hey, Felix, let me tell you what's going to happen to you if you don't get right with God. Felix gets very afraid. Like, triggers a nervous system response. And Felix goes, he sends Paul away, and he says, hey, come back when there's a convenient time. Can I say this to you? Convenient time. Convenient time. The convenient time to get right with God is now. Because only a fool goes through life unprepared for what's inevitable. Oh, this is it. The time is now. Okay. Now, when Paul speaks about the judgment to come in Acts 24, theologians say he's either talking about the personal judgment that everyone, everywhere will experience upon the return of Christ, or he's talking about global judgment. When, quote, the clouds shall be rolled up as a scroll. Now, I'm just going to fill in some little missing pieces from the last few weeks. Let me finish right here. Things you need to know about the coming judgment. Number one. Jesus is judge. Jesus is judge. Okay, we, in our culture, we sometimes say, God is judged. You see a little tattoo? Only God can judge me. Which, by the way, that should terrify you. I just want to say that, like, if you're tattooing that thing. Oh, that gets me off the hook. That should terrify you. Jesus is judged. John 5. 22. Jesus said, for the Father judges no one. Interesting. But has given all judgment to the Son. So Jesus judges. God judges no one. It's Jesus. Jesus will return. He's the one that's going to be on the throne. You will stand in front of him. Okay. Number two. Everyone will be judged. Everyone. Hebrews 9:27. And just as it is appointed for man once to die, and after that comes judgment, there are two days, every three days, everyone's going to experience birthday, death day, Judgment day. Equally fixed. As fixed as, you know what day you were born. July 3, 1983. That day is fixed. Fixed. I know it. There is a two other days fixed in time for you, just as in concrete, your death day. And the day that you will be judged, just as in concrete, everyone will be judged. Romans 14:10 says it like this, for we will all stand before God's judgment seat. Now, if you're like, man, this is freaking me out a little bit. Okay, good news is coming. Good news is coming. Okay, but we also need to understand this. Number three. Now, I said this in week one of Run to win. But let me say it in a more clear way. Cause you have to say it right here. There will be two judgments. Now, let's do a little theology real quick. When you read the book of Revelation, you're gonna see Two, come back to me. You're gonna see two judgments in the book of Revelation. You're gonna see a great White throne judgment and then something theologians have historically called a bema seat judgment. They're different judgments. And you won't experience both of them. You're gonna experience one or the other. Now, some of you hear that I've actually gotten this question in the lobby in the last few weeks. Hey, Josh. Like, you read, you read the epistles, the letters, and you're like, this is really fun and encouraging. Ephesians, this is happy. And then you get to Revelation and it's like, Jesus looks like metal and there's three headed dragons eating babies. And you're like, I didn't know they dropped acid in ancient Rome. What's going on here? It's like. And it feels unclear. And the question you might be asking last few weeks is like, man, why didn't God just make it more clear about how, when, where, in what order? We actually know why? Check. Stay with me. Watch. We know why God did not make it very clear about how all these Second Coming prophecies will be fulfilled. 2nd Corinthians 2. 8. Paul says, for we declare mysteries hidden for ages past. Watch. That the rulers of this age did not understand. And then he says, watch. For if they had understood, they would not have crucified the Lord of Glory. So if you go back, Watch. If you go back to the Old Testament, all of the prophecies about the first coming of Jesus are vague. People couldn't figure out when, where, in what order, when are the seasons. And Paul says, here's why. Because the reality of the demonic realm was such that if God had made the prophecies that clear, the demonic rulers of this age would not have activated, set in motion the events in history that, that led to the crucifixion of King Jesus. So, and that's the moment God redeemed for the forgiveness of your sin. Now, in the same way, if you're like, well, bro, why are the prophecies about the second coming of Jesus vague? I can't figure out when, where, in what order. Here's why. Same thing. Because God didn't want it so clear that the demonic rulers of the age would know and then they wouldn't set in motion the chain of events that will lead to the second coming of Christ. Now check this out. Two judgments, okay? The Great White Throne Judgment is the judgment for unbelievers, where God will punish the unbelieving wicked. I'm going to speak to you in a straightforward way. This is what the Word says. He will punish the unbelieving wicked and throw them into the lake of fire where they will experience torment forever for their sins. That's hell. That's the Great White Throne Judgment. Now, good news, believers in Christ will never experience that Great White Throne Judgment. You will not experience that judgment. I'm going to explain why. This is what Jesus means in John 5:24 when he says, truly I say to you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life. Watch, he does not come into judgment. He's saying, you're not going to stand there if you place your faith in Christ, but it's passed from death to life. Now, the other judgment is what theologians call the bema seat judgment. This is. It's more like an evaluation where Jesus returns and he divvies out rewards based on the faithfulness with which you lived your life. How you live matters. How you live matters. And he's going to do that. This is what Jesus referring to in Matthew 16:27, he says, for the Son of man is going to come in his Father's glory with his angels, and then he will reward each person according to what they have done. So two judgments, a judgment of condemnation and a judgment of commendation. And if you place your faith in Jesus, you will never stand before the judgment of condemnation. Here's why. Because there is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. Come on, somebody, man. Let's go. Let's go. Okay, now, last one. Let's shut her down right here. This is how we're going. This is how we finish. The last thing is this judgment is certain to come. It's certain to come. Now, here's why I say this, everybody. You're having a normal weekend. I know what you're doing. You're already thinking about what's going on at Thanksgiving. Where are we going to go? What are we going to eat? Who's going to come over? What ballgame are we going to watch? All the things you're planning. All the things. Christmas. But you're picking out all this stuff. And so it's like everybody's thinking about everything except the fact. Watch. That it could. Listen. That it could happen before this service ends, where a trumpet sounds and the Lord Jesus cracks the skies and we're done. Like that. Like that could happen. Okay. And we're just distracted. Now, Jesus talked about that in Matthew 24. He said, for as were the days of Noah, so will be the coming of the Son of Man, the days of Noah, that was another moment, obviously, where the judgment of God fell. Okay? For as in those days before the flood, he's what they're doing, brother, what we're doing. They were eating and drinking. They were planning Thanksgiving meals. They were marrying and giving in marriage. It was like guys were asking greeters on dates. They were doing all this stuff until the day when Noah entered the ark. And they were unaware until the flood came and swept them all away. Listen. So will be the coming of the son of man. He is coming. It is certain. It is certain. All right? Now, what Felix did here is Felix hears all that, gets scared, and he goes, well, that's enough for now. Come back when it's. He says this. It's convenient. Come back when it's convenient. When I was in high school, I'm going to call him Ian. I'm changing the details enough to protect the innocent. When I was in high school, my junior year of high school, I was in a reading class. And right behind me, I heard this little scraping sound on a desk. And I turned around and this. Dude, this was back in the day when like the whole black trench coat thing was a thing. Y' all don't even remember that. And Ian, this guy named Ian, he was refining what I'm pretty sure was cocaine with a little razor blade on his desk. And we became the weirdest set of friends in our entire high school. I just like, I was like, I'm making this guy my guy. He was like, my one more before I had language for one more. And so for the last two years I was in high school, like, Ian was like, not a Jesus guy, and I was like the Jesus guy. And so I would like, we talk about faith. And every time he had a question, I would go get him a little dial up aol and I would like, okay, let me get a good answer for Ian. I print out stuff and bring it. We talk about it during little reading classes and stuff. And every time we talked, he would say the same thing. Let's talk again. Let's talk again. Let's talk again. For two years. Two years. Two years. Right after I went to college, my sophomore year of college, I came back home to Bowling Green, Kentucky, where I went to high school. And I started asking around, where's Ian? I want to find Ian. And one of the guys I graduated with told me, oh, man, two weeks ago, Ian was in a head on collision on I65. Died on impact. Now, unless something happened that I don't know about, I'm gonna shoot you. Really straight. Because I love you and I care about you. And you have a chance that he does not have anymore. Unless something happened that I don't know about. Ian is in hell right now. Not because he didn't believe in hell, not because he didn't believe in heaven. Because for two years he believed there was no hurry. And he kept saying, let's talk again, let's talk again, let's talk again. And right now you don't just have a spirit filled man in front of you like Felix. A lot of you have the spirit of God alive inside of you. And there's something he's asking you to do. The sin that you've been hiding in the dark. Listen, don't fight the devil in the dark. The darkness is domain. There's sin that you've been hiding. It's like you've never brought it out before. And you're gone. When it's convenient, I will. It will never be convenient. And the sin will kill you. It will never be convenient. It's like man, you need to share the gospel with that person. And the spirit has put that in your heart and you're waiting for the time. It's convenient. It will never be convenient. Convenient is now. Or it's like the forgiveness that needs to happen in your marriage or in another relationship. It's like you're waiting for the moment when it feels right. It will never feel right. The moment is now. The day is today. And today the book of Hebrews says, if you hear his voice, do not harden his heart. Because the spirit of God will not strive with man forever. So here's my question. What is is the thing for the glory of God that you're scared to do, that you are uncomfortable having not yet done today? There's a hurry. Now I want you to see all these people that just went through rooted this discipleship thing, they made one of those decisions that's a decision can change your life. I want you to see how it can change your life through the story of a guy that's actually in this room right now. The story of James. I want you to check this out with me real quick.
- [46:32]
B
Who can I rob to get high again? Hurting the people around me to get high again? Addiction to all sorts of things which led to fear, anxiety, just more and more darkness. I remember tears rolling down my face. I think there's something more, but I don't know what it is. I just felt trapped. I had never like truly prayed to God before because I didn't believe in God. I said, God, I don't know if you're real, but if you are, can you prove it to me? That prayer led me to reading scripture. I bought my first Bible and I started to read it. I wanted answers and I wanted to find in the Bible the truth. I have my Bible open, all of a sudden I start calling out to Jesus and I say, jesus, you are Lord and I need you in my life. I can't do this on my own. I need you to come save me. And I got up and I felt peace. I felt peace in my heart for the first time that I had never felt before. And in that moment, Jesus took my anxiety away and Jesus took my fear away and my self hatred. I was brand new in that moment. As I'm reading scripture, something came across my heart just saying, like, I'm gonna need to be around people to have some of these questions that I have answered. I remember driving by Lake Point church two weeks after I was saved. Walking into Lake Point and I see someone just smiling at me. She is like, hey. And I was like, hi, my name's James. I gave my life to Christ. Can you introduce me to everybody? I had been coming to Lake Pointe for seven weeks. When I joined Rooted. I was so excited to do something that was going to get me closer to Jesus coming every single week. It would just keep me grounded. What started out as strangers in rooted became family. I'm coming up on a year of being in Christ and I just never knew that life could be this. This awesome. I couldn't imagine the peace that I feel today or the freedom as I went for 41 years just in darkness and not caring about God at all. And then in an instant, he saved me from that. Reading scripture every day led me to Christ. And I have no doubt in my mind that God is real and that that his name is Jesus. I'm James, and this is how Jesus changed my life.
- [49:22]
A
Come on, man. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. James is in this service right now. Make it real good. Glory to God in James. Live. Amen. Amen. Proud of you, man. Proud of you. Okay, here's the deal. All those people that took a step and they graduated from Rudy today, that was the thing. So here's what I'm asking, man. On your way in, you got one of these guys, would you go and grab this? Go and grab it real quick. Even if you're not gonna do anything with it, just do it. Make me feel good. You can throw it away later. Here's the deal. Rooted is a 10 week discipleship experience that will change your life forever. And it teaches you how to walk in the rhythms of a thriving disciple for the rest of your life. At some point, listen, at some point in your life, every single Christian or every single person that's trying to walk in a thriving relationship with Jesus that changed their life, they needed to be rooted every, every single person. So here's what I'm asking you to do. We do rooted sessions that start three different times per year. You're gonna see a little QR code. If you haven't done rooted yet, you're gonna see a little QR code right here. I'm asking you before you leave, if you've never done rooted, to little scan that little dude and sign up for the next rooted session. You're like, ah, but November, December, real busy. Next rooted session doesn't start till the beginning of next year. So you're signing up for something. You got plenty of time to get ready. I'm asking you to sign up for the next rooted session that starts at the beginning of the next year. 10 week discipleship experience. Change your life forever. So grab this guy, scan that thing, and you can sign up and we'll see in that next rooted session, change your life. Now, what I want to do right now is pray for all of you. And the people are going to take that step that God would use it to redeem their lives and families, all right? So right now, Heavenly Father, I'm asking you, your word says that if we draw near to God, you'll draw near to us. And so, Lord, I'm praying for a whole bunch of people. They feel lost and hopeless and empty. And what your word's saying is, if they'll just like, wiggle a little pinky in your direction, you'll come running and you'll take the rest of the way. And so, Father, I'm asking that right now, that small step of, okay, man, I want to learn what it means to walk with Jesus in a deep way. I'm praying that you'll take that step and that you'll close the rest of that gap, that you'll set in motion a miracle that redeems not just their lives, but, but their families, their family trees, their lineages. And it changes their legacies. Because way back in 2025, one man or one woman made a decision to take a step and say, today is the day. I'm gonna hurry today to follow Jesus. So, Father, do it. I pray that in the crucified resurrected name of Jesus Christ. And all God's people said, amen. Amen. Amen.