Well hey guys my name is Keith and I'm excited to be here. I'm a lead pastor
here at Resonate Church and throughout the summer I don't get as many times to
preach and so I really appreciate these moments where I get to speak to you and
and today what we're doing is we're continuing this series and this series
is called The Right Truth, The Real Truth, The Right Time and basically what
we're doing is we're going through and talking about these moments where we had
this interaction with Scripture that was transformative in our lives and and I
hope that you're getting a lot out of this. We were speaking to you in a very
relational format in terms of just what has happened internally for us and all
these guys who've spoken, Craig, last week just did a great job and just
unpacking what has been transformative in his life and we continue to go
throughout this series and I hope that the end result is that you begin to look
to the Bible and are saying this is this is the source of the information that
changes my life that transforms my world and so that's kind of our hope and goal
as we do this. Tonight what we're doing is we're getting into a truth that has
transformed my life and and this truth that I want to talk to you about can
only be properly illustrated in a in a format that will require basically a
game show to happen here on stage and so this quite possibly could be the worst
idea we've ever had in the history of Resonate Church but in our creative
meeting this is all we came up with so we're gonna go with it today and so so
what we're gonna do is we're gonna have a little bit of a a trivia show here on
the can on the on the stage and and for that I'm going to need two people to
volunteer. Is there anybody who wants to volunteer? Okay well it's
Slim Pickings but we'll just choose here these two okay you young man and you
young lady come on up give them a hand as they come up here on the stage. It wasn't
set up or anything. All right. This is gonna be fantastic so okay thanks for
that. So what I want you guys to do is just first tell people your name and
just kind of just tell everybody who are you. I'll hold the mic.
I'm Anne. It's good. I'm Matthew and I'm a Christian. Okay I was one up for him so
just to define that so anyway what we're going to do is I'm going to give you
guys a question and and I'm gonna basically state this question to you
and and then you're going to have if you don't know the question right off the
top of your head you're gonna be able to see a hint on the screen and these are
tough questions and so you probably gonna have to use that screen to give
hints to make sure that you get these right because the stakes for this are
enormous. Got that Matt? Okay all right we'll start off with Anne. Anne we'll start
off with what year was Albert Einstein born? What year was Albert Einstein born?
You know that. Okay here's a hint. 1879? That's correct. Give her a hand. That was
excellent, excellent work there Anne. All right Mark here we go. Around 200 years
ago King George IV of England ordered a special pair of boots which included
what innovative feature never before seen in a pair of shoes? All right here you
go. A jackal. Do you have any hints? A bird, a pigeon, alligator, a pterodactyl. Yeah so
all those are wrong. That's a tough hint there. Actually what it is is that it was
one for each foot see before that shoes were basically just for each foot
either foot they just made one you put them on either foot so he changed that
so that was tough. All right Anne who won the Baseball World Series in 2007?
Use hints if you need to. That's correct. Way to go Anne. Good job you're killing this.
This is this is great. All right Mitch here we go. All right you ready? Who is the
Chancellor of Germany? The Chancellor of Germany. Use hints if you need to. Andrew Wilkins. We did not
know that yes but the answer is actually Angela Merkel. Tough, tough break. All
right here you go Anne. What's the capital of England? London. All right excellent job.
All right Marcus here we go. So what okay ready? What is the air speed velocity of
an unladen swallow? All right here you go. Bob Saget. That's exactly what I would
have said so actually it is 11 meters per second or 24 miles per hour. That was
again a very tough tough game there but actually all that's just worthless it's
all superfluous. What we're actually going to decide is is basically who wins by
who applauds the most okay. All right so we're just gonna put my hand over their
head you know just like back in second grade and you're gonna clap for the
person that you want to win all right and this is gonna decide this all right
okay here we go one two three. All right that was that was inspiring all right
ready one two three. So that obviously means Anne wins. Great job Anne. I just want
to say so proud of you give Anne a hand thank you guys for participating. Yeah
that confirms that that was the dumbest idea we've ever had and so I'm just
kidding. What I want to talk to you guys about what that silly thing hopefully
begins to put in our head is just the idea that when we begin to deal in life
there are certain things that we have expectations are in fact there are
certain rules that we kind of live our life around and so when we begin to see
this ridiculous display of this this game and we kind of begin to see what
happens between one contestant and the other contestant the obvious thing that
it is that it's not fair right that's right two people thought about that that
was a great illustration so just landed that truth so home you know this idea
that things are not fair there's something in us that basically just says
that things have to be fair things have to work itself out and when we don't see
that it becomes really obvious to us we kind of sniff out things that are not
fair we are great at people that think how things should be right or things
should be wrong in terms of how they relate to each other but the issue is
that when we begin to live our life what we begin to see is that that doesn't
always transpire the way that we think it should and when we begin to see this
idea of what is fair and what is not it begins to get really strange really
fast is specifically when it comes to relationships when it comes to us
interacting with other people the things that we think are fair and the things
that other people think are fair often clash and this leads us to some places
of continual angst in our lives we begin to process this we try to figure out
how relationships are supposed to fit together and how long-term that I get
along with this person or I live in community with that person or in our
marriage and our friendships and all these things for me I think one of the
things when I begin to think through how has gospel changed my life how has
scripture changed my life it's basically a kind of a process for me that
wasn't that long ago in the course of my life it was a few years ago and as we
begin to launch resonate church as we begin to get into the process of
starting this whole thing there was some relational conflict that I just began to
go through part of this was relational conflict of us starting a church that
was kind of different and people from the outside having questions just like
anything that anytime something goes outside the box or something is is
innovative there's there's some people that say hey that's not the way that we
do it and through that first process this first couple of years of starting
resonate there was this constant kind of battles that I was having to face but
the issue is that some of these battles were were connected to people who I
needed to be allies people that brought resources into resonate and so there was
this tension of I could just say here's that here's the thing we're gonna do it
this way and just sever the relationship and there was part of me that
deeply wanted to do that that there was another part of me though that needed to
make sure that there was this continuation of this relationship and so
there was this tension in my heart along with that there was the stresses that
went on of beginning to understand how to be a pastor and how to carry the way
to people that have burdens and have issues and bring them to their pastor and
help deal with them these these tensions of leading a staff and and really for
the first time as a pastor beginning to know how to orient my life towards
leading other guys and ladies in terms of what they do vocationally all this
going back even down to my marriage and and so I found myself in these places of
tension I found myself in these places where I was trying to figure out what to
do and and really it all came down to this in my view of the world I was doing
what I needed to do and there was a lot of things on the outside that I didn't
feel like were fair and I began to have this sense of bitterness that was well
welling up with me I began to say you just don't see it the right way and I
begin to get really disillusioned with community I mean begin to get really
disillusioned with with my relationships and so here I am that we have this church
our slogan is experiencing exploring God is better in community and I would get
up here and I would say I just in my heart I just don't know if that's true and
it was a difficult time and I don't know if you have been like this in your life
I don't know if you've been in a place where you have been disappointed with
someone a place where you have learned the hard way that the relationship that
you thought was safe wasn't really safe maybe you've been in a place maybe you
are in a place that you wish that your relationships were deeper were stronger
were closer maybe you look around at others and you think that's they seem
to have these great friendships these great relationships and and and and how
can I have those kind of fulfilling dreams and how can I have those
relationships with the people around me and we begin to look around and kind of
say how closely am I really living with people what does this look like why are
my relationships a struggle and I think everybody I talked to has those
relationships everybody I connect with has relationships that they wish were
better maybe they're with people that you are close to but you wish that you
were closer maybe they're kind of periphery of people but there's this
friction and when we live in that that can be a difficult draining experience
for us and we as we learn how to live with others as we learn how to navigate
these things I was in this place where I was just kind of this I'm about to give
up I'm about just kind of wall off and just create this silo because I'm tired
of being hurt I'm tired of being misunderstood I'm tired of having to fight
in all of these relationships because they just don't see it like I see it and
so I had to figure out something and I knew that I couldn't continue the same
trajectory and that something had to change so I began to get into
scripture and just begin to say what is it that looks like how is it that I
begin to understand what it is that kind of connects these relationships and how
I can do this in a sustainable way and what I begin to realize is that when I
begin to get into scripture begin to open up this idea of the rules that we
live by and all of us live by these rules all of us live through these kind of
worldview rules that really kind of say how that we live around other people and
how we kind of live our life in in relationship and what I begin to do is
I begin to get in the scripture and so I get in the words and try to figure out
what are what are these rules how is it that I can live in a way that is kind
of long-term not just trying to push bitterness down or push anger down but
really begin to be free and live towards people in the way that I think that God
has called us to live for towards and as I begin to get into this one of the
scriptures that begin to just transform my life and this is John John 1334 John
1334 as I begin to understand and get into this I begin to look to see where
God talks about how we are to live towards one another and in the New
Testament I get went through over and over and really this sums up the gist of
all of the findings that I begin to when I begin to search one another's when I
begin to do all of this I put all of this together and really this is kind of
this key truth and it says this it says in John 1334 a new command I give you
love one another as I have loved you so you must love one another and I begin to
get into that and realize these one another's are these these things were
all tied together and I begin to kind of search through the Bible and what I
begin to realize is that I was going by the wrong rules and I kind of had this
functional view of Christianity I'm sorry I had this the spiritual view of
Christianity but my functional view of Christianity was nothing near what the
Bible says and so I looked at this verse and I realized that I'd been going
about my life all wrong when it comes to relationships and this was the aha
moment and this is what I want to share with you because maybe you've had those
tension moments in your relationships this changed almost everything about me
in fact it changed everything so significantly that I preached a sermon
so you might have heard this the sermon series was called God effects how me and
God affects you and me and through that I probably grew more as a Christian than
anything that I've ever preached before I was preaching this every week going back
to these scriptures and just just like just growing in my whole view of how I
live in relationships was changed by these things you see there's three
different rules that really we live by and when we begin to think about what
are the rules that dictate the relationships between each other it kind
of has three different things one is what I would call the the moral rule and
so the moral rule is this do unto others as they have done unto you and so it's
that thing that's that it's probably the oldest rule that we have in our as a
society as humanity it goes back to the Hammurabi code where this is an eye for
an eye you know if you throw a rock through my window then I throw a rock
through yours that by the the force of you doing something that gives me the
right again we go back to what is fair this is fair for me to exert the same
thing into your life as you've exerted into mine that we must settle the score
right that for us to live peacefully is to be able to have this score-settling
fair kind of mentality that we live and so we live by by this force that if you
throw this rock I'll throw it back at you and that's kind of how the world has
existed for many years and what this does though is this creates fractured
untrusting societies that basically we're just in a contract in terms of our
friendships in terms of all of our relationships they're only contractual
if you do this to me then I will do this back to you and there's no safe spot
for us to live but it creates peace and then we begin to get the Old Testament
we begin to see this new kind of thing and this is where we get this thing
called the golden rule and the golden rule is this is kind of this religious
format do unto others as you would have them do unto you and it's kind of the
look in the mirror what you do to them is how you should or what they have done
to you is how you should do back to them treat them as you would want to be
treated and this is what the Old Testament tells us in terms of what we
should live in terms of relationships towards each other how we should live
towards each other's to look and say would I want someone to do this to me
and this is really significant this is a completely different change right when
it comes to the rules that we live towards each other I was living in a way
you know where this was this fair thing and this might still be the case for
for many of us I know that that was for me that kind of mentality that lived my
life around it's the rule around my house you know you push me I'll push you if
you have kids you're living by that that I for an I code that's kind of the
normal way for us to kind of say this is at least the way of peace this is what
we fight for right but then we go to this golden rule we go to this religious
view and this says this that I want to live better to you I want to live how
I would want to be treated and that sounds great there's a lot of good
things there's a lot of society that would benefit for us to say I'm not just
going to treat you as the way that you deserve to be treated or the way that
you've treated me I'm going to treat you in a way that I would want you to treat
me and so hopefully that elevates our society in terms of our interaction
within our relationships that we begin to live each other live towards each
other the way that we would want to be treated and that's probably what you
have heard you eat the golden rule is pretty ubiquitous through our society
you've probably heard that thing land some somewhere in your life and it's a
good thing but the problem is is it for us it still is something that leads
functionally to our self-reliance of being good people and if you ever been
in those moments where the golden rule just wasn't enough where someone has
hurt you and you and you think I should think what should I do in return that
is in a way how I would want to be treated and yet for our hearts it still
leads us to this place where there is a kind of a divide where what they
deserve the only thing that allows us not to give them back to what they deserve
is our desire to be a good person that's called religious and so I'm saying I
want to be a good person so I won't do to you what you did to me and what
happens in our hearts is that creates a divide that that that even if that kind
of makes our actions different our hearts often aren't changed by the golden
rule our hearts harbor bidding bitterness I'm going to treat you the way that I
would want to be treated but I'm not going to forget the way that you treated
me and so that's where I often see people who on the outside of this
relationship and even marriages it seems like everything's hunky-dory it seems
like everything's fine but internally there's a lot of angst in the
relationship why because they're living towards each other the way that they
should be living towards each other not the way they actually feel about each
other and so functionally that may look okay but it's really kind of rotting
from the inside out and that's where I found myself on the outside trying to
live towards people the way I wanted to but in the inside I would be having these
this bitterness this roots of bitterness in my life and things that I was
struggling to kind of grapple with and I would have these conversations in my
head where I would always win with that person right I don't know if you've ever
had those in your head where you kind of play that conversation and you're
brilliant in your head I am brilliant in my head when I have these
conversations and it's just like well how could you think anything else and in
my head they're like yes Keith that makes so much sense and I'm living by the
moral rule I'm living by this religious golden rule you see Jesus talks about
this but he isolates and said this is the law and the prophets when we see the
Bible the law and the prophets aren't it that is not where it ends and so our
relationship should not end with the law and the prophets our relationship
should not end with the golden rule because functionally it is difficult for
us to self-reliant have the self-reliance in this and to live towards
relationships with an ongoing sense of grace and so we begin to see in this
something else we begin to see a new command that I give you love one another
and here is the rule here's the key you have to understand this as I have loved
you that changes everything not love one another because you would want to be
loved but all the sudden when we begin to see the gospel here's the gospel rule
the gospel rule is do unto others as Christ has done unto you so we begin to
see it's not the Rock it's not the mirror but it is the cross that stands at
the center of this and so when we begin to look at this all the sudden it
begins to be super transformative in our lives because we are seeing through the
lens of the cross we are seeing through something completely different that my
orientation towards my relationships are not what you deserve what you've done
unto me not even what I wish was done unto me my orientation to my
relationships are now because Jesus has loved me and so we what we begin to see
is this amazing vertical relationship that is now bent out horizontally and
what this does is it gives us a reason to live in relationships that are deeply
loving deeply connective and it eliminates the source of anger and
bitterness in our lives and so no longer do we have to put on the face of
having good relationships but when we begin to live towards the gospel rule
and not the golden rule it clarifies for our hearts what we should expect what
which we should be about how we are to live towards other people and is all
because we are conduits of grace we are not manufacturers of grace the golden
rule makes you the manufacturer of grace the gospel rule makes you the conduit
of grace you are the vehicle of grace and you will run out of grace if it is
supplied by you you will have an endless supply if your orientation towards
other people is how God was oriented to you this is key you will not be able to
have a healthy ongoing non-bitter marriage if you don't get this you will
not be able to have a healthy ongoing community building friendship if you get
this you will either be a dominating force or you will be a doormat in both
of those are unhealthy this at the core of what this means is the new rules for
us to live our life by the lens through which we see the world and it
transforms everything over and over when we begin to look through this we begin
to kind of find ourself wedged into this rule in a beautiful way so what I
want to do is I want to walk through scripture with you just like I did I
went through and said where's the one and others because I've I've got to
figure out how to live in relationships with people better I've got to
understand how this tension gives goes away how this bitterness is eliminated
because it's making me withdraw from people it's not allowing me to have the
essence and the beauty of relationships that God has intended and over and over
as I get older as I begin to see things more clearly it is all about
relationships at the end of your life it is about relationship at the beginning
of your life it is about relationships between those two things no matter what
you try to accomplish with your life it always goes back to relationships so
the most important thing I can tell you is how to live in these relationships so
let's listen as as we begin to walk through the Bible and look at this it
first starts in Ephesians in Ephesians 4 1 it says this as a prisoner for the
Lord then I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you have received
so you have to understand the calling that you've received how Christ has
lived towards us and called us to be these people so let's go back because I
have loved you so you must love one another so then let's see what does this
look like so then here's the reaction towards that so that was the vertical
thing that the way that God has called us here's the horizontal thing that we
are to be completely humble and gentle be patient bearing with one another in
love do you get that and that is not something you just have to to white
knuckle try to figure out how you're a nice person and so many people they
become Christians and and there's something that changes and and that's
something that changes has to be this thing because it can't just be a
different set of moral morality and morals it can't just say oh I need to
be a nice thing because Christians are nice no there's a source of this any
if you don't know the source it's not going to work for long be completely
humble and gentle how are you completely in humble and gentle it is because
you're living your life worthy of the calling how are you patient now there's
some of you here like me who struggle with patience with people and in those
moments what do I have to say live my life worthy of the calling that I've
received it is not because they deserve to be patient with it is not because I
should be gentle with them or humble in this scenario I should bear with one
another in love why should I continue to bear with one another I've promised you
I've come to points in my life where I'm done with bearing and what changes and
what continues to change in my life as I begin to understand how Christ
bared with me and then when he bears with me then bending that out into the
relationship is the only way that this works long term let's go on Ephesians
4 32 be kind and compassionate with to one another what's the source of
kindness and compassion your own good self no forgiving each other just as in
Christ God forgave you let's go to Colossians 3 13 bear with each other
and forgive one another if any of you has a grievance against someone forgive as
the Lord forgave you I hope you're starting to see some theme here right
because this rule is becoming apparent as we walk through Scripture and we
begin to see the source of forgiveness is not because they deserve it the source
is because you have been forgiven and so when I have an issue with someone in my
life and I think why do they deserve to be forgiven because isn't that the
biggest issue in our relationships when someone has done something wrong with us
that the issue is why should I why do they deserve for me just to forgive them
they have wronged me they have hurt me they have done something that is that is
really a difficult for me to handle and so I should just say hey you're off the
hook doesn't every single one of us at some point say that's not fair just like
the the stupid ridiculous game show we think you know that's not fair there's
these moments where someone says I intentionally tried to hurt you and then
we hear that we are to forgive them because that's the Christian thing to do
right and in that moment functionally we aren't living towards Christ functionally
the rules that we're living by have more to do with the rock have more to do with
I'm going to get back at you because of what you've done with me and so that
might be an aggressive way that might be a fight that might be a passive way that
might be you kind of pulling out of the relationship but it's not pursuing depth
in that relationship and haven't we done that we get hurt we pull out we leave we
kind of we don't get known as much see he says forgive as the Lord forgave you so
to be honest you and me this is not about the way we feel see we live towards
God in a way that said I'm gonna go my own way you desired to have this
beautiful relationship and I spit on it I said I want to be my own God I'm gonna
set myself up in charge and God said to that here's what I'm going to do I'm
going to send my son to redeem this relationship that you fractured I'm
going to offer forgiveness and so when it comes to why we should say an
undeserved person should be forgiven because we were an undeserved person
that got forgiven and we'll begin to process this this is the only thing that
keeps me sane this is the only thing that keeps me coming back to
relationships is because of these kind of things let's go let's go on
forgiveness and in Romans 157 it says this accept one another then just as
Christ accepted you in order to bring praise to God it's not just about
forgiveness you see this rule applies to every part of life accepting so we live
towards people this is the gospel rule this is how this changes from just being
a good moral person a good religious person to being a gospel oriented person
that we often here's the rule that we often live by I will accept you if you
are acceptable and if you're acceptable and whatever your list of things that
makes someone acceptable or not acceptable we have all kind of have
different things maybe they believe in this thing or maybe they dress in this
way or maybe they're funny or they're not funny or maybe they do this or that
maybe they do whatever is that makes someone acceptable or unacceptable in
your mind here's the thing you have been accepted unconditionally accepted we
talk about this over and over and resonate church for your identity
become as one who is accepted regardless of what you do right this is not
because you've come up to this certain level of goodness on your own you are
accepted because God has accepted you therefore what happens is we now accept
other people because we were accepted not because they are acceptable and when
we begin to live this out again these are the eye-opening things they're the
rest of the verse in 1334 of John says then they will know that you are the
my believers that you they will know who you're following after because this is
what is normal I accept those who acceptable this is what is gospel I
accept everybody because I've been accepted and that begins to open the
door for the gospel the power of the gospel to be seen in your life not only
that let's go into Hebrews 312 it says this see to it brothers and sisters that
none of you has a sinful unbelieving heart that turns away from the living
God but encourage one another daily as long as it's called today so that none
of you may be hardened by sins deceitfulness we have come to share in
Christ if indeed we hold our original conviction firmly to the very end this
is talking about this idea of encouraging so we don't just encourage
just to be good people because we are living towards Christ and we should be
an encouragement to other people this is the relationship this is the
orientation towards other people that we should have let's go on to
Philippians 2 5 it says this in your relationships with one another have the
same mindset of Christ Jesus who being in the very nature God did not consider
equality with God something to be used to his own advantage rather he made
himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant being made in human
likeness in your relationships with one another he's giving him now a picture
this is how Christ lived to you so when it comes to why shouldn't we submit to
someone's authority why should we be able to humble ourselves because they
deserve it no this is never the answer for us to say I mean I would I would I
would gladly follow that person if they were worth following no it goes back to
this gospel rule Jesus didn't consider it quality with God something to be
grashed and so he humbled himself volunteer laterally how are we to live
in terms of our relationships what does this look like over and over throughout
Scripture what we see is this gospel rule this rule to live our life by that
does not have ourself at the center in order to enact fairness it doesn't have
our goodness at the center to try to white knuckle our way to try to figuring
out how to be the manufacturer of grace but over and over it gives us a source
that is not of ourselves and that is the that is the secret of Christianity when
it comes to relationship that we are able to say you know when we begin to see
this absurd stuff in the Bible that we are to forgive one another and Jesus
says they're asking Jesus how many times should I forgive and he says basically
as much as it takes he says 70 times seven basically he's not saying that
that's a number that should be the end of it he's saying it is more than you can
count it is it is more than you can file it is continuing over and over and over
to say this and where do you get the source of that because if you've ever
been in a relationship where you always have to say I'm sorry or I always have
to say it's okay I forgive you it's okay I forgive you it's okay I forgive you in
our hearts sometimes that can get to a place where we are no longer ready to
forgive and if we are living the golden rule kind of religion being the source
then we'll always run dry at some point see there's two reasons why this doesn't
work there's two reasons why the gospel rule isn't applied to our life one is
this that you may truly not under you might not truly understand what God has
done to you so whenever we talk about this idea that this forgiveness
acceptance encouragement serving others all of these submission should be the
way that we live towards others if we can't say I can't do that Keith that
just doesn't work I'm not seeing that manifested in in my relationships with
other people it might be because there was never something that was
communicated to you it means that somehow you're trying on your own but
you're trying to explain something that you don't fully understand and if you've
ever done that it is easy to be foolish think about all these moments where
people are talking to me about their PhDs of dissertation and I feel like in I
feel like every time I hear someone's thesis I'm like I understood two words
of that no matter what it is you know it's like all of this stuff that is is
just kind of this very precise kind of things and when we begin to think through
this if we aren't in that in being able to understand fully what that means and
we're trying to explain that it makes no sense and so here's the thing people
hear the calling of being a Christian in relationships and say that is
outrageous I think there's no way that I can do that and it's similar to okay go
right at a doctoral dissertation on on this thing and you're like I have no
clue about that I can't even read when someone else wrote that that is so far
beyond there's no way I'm just gonna shrug my shoulders I can't do that that's
that's not really what we mean right we're not really supposed to turn the
other cheek right when someone slaps our cheek and in terms of how we relate to
our enemies that's just absurd right we don't really mean that except when the
gospel informs your life and then all of a sudden those those lenses become
lenses which with every everything else makes sense and so if you struggle to
forgive if there's a bitterness thing I think in talking to people and kind of
walking through this one of the things that is the reality is that people don't
understand that they have been forgive forgiven that likely if you have
forgiveness issues one of the things that you should explore is if you really
sense that you are clean you are completely accepted before God because
we can't be distributors of something that has never been poured into us I mean
I'm you know maybe say I'm it's hard for me to accept people are you acceptable
did do you feel like you have been accepted do you feel like you've been
forgiven I had an instance where I was sharing with a mentor and and I was
saying this I was like I just can't get to this place where I can just my heart
is isn't a place to forgive this person who has wronged me and my mentor said
Keith you've got to forgive them I said I just can't do I can't put myself back
in that place I'm not talking about trusting them trust is earned forgiveness
is given you must give forgiveness because you've been forgiven and that
moment became really clear to me you're forgiven you're accepted so you can
accept stop being that judgmental person because all of a sudden you realize
you've been accepted you understand what that means you have been served and so
you stop being stingy with serving other people you've been encouraged and so
you're a source of encouragement Jesus submitted and so in following Jesus's
model then all of a sudden what we begin to do is we say you know what it is easy
for me to have humility among other people I don't have to build myself up
and protect my image I can simply live towards other people in submission
and humility I can bear with another person because I've been born with Jesus
walked alongside me for that for the others of you this is not this might
not be that you don't understand what God has done but it's because you have
decided not to live out what has been lived towards you by Christ you're
holding back the grace that has been given to you you're holding back and at
one point I thought it's impossible to do this once you understand and you've
been in awe of how God has lived towards you it's impossible for you not to
distribute that out but what I've come to see is people when they begin to have
that first encounter with Jesus it blows their mind and they're like this is
just incredible I have to live towards everyone else and people who who come to
to Christ and have their world kind of shifted through that oftentimes what we
begin to see is the way that they live towards their world is so powerful that
people around them that all of a sudden people are coming to Christ around them
and they you know they're only a few days old a few weeks old a few months
old a few years old in terms of following Christ and yet there's these
people who have been Christians for a long time and their friends don't know
what they believe their friends don't have this this understanding of really
what drives them they kind of have pulled this back in and and the the
passion that they have for God the amazement that they have is his grace
has somehow waned and for some of us I think that there has been this moment
that the crazy thing that the scandalous grace that has been given to us has
become normalized and it's when become normalized it becomes ignored
and so we understand that God has lived in this incredibly grace-filled way
towards us and yet we hold that close because that has not rocked our world
that doesn't continue to say I don't deserve this that Jesus on a cross
bleeding on my behalf for my sins has somehow just become passé the scandal
of an innocent man dying on my behalf has somehow been something that I can
sing about and while I'm singing songs to God I can think about what I am
going to do with the rest of my day that have not been captured over and over by
this so some of us need to repent from from having this view of God that kind
of is in essence a view of these gospel rule but not in its functionality in
others we must fall back in love with Jesus so that we might fall back in love
with the people around us here's what I believe I believe that you will be an
incredible loving person with deep relationships if the gospel rule rules
your life I think it will transform your marriage your friendships all the
people who look at your life all the people who you engage in you will be
free from bitterness free from anger free from those things that create walls
and you will build bridges and so here on the Sunday night it's warm this
building talking to you about something that's transformed my life and saying
this this is what's helped me to understand how I am to live towards
everyone else I'm not perfect at it I over and over have to remind myself
okay Keith stop that line of thinking that's a mirror kind of thinking that's
a stone kind of thinking you need to see all of the people around you through
the lens of the cross and when that happens it's transformative in our
lives so we're gonna sing a couple more songs we're gonna get into this we're
going to just kind of sit in this moment sing these songs and for some of you
you need to kind of go back and say I need to believe God I don't truly
believe that I've been forgiven I don't truly believe that I'm accepted I don't
really believe that you are encouraging me that you have served me that you have
submitted for me I don't feel that yeah there's somehow that there's become this
this agenda this economy of earned instead of this economy of grace and I'll
desire for us to be people who live in the economy of grace and not the economy
of earning because if you feel like you've earned it towards God you'll
make everyone else around you earn it as well that doesn't pull you into
relationship it fractures relationships for some of you tonight you need to
decide tonight to become a follower of Jesus to understand that what was given
to you will affect the insides of your soul and also all of the relationships
around you everything may we begin to say how is it that I can over and over
begin to live as a conduit of grace as a vehicle grace and not a manufacture of
grace because that is Jesus Christ job in your life let him have his job back so
he can give you your relationships back let's pray gotta ask tonight that you
would reveal where we have failed to live grace filled lives Lord that you
would reveal how how we have misunderstood the cross Lord how we have
misunderstood what you have done to us Lord that that somehow we have not
allowed that to sink into our hearts and so we can bend that out into the
relationships around us Lord make that crystal clear I pray holy spirit tonight
that you would just sink those realities sink those those truths into our hearts
Lord that you would as much as we fight saying I have to earn this I have to I
have to be someone who who deserves this that we would sit here and realize that
we are undeserved and so we live towards the people around us as if they do not
deserve anything but we freely give as we have been freely given to God help that
to be the reality of Resonate Church in your holy name
