Drew's not even here, and he gets an applause.
That's impressive.
The closer you look, the less you see.
That's misdirection 101.
So you guys doing all right today?
Yeah.
Doing all right.
So for the Cougs, sorry about last night.
For the Vandals on video, you did it.
Congratulations.
Homecoming went well.
So yeah, all right.
There we go.
My name is Josh Martin, and I'm one of the pastors here.
And I like magic.
That's fun for me to be a part of.
But the reason I like it is because it's really similar
to a story in my life, a misdirection, if you will,
in my own life.
And so if you don't know me that well,
I grew up very religious.
And by that, I mean I was born into a home that
had those candles everywhere with saints on them.
You know what I'm talking about?
They go for about $0.96 at Walmart right now.
You light it.
It smells.
It shows everyone you're praying.
It smells very religious.
And so I was born into that home.
I was baptized as a baby.
I don't remember, but my mom shows me the clothes I wore
every time I go home.
I'm like, mom, come on.
I'm older now.
It's not a big deal.
But that was normal for me.
So I had godparents.
And I'm not kidding when I tell you,
I have a godfather who looks like the godfather.
His name is Gilbert, and he wears really nice clothes
and a pinky ring and talks really slow.
And I'm always waiting on him to make me an offer.
I can't refuse.
And so there's that whole thing.
And so be careful how you treat me, OK?
So I have a godfather.
But I slept with a rosary around my bed posts growing up.
And on the wall, there was a plaque of the Lord's prayer.
Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy names.
Like the only thing we memorize in the King James Bible
is that prayer.
So that was on the wall.
And when I was eight years old, I
started going to catechism classes.
And I would learn things.
And I went through and got my first communion,
went to confession, made it all the way
right to confirmation when I bailed out.
And I bailed for this reason.
I was in confession, and the priest was behind the wall.
And I started telling him my sins.
So I said, forgive me, Father, for I've
cheated on a spelling test.
It was on Thursday.
I'm sorry.
The girl next to me wasn't covering her paper well.
I didn't know how to spell the word.
I went for it.
My bad on that one.
Also, I hit my little brother a lot.
And when my mom comes, I say, don't tell,
or I'll hit you again.
And so there's that going on.
And I would like to be forgiven of those things.
So he assigned me 15 prayers.
So I was given 10 Hellmarys, which
go home and use your rosary and pray to Hellmary,
and five Our Fathers to go pay for what I had done wrong.
So I tell you that story to tell you
that most of my upbringing was very religious in this way.
I functioned under theology.
Theology is my thought of God, that I
have to do something for him in order to get something
from him.
So God is mad.
He's perpetually bummed out at me.
And he loves repetition, essentially.
He loves it.
I will say this stuff over and over again.
And essentially, that is the way in which I will find his favor.
So I had a lot of insecurities, and I had a lot of fear growing up.
And I obeyed God, not because I delighted in God,
but because I was afraid of God, and I thought religion pleased
God.
And so I share that with you, because whether you grew up
Catholic or not, I think that you have in you,
if you're not careful, a sense.
And when I say sense, I mean, there's something inside of you
that believes that, naturally, God is mad because you make
mistakes.
And if you're not careful, you're
going to believe that you must do something for him
in order to get something from him.
I even remember in college giving a homeless guy a ride.
And we were driving together.
And he said, what do you do for a living?
I said, I work in a church.
And he said, oh, you believe in a God.
I was like, yeah, absolutely.
What about you?
He said, if there's a God that made the stars,
I sleep under every night.
I bet he's mad at me, because I'm a liar,
and God hates liars, doesn't he?
I believe there's a sense in us that thinks
we've got to do good to make God happy,
because he is perpetually mad.
In 2012, the United States put out a census
that said 76% of Americans claim to be Christian.
So that's 8 out of 10 of the world in America
says they are Christian.
That 36% of those say they go to church every Sunday.
So just for the sake of illustration,
we're going to pretend that the police is America.
Now, I know we're the Northwest with a little bit less churches,
but nonetheless, we're going to pretend the police is America
for illustration's sake.
If the police, 60,000 people were America,
and 76% of us were Christians, and 36% of the 76
went to church every Sunday, then based on those statistics,
every church in the police today would
have 2,436 people in worship.
Every single church in the police
would have that many people in worship.
If that is true, now, friends, I wish that were true.
I'm giving my life, and there's people in this room
that are giving our lives to make that stat even not good
enough, because there's more people in church.
But the truth is that is not true, so someone is lying.
Not you guys, because you're here.
Congratulations.
But someone out there, those other people, someone is lying.
And here is why I think they're lying.
I think they're lying for a reason.
I think what the stats really say
is that 8 out of 10 people believe that one day they
will stand before God, and they will put all of their good
on a scale, and they will wait and see how much it weighs,
and then they will turn around, and they will put all of their bad
on that same scale, and they will hope,
they will cross their fingers, they will pray even,
that in the end, their good will outweigh their bad,
and based on a weight measurement,
they will find favor or condemnation from God.
Based on that, 8 out of 10 people would say, in the end,
I think I have to be good enough.
That is religion.
And I submit to you that is the most dangerous misdirection
of them all.
Religion says I must be a good person,
because God is mad at me, and if I do not do things for him,
he will in the end stay mad at me.
That is the dangerous misdirection
of being a good person.
It goes by other names of God as a mountain,
as long as you climb a ladder faithfully to get to him,
then you are there.
God helps those who help themselves.
These are types of religions that in the end
have nothing to do with Jesus and all to do with works.
This is dangerous because if you follow this misdirection
to its end, it has terrifying consequences.
This is dangerous because it will never save,
but always condemn.
So if you've been around and resonate for a while,
or if this is your first time here,
because one of your friends said, hey, at church,
we do magic, and you're like, man, I don't like church,
but magic is my kryptonite, so I'm
going to go because I just really love magic.
So if you're here in that boat, great.
If you're here and you've been here the whole time,
either way, I think this is good for us,
because I don't want this misdirection
to creep into your life.
Because if it does, it will apply so much pressure on you
that you will start to feel like you could never measure up,
and then you will start to believe things about God
that are not true, and you will start
to think that in the end, it is all about your effort,
and you will become consumed and condemned by the scale.
You will, if you're not careful, if you follow this to its end,
you will become consumed and condemned by the scale,
that in the end, I must work harder, I must do more.
Every good thing I'm doing is to outweigh a bad thing
in this weird karma world that you get into.
If you're not careful, you will follow that to its end.
So I am here to pose a few questions for you today.
What if there's no scale in heaven?
What if when you stand before God,
you find out that he actually loves you?
And you find out that he had made a way for you
to know him that had nothing to do with scales.
What if you found out that God hated scales?
What if you found out that his favorite thing to do
was burn ladders?
What if you found out that God's great joy for you
was to call you his son, or call you his daughter,
and provide covering for all of your condemnation?
What if you could stand before God
and be absolutely certain that you would not
fall under the scale and condemnation world,
but rather would fall under clarity and confidence?
Would that be good news?
I think it would, and so I'm glad you're here.
So if you have a Bible, I'd love for you to grab it
and turn with me through Romans chapter eight,
and we're gonna take a look at what God has to say
about how we stand before him.
Romans chapter eight, verse one.
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Romans chapter eight, verse one.
It says this.
There is therefore now no condemnation
for those who are in Christ Jesus.
There is therefore now no condemnation
for those who are in Christ Jesus.
For the law of the spirit of life
has set you free in Christ Jesus
from the law of sin and death.
Listen to this, for God has done what the law,
what the scales, what the ladders,
God has done what the law could not do.
A weakened by the flesh could not do
by sending his own son in the likeness of sinful flesh.
And for sin, he condemns sin.
God condemns sin in the flesh
in order that the righteous requirement of the law
might be fulfilled in us
who walk not according to the flesh,
not according to the scale,
not according to the ladder, but according to the spirit.
So we're gonna explain,
there's a lot in there we're gonna explain
we're gonna get to the details of all that.
But right out of the gate, if you're taking notes,
I want you to write this down.
Point number one, based on Romans chapter eight is this,
religion condemns Jesus covers.
Religion condemns Jesus covers.
There are 16 chapters in the book of Romans.
If you know math, 16 divided by two is eight,
eight, one is right at the center of the book of Romans
as I was reading the great Baptist preacher,
Charles Spurgeon, who I love quoting
because he had a huge beard.
And he said, if your voice can't yell loud enough,
which I bring this up
because Russell's bringing me water right now.
If your voice can't stand up to preaching,
maybe you're not called to preach,
just as I go get water.
So Spurgeon said,
not only is this passage at the center of the book of Romans,
it is also the central teaching of all the Bible.
And I submit to you these words
in Romans chapter eight, verse one,
are the very center of the heart of our great God.
Romans chapter eight, verse one says,
there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ.
So why is this at the heart of God is the question.
Why is condemnation not coming for us at the heart of God?
Well, I went to Webster, the dictionary man,
and I looked up the word condemnation,
and here's what I found.
Condemnation defined by Webster is this.
The expression, hear this, the expression
of complete disapproval.
There is therefore now no condemnation for those in Christ.
The expression of complete disapproval.
The action of sentencing someone
to a particular punishment, namely death.
There is therefore now no condemnation,
there is no death, there is no penalty,
there is no separation, there is no disapproval,
there is no sentencing.
Can you see why this is at the heart
and the center of God and the scriptures
and in God as his way of acting towards us?
The expression of complete disapproval,
the action of sentencing someone
to a particular punishment, namely death.
So how is Romans eight, one possible?
If there is no condemnation for those in Christ,
who is Christ and what are we talking about?
Well, the book of Romans has these other verses.
I'm gonna read you five verses that I would say
are the capstone verses in the book of Romans.
And by walking through these,
we're gonna realize how chapter eight
is so powerful and so true.
Romans chapter three verse 23 says this,
all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.
Another way to say that is all don't stand a chance
on the scale, all have sinned and fallen short
of the glory of God.
You will never reach his glory.
You will never be able to do that.
You will always fall short, everybody.
Chapter six verse 23, the wages of sin is death.
But the gift of God is eternal life
through Jesus Christ our Lord.
The wages of McDonald's is money.
The wages of sin is death.
The wages of Starbucks is a latte once a month or whatever.
What you earn there is that.
What you earn by being a sinner, by working the scale.
What you earn in that is death.
Condemnation, the sentencing to death.
But, oh praise God for but in the Bible.
The wages of sin is death.
But the gift of God is eternal life
through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Romans chapter five verse 28 says this,
but God demonstrated his love towards us
that while we were still sinners,
Christ died for us.
God demonstrated his love for us
that while we were trying to pile on the scale,
while we were trying to climb the ladder,
while we were working hard in our death sin,
Christ died for us for sin
so that in him we might have eternal life.
Romans chapter 10 verse nine,
if you confess with your mouth
and believe in your heart that God,
if you confess with your mouth
and believe in your heart that God raised Christ from the dead,
you will be saved.
If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord.
And Lord means he is everything to me.
He's all I trust.
And believe in my heart that God raised him from the dead.
Then you will be saved.
Romans chapter 10 verse 13,
for everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.
So when I tell you this,
I mean this really simply and also really profoundly.
Religion will condemn you.
It will lead you to condemnation.
It will tell you you are worthless.
It will give you a to-do list, watch you fail,
call you worthless and walk away
and do nothing to intervene.
It will constantly put pressure on you
to never, ever, ever do anything but try hard
and never, ever, ever measure up.
That is what religion does.
It always condemns while Christ always covers.
And the language of covering is so simple.
This is as simple as you going out to eat
and forgetting your wallet and your friend saying,
don't worry, I've got you covered.
I will pay for your meal today
so that no condemnation, no consequence would come to you.
I have you covered.
That is a very simple way of saying that.
There are also very simple but yet death-defying ways
to say this in the military.
When someone covers you, they're protecting you from death
or if someone were to take a bullet for you to cover you,
that is the terminology that the scripture is using here.
Not only is that social terminology,
that's Bible terminology.
In Genesis chapter three in the Garden of Eden,
Adam and Eve, when they sin,
the first thing they do is they realize they're naked
and they go and they hide.
And you know what God does not do?
God does not go to the garden and say, Adam and Eve,
let's get together, we got a pep talk.
All right guys, you failed test one
but we're gonna try harder, okay?
I need you to go back out there and don't talk to the snakes.
They're talking snakes.
That's one sign not to talk to them.
But secondly, let's try harder, okay?
Let's clean it up, try harder.
Go make some clothes for yourself.
No, he shows up in the garden.
He calls them together, holds them responsible for their sin
but immediately sacrifices an animal to do what?
To cover them.
Though you deserve death, someone else will take your place.
He covers them.
Fast forward to the book of Exodus,
all of God's people are enslaved to Pharaoh
and all the plagues are coming.
If you've seen the Ten Commandments move,
you know what I'm talking about.
But there's this final plague where death is gonna come
for all the firstborns and God tells Moses to tell Israel,
you take blood and you put it over your doorpost
so that what, you'll be covered when death comes for you.
When death comes to Egypt, it will not come for you
because it will see the blood and it will pass over
because you are covered.
Are you tracking with this?
In John chapter eight, when the woman caught in adultery
is brought before Jesus, literally and metaphorically,
religion is about to throw rocks at her until she dies.
And Jesus literally and metaphorically covers her
and says, if any of you religious people are perfect,
go ahead and throw rocks.
But the only one here that's perfect is me
and I would not like to throw rocks at her.
I would like to cover her.
Religion condemns Jesus covers.
That is foundational to Romans eight chapter one.
I need you to believe that from the beginning of time,
God has taken our condemnation and provided his covering
for it and Romans eight one says that if you are in Christ,
there is no condemnation for you.
You know what that means?
It means condemnation has been condemned.
It means that if condemnation wants to come for you,
it would have to pass through Jesus because you are in Christ
and condemnation would have to go through the one
that conquered it to get to you.
So Christ is covering you even now in this moment.
Right now there is no condemnation for those in Christ
because Christ has condemned the condemnation.
You catch that you could never be condemned
because you're covered from condemnation
by the one who condemned the condemmer
who gives you condemnation.
He can't reach you.
Should I say it again?
We'll move on.
Point number two based out of Romans chapter eight verse two.
The scripture says the law of the spirit of life,
which is authority language.
The law of the spirit of life has set you free
from the law of sin and death.
So point number two is religion enslaves Jesus saves.
Forgive me for that rhyming.
I tried not to let it rhyme, but it rhymes.
It's cheesy.
I don't care.
I need you to get it.
It is so foundational.
If you go, well, that rhymes,
I'll pay attention to keep up with it.
Praise God it works.
Religion enslaves Jesus saves.
In Michael Horton's book, Christless Christianity,
he poses this question.
What would it look like
if Satan had complete control over a city?
And then in the book, he talks about this guy
who was a pastor in Philadelphia
for 30 years named Donald Barnhouse.
And Donald Barnhouse was posed with that question
many, many years ago in the 40s.
And Barnhouse said, this is what would happen
if Satan took over a city.
The first thing is all the bars
would be forced to close down.
Pornography would be banned.
Everybody would be pristine people
living pristine lives, having to dress nice,
and manners would be mandatory.
Little kids would say yes, ma'am and no, ma'am.
And there would be no crime found in the city.
And everyone would be required to go to church.
And they would go to church every Sunday
and they would smile and they would pretend it's going well.
And then preachers would get up every Sunday
and they would open a Bible
and they would preach condemnation to people.
Every single Sunday saying try harder, work more,
be nicer, be more moral.
Every single Sunday that would happen.
But the preachers would never give the congregation Christ.
Never.
They would never give him Christ.
Christ could not be the grand subject of any preaching,
could not be mentioned in the city,
but morality would be king, but Christ would be banned.
That's what it would look like
if Barnhouse said if Satan ruled a city.
Now, whether you believe that picture to be true or not,
I think you understand what Barnhouse is trying to say.
Satan is not troubled by a moral improvement plan.
Satan welcomes that.
He says, you guys wanna play the scale game?
That is the best misdirection I have.
Come to church all you want.
Listen to preachers all you want.
Believe Christ out of it.
Cause if you leave Christ out of it,
you will still be a slave.
If you bring Christ into it,
you have the chance to be saved.
And I don't want any of you saved.
So let's play the ladder game.
Let's play shoots and ladders.
I don't care.
Let's play all of it.
Let's misdirect you in every way possible.
Shoots and ladders was my favorite game going up.
It just came into my mind.
So I said it right then.
It's just how it works up here.
You just start talking.
I'm hearing this for the first time too, guys.
So the truth is you and I will be enslaved
if all we're after is morality.
So I started thinking about that Barnhouse city
where Satan is king.
And I wondered to myself,
what songs they would sing in that church?
So they go to church and they're moral.
So I started thinking like,
what songs would they sing at moral church?
Certainly they would have to be songs about themselves
because if the whole thing is lacking Christ
then they would have to sing about themselves.
And I thought about one of my favorite songs
that was written in 1863 by Charles Barncroft.
And it was a song my wife Amy walked down the aisle to.
And it says, before the throne of God above,
I have a strong and perfect plea,
a great high priest whose name is love,
whoever lives and pleads for me.
My, I'm getting emotional thinking about my wife.
My name is written on his hand.
My name is written on his heart.
I know that while in heaven he stands,
no tongue can bid me thence depart.
When Satan tempts me to despair
and tells me of the guilt within upward I look
and see him there who made an end to all my sin.
Because the sinless savior died,
my sinful soul is counted free for God,
the just is satisfied to look on him
and pardon me.
They could never sing that in that church
where Satan runs the city.
What would they sing?
Before the throne of God,
I have a strong scale that all my good goes on.
And on the other side of my bad goes on.
And thankfully I have a lot of good in my life.
Before the throne of God above,
I climbed the ladder really well and I earned it.
So I have a strong and perfect me.
Now I have a strong and perfect plea.
You couldn't sing that when you're enslaved.
So my hope for you is that you would hear this
and believe that you and I,
if we chase morality to its end,
we're slaves by the grandest misdirection of them all.
But if we chase Christ to its end,
then we are invited into a relationship
of utmost freedom and utmost joy.
So point number three, based on Romans chapter eight,
verse three.
Romans eight three says, for God has done
what the law could not do.
God has done what scales could not do,
what morality could not do.
God has done for us what we could never do for ourselves.
So in light of that,
Christ came into the world to condemn sin on our behalf.
So point number three is religion says do.
Jesus says done.
Religion says do.
Jesus says done.
Now some of you,
college educated people are taking notes and you think,
man, Josh, your three points are exactly the same.
You're exactly right.
I did not want you to miss this.
I picked three ways to say the same thing.
The hope is that you would see this misdirection
so clearly that you rejected wholesale.
You would see the misdirection of morality so clearly
that you would reject religion,
reject morality as a savior
and go to Christ as the savior.
My hope this morning is that you would see grace
for all it is as the mega theme of the Bible.
Grace has used 600 times in the scriptures.
It is the opposite of religion.
It is the antithesis.
It is the enemy of religion.
Religion says God loves good people so you better be good.
Grace says you are not good,
but you're in luck.
God loves bad people. Religion says you better work hard
to pursue God.
Grace says you're in luck.
God has worked hard to pursue you.
They are at odds with each other.
So if you were to ask by definition, what is grace?
In a sentence, grace is God the Father in love
because he loves you.
Grace is God the Father in love doing good
for ill deserving sinners.
You hear that doing good?
Not God saying you do good,
but God because he loves you doing good for you
that you could never do.
He did for ill deserving sinners by God the Son
through God the Spirit.
Now there's a distinction between undeserving
and ill deserving.
Undeserving is forgiving someone who doesn't deserve it
at the hope that they won't continue doing it is
whatever it is that made you need to forgive them.
You tracking with that?
I realized what you did was wrong.
So I forgive you though, you don't deserve it.
Ill deserving is as if there was a group of people
doing everything they could to harm me and my family
and my friends doing everything they could to harm me.
And it was as if me and my family and friends
sold all of our houses, gave all of our stuff away
to get money and then turn and gave money to these people
who are going to use that money to continue to try
to harm me.
That's ill deserving.
You and I are not undeserving of grace.
We are ill deserving of grace.
That God knew he would rescue us only to see us
turn and run back to scale world,
turn and run back to the ladders,
turn and run back to whatever it is
that we think will make us good enough.
But even in the middle of that,
God pursued us and chased us and gave us grace
even though he knew that we would love morality
and that we would run back to it.
So there's two really simple action steps
from the sermon, I think.
And there's two groups of people in the room.
There's a group of people that would say they follow Jesus
and there's a group of people that say,
yeah, I'm not sure I follow Jesus.
So point number one would be for those who would say,
and I follow Jesus.
And here it is, based on Romans chapter eight
verses one through three.
Action step number one is this.
Realize, hear me church people, you ready?
Realize that you want to be good enough
and reject it with all your heart.
Now this is really tricky for me to say
and I want to say this gently,
but there is a dark place in you, church people, and me.
There's a dark place in you that really wants
to be good enough, that really wants to qualify,
that really wants to impress God with your fancy phrases
and life of service, that really wants to stand before God
and say, yeah, yeah, I know Jesus,
but when are you gonna get to the part about me
and about how awesome I was
and about how much I accomplished
and about how good I did things
and about how moral I was.
There's a dark place in us that is very quick
to take Christ out of the equation
and say, I can still do it on my own.
That is a misdirection.
See that, repent of that, reject that.
Church is a very dangerous place for moral people
because moral people will begin to think
that that moral code is all it takes to be a Christian,
then they'll become the morality police,
then they'll judge those who aren't moral
and they'll stand before God and say,
God, aren't you glad you got me on the team
because I'm a lot better than that guy
who parties a lot and does bad stuff.
Aren't you happy you got me on the team?
Listen, church people, Jesus is more critical with you
than he ever was with anyone else.
In John chapter five, he's talking
to the most religious people of the day,
people that had the first five books
to the Bible memorized and he looks at them
and if you read it in the message translation,
John chapter five, it says Jesus looks at them
and says, every day you put your eyes
and your nose in the scriptures,
but you will never turn your face
and see that those point to me.
Every day you come and you worship
and you memorize the scriptures that testify about me,
yet you never came to me.
There is no life in the law.
There's life in me, the fulfiller of the law.
Be careful that you do not assume performance for God
as approval from God.
In college, I'm in a preaching class.
There's 30 men in the room.
My professor says, if you have time,
write down all 30 names of the men in this room
and I bet you, odds are by the time you die,
20 of these men will no longer be preaching.
10 of them will get burned out and go work at Home Depot.
Praise God, I hope you still love Jesus.
Home Depot is great.
The other 10 of you are going
to completely reject the gospel altogether
and you're gonna get a blog
where you make fun of people that believe the gospel.
That's what the odds are,
because there's a dangerous misdirection
in preaching and leading and serving
that you would equate performance for God
with approval from God.
And listen, I'm 10 years out of college
and I know off the top of my head right now,
five guys from that class
who are no longer following, loving, serving Jesus.
And I know one of those dudes that has the blog
our professor was making fun of.
I know that guy who he writes and he says,
Christians are crazy, Christians aren't this.
And he was the almost outspoken guy in class.
Every time he talked, I was like,
oh God, would you get me out of here?
Like this, he's the, that guy, bailed.
I'm making fun of it because you know them.
Listen, I don't bring that up to make you fearful.
I bring that up to say, church people, be careful.
There's a misdirection even in religion
that the closer you get to it, the less you see.
So I hope you never lose your love
of just meeting with Jesus that you would never say,
I only read the Bible because I teach the Bible.
I only do this because I'm preparing to lead something.
But rather you say, no, no, no, of course I lead.
Of course I do that.
But in the end, I'd get up early
because I meet with the one I love.
And I worship Christ because I love him
and he's rescued me.
And of course I'm moral, of course I do good things.
But I do that because it helps me love Christ.
I do that for Christ, because of Christ.
And I will never, ever substitute those things
inappropriately.
So I want you to realize that
and I want you to reject it whole sale.
Lastly, and I would say most importantly,
for the group of people in the room that say,
yeah, I'm not sure if I follow Jesus.
My plead with you, my action step for you
would be to recognize your need for Jesus
and respond to him.
We were at a conference last year
and the speaker said this.
He said, sin doesn't make you bad, it makes you dead.
And the gospel doesn't make you better,
it makes you alive.
So this morning, I would hope that you would hear this
and say, the truth is I need what it is you're talking about.
And you keep using the word gospel.
What is the gospel?
Well, this summer I was on Twitter
and Twitter had a contest.
You guys heard of Twitter.com?
You heard of it?
It's on your phone?
No? Okay.
So it's this thing that people are doing
that you can only use 140 characters to communicate.
It's called tweeting.
I'm just kidding, I know you know, I'm just kidding.
So the goal of this summer's,
it was like a test of who could say the gospel
in 140 characters.
And the winning tweet, if you will, was six words.
The winning tweet of what is the good news about God,
what is the gospel.
The six word winning tweet was this.
Slay the dragon, get the girl.
Slay the dragon, get the girl.
And you might think, man, Josh,
you made a really big point of that.
And you said Twitter twice
and now you're gonna say, save the dragon, get the girl.
Yeah, here's why.
I know that's simple and I know that's,
it's also really profound.
The reason I bring it up is because most guys in the room
when I say, slay the dragon, get the girl,
you think, okay, let me get my sword and slay the dragon.
Listen to me, guys.
That is profound because slay the dragon, get the girl,
means that you're the dead damsel in distress
in the top of the castle
and you need someone to come slay the dragon and get you.
Guys, you're the girl.
Slay the dragon, get the girl is profound
because you are not the dragon slayer.
You are the woman in the tower
that in some ways is helping the dragon win.
And so Christ is so profound in this
because God looked down upon,
he looked down in love,
upon hopelessly sinful people.
Hopelessly sinful, stuck at the top of the castle,
absolutely distressed,
kind of liking the dragon more than the dragon slayer.
He looked down on us and he saw us in our state
and he sent Christ to conquer the dragon,
to conquer sin on the cross.
So on the cross, all of our condemnation went to Christ
so that all of his covering would come to us.
He conquered sin on the cross.
He conquered the scale.
He conquered the ladder.
He conquered the checklist.
He conquered morality.
He conquered religion on the cross.
And then he goes into the grave
and shows his power over that stuff in the resurrection
saying with authority,
death is now dead for those who believe in me.
Slay the dragon, get the girl is profound
because it is the very heart of our God
that he looked down on us
and could not imagine leaving us on our own.
Could not imagine leaving us
without a rescue.
So he looked down and he said,
my heart is that there is no condemnation for them.
So I will give myself to be the hero
and the rescue of this story.
And the goal of the woman saved by the dragon slayer
is to cling to him with all of their might.
Not to turn around and say, look what I did.
So when I invite you to respond to the gospel,
I'm inviting you to respond to the one
who gave his life for your life
so that you would not have to go through the pressure
of figuring out, am I doing enough with the scale?
Friends, Christ has done enough on your behalf.
He has paid it all.
And I hope in our church, we're filled with people
who could say before the throne of God above,
I have a strong and perfect plea.
A great high priest whose name is love,
whoever lives and pleads for me.
That's what I hope for us.
I hope that we would be men and women who recognize
that we've been rescued from a situation
that we could never get ourselves out of.
For God's sake, he rescued us.
I think the most overlooked part of Romans chapter eight
is in verse one where it says, there is therefore now.
No condemnation, so the word now.
So right now, even in this room,
right now, even in this moment,
there is therefore now.
Right now, no condemnation is offered to you right now.
You might've just came to church today going,
what about magic or what about my friends
or with a lot of questions?
And right now, at this moment,
no condemnation is offered to you.
You could be moved out from condemnation into covering.
And what do you have to do?
Scripture says you've got to believe in your heart
that Jesus is Lord, that he did slay the dragon
to save the girl.
And you've got to confess with your mouth that truth.
And you've got to believe in your heart
that God raised him from the dead.
And Romans 10, 13 says, anyone,
I don't care how bad your sin is,
I don't care what you've done,
the dragon has been slayed so that you might be rescued.
Anyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved,
will be exchanged, condemnation for covering.
That is incredible news today.
And I hope you hear that.
And I hope you believe it.
I hope even now something's happening in you,
saying, man, I came in and I wasn't sure about this,
but I would really be interested in coming out
from condemnation, the sentence that is on my head.
I would like that to go away,
to come under the covering of a God who loves you.
Religion never provides salvation.
But Christ in his heroic act on our behalf has provided it.
So even now, what I want us to do is,
is everyone in the room just to bow their head for a moment.
And I want us to think about this.
So just right where you are,
I want you to bow your head and close your eyes
if that helps you block out the world
and what's going on around you.
And right where you are, I want you to ask yourself
this one question, very simple question.
Am I trusting the scale?
Or am I trusting the savior?
So right where you are, I want you to ask yourself,
are you trusting the scale?
That in the end, you might have enough good
to outweigh your bad.
Or are you trusting that God loves you
and has provided a savior for you?
So my hope this morning is that there are some of you
that say, if I'm honest, Josh, I've been trusting the scale.
But I would like to not trust the scale anymore
and I would like to turn and trust Christ as my savior.
So that's you this morning.
And if you're thinking that right now,
I want to pray something.
And as I pray this, I want you just to repeat after me,
you can just say it in your mind, say it in your heart.
I want you to say, Heavenly Father,
I believe Jesus died on the cross for my sins.
I believe he was buried and rose again.
I reject the scale and embrace Jesus as my savior.
I trust him to provide forgiveness for my sins.
And I trust that because of Jesus,
I stand before you as righteous, no longer guilty.
God, receive me into your family.
I'm thrilled to join the church.
And it's in the name of Jesus, I pray, amen.
So everybody stay where you are,
stay with your head bowed and your eyes closed.
So if this morning you said from the scales
to the savior is what just happened in your life.
If you repeated what I just prayed for the very first time,
would you just look up at me for a second?
If you say, Josh, for the very first time in my whole life,
I prayed that with you.
So for those of you who are looking at me,
I want you to catch this, this is significant.
Something happened just now.
Like just now something happened that you said,
I want to reject the scale and I want to follow the savior.
What just happened was cosmic and also like right now it matters.
And so I want you to talk to someone about it.
So in the back of the room,
we have village leaders who are,
they're standing at the entrances.
And if you're a girl, there's girls back there that would say,
hey, can we talk about what's happened?
If you're a guy, there's guys back there.
But listen, for those of you who are looking at me right now,
it might take just a touch of boldness
that people sitting besides you aren't gonna mind.
But what just happened was significant.
And I would love for you to talk to someone about it.
So those of you who are looking at me,
would you be bold enough just to stand up where you are
and walk back to the back and talk to someone?
No one around you will mind.
We've got plenty of time here this morning.
As people are moving to the back,
I want to pray for the rest of us
that we might be bold enough to respond to the gospel.
And if you looked at me this morning and said,
man, I'm just not comfortable going to the back,
would you fill out a connection card?
Or would you come talk to me after service?
There's no condemnation for you.
That's the whole point of the sermon.
There's no condemnation,
but we want you not to miss what just happened.
So Father, I pray for us this morning.
God, I pray that you would move in the hearts of non-believers
who are here, God, that you would rescue and save and redeem.
And God, for hearts of believers,
I pray that we are encouraged and inspired
and excited for what you've accomplished on our behalf.
And so God, I pray that over the course of these next few songs,
God, we would worship our minds off.
God, we would be so overwhelmed and overjoyed
by what you have done on our behalf
that we would respond and worship.
Because God, you have saved us.
And that is incredible news that demands a response,
that demands a life of response.
So Father, we're thankful for what you've done.
I pray that we worship with thanksgiving.
And I pray all of this.
And we do all of this.
In Jesus' name, amen.
