Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: Almighty God, you welcome you. Hey, there.
[00:00:06] Speaker B: If you're new to Restored Church, we want to welcome you and thank you for tuning in. You're listening to a portion of our Sunday worship gathering. We believe the church is not an event, but a family you belong to, so we would love the opportunity to connect with you. If you want to learn more about our church or if we can help you in any way, please Visit our website, www.restoredtemecula.church, and click on Contact. With all that said, we, we hope you enjoy the message.
[00:00:35] Speaker A: Wonderful.
Hey, where's.
Where's Albatross Cloth? I saw him earlier.
Oh, come on, man. Okay. Hey, listen, listen. He's okay. It's great. Today is Chad's birthday. Okay?
I actually don't want to interrupt a sermon, because that would be weird, but just make sure you give him love when he comes in, okay? Just cheer for him or something. I'll stop my sermon and we can just honor him.
Those of you guys who don't know Chad, amazing guy. He. Him and his family, they moved. Him and his wife Melissa, they moved up here to help start this church eight years ago.
Love him dearly. He's a good man. When he comes in, just cheer for him. It's his birthday also today. I don't know if you guys know this. Today's Mother's Day, right?
Yes. I already heard a couple people mention it. Just, like, want to honor you ladies in the room, all you moms, literally, we wouldn't be here without you.
But in all seriousness, ladies, especially, like, the ways that God has graced this specific body of believers, this unique church family.
There he is. Happy birthday.
Happy birthday, Chad. We love you. Thanks for sharing your birthday with us. And thanks for sharing your birthday with Mother's Day, bro.
That is fire right there.
How do you do that, man? That's tough.
Honor you, bro. Honor you. But, okay, so women, really quickly, the ways that you love and the ways that you serve and the ways that you nurture. Listen, whether you're a biological mom or a spiritual mom or a mother figure, God has created women in such a way to nurture and to love and to care.
And the world needs it.
The people around you, your people, they need it. And so I just want to honor you women, every single one of you, you moms, to be you future moms, you current moms. What? I said, whether biological, spiritual, mother figures, the ways that you love, the ways that you nurture, the ways that you care.
It's evidence of God's love and care and it reminds me of him. So I just want to honor you and bless you this morning on Mother's Day.
It's an honor to be your pastor. Without further ado, grab your Bible, open to Matthew, chapter 21. That's where we'll be this morning. Matthew, chapter 21. We're going to start in verse 28.
We'll go through verse 32. We're continuing on in our series, the King and His Kingdom. You've heard me say this 101 times at this point. This is message number 101.
We have been exploring Matthew's gospel. It's his account of the life, the ministry, the death, the resurrection of Jesus Christ, God in the flesh, the Savior, the Messiah, the promised King, the King of the universe. And we've been exploring Matthew's Gospel to learn as much as we can about the King and his kingdom. The king is Jesus. The kingdom of God, the kingdom of heaven is. What does it look like when God gets his way? What does it look like when God is ruling and reigning in all areas of life, in all of creation? And we've been exploring this for, like I said, a long time now.
And this morning, I was going through this. Just thinking, man, today's sermon, it feels kind of fitting for Mother's Day. All right? Every single one of us has at least one thing in common. But one thing that we all have in common is that we were born.
That means that we were in the room when our mom gave birth to us. And when your mom gave birth to you, it wasn't an easy thing for her, okay?
It was intense. It was hard. But the outcome of that intensity of your birth was what it was. You.
It was something transcendently beautiful. It was a human life, right?
The beauty overshadowed the intensity in that room. You with me?
I want to warn you this morning.
Today's sermon will cover some intense biblical topics, okay? But I assure you, the beauty, it overshadows the intensity. Okay?
So without further ado, I want to pray for us before we dive into God's word together. And I want to invite you to join me. Let's pray.
Lord, we love you.
We're thankful for the ways that you pour out grace and goodness in our lives.
Holy Spirit, I want to ask that you would teach us this morning that you would reveal more and more of who Jesus is and what that means for us.
Would you teach us about your kingdom, how we were made for it, how we thrive, and how maybe, just maybe, there might be areas where we might be missing out?
We love You, Jesus, we invite you. Holy spirit, have your way among us.
In your name we pray. And all God's people said amen. Amen. Okay, so before we dive in, I just want to put the context in front of you where we're picking up here in the story. In case you haven't been following along with us in this series, but we're still in the final week of Jesus Life, okay? In a matter of days, he's going to go to the cross to pay the debt of sin for all of mankind, right? And Jesus, in this passage that we're gonna read today, Jesus, he's in the temple, okay? He's actually technically in the courtyard of the temple and he's teaching people. And if you remember what happens, some of these religious leaders, some of the Jewish religious leaders, they show up and they interrupt Jesus's teaching, okay? And what they do is they publicly start to kind of question Jesus authority.
By what authority are you doing all these things? By what authority are you healing people? By what authority are you performing miracles? By what authority are you cleansing the temple and kicking out all these people who are greedy and trying to profit off of the worship of God's people and making a mockery of a place that's supposed to be a place of prayer and you're making it a place of commerce and just all of these spectacular things that Jesus is doing in his ministry.
By what authority are you doing these things? Right? So they publicly question Jesus authority. And during this run in, if you remember what happens, Jesus exposes these guys publicly.
He exposes them. He exposes their incompetence as leaders.
He exposes their lack of integrity.
It's funny, man. If you study Jesus at all or if you know him or you spend any time with him, Jesus has a way of exposing the truth about people, doesn't he?
He has a way of exposing the truth about us, whether that be godly or not.
There's something about Jesus.
You know, John called Jesus the light of the world. Actually, no. Jesus called himself the light of the world. And John references in John chapter one, he says the light of the world came.
He exposes the truth about us, whether it's godly or not. So Jesus has this run in with these religious leaders, right? And he exposes their incompetence, he exposes their lac integrity. And then Jesus, what he does, he's a most brilliant teacher of all time, the greatest teacher of all time. What he does is he starts to tell some parables. In fact, he tells three parables to Teach both those religious leaders and this big crowd of people who are listening to his teaching. He tells them these three parables to teach them about the kingdom of God, the kingdom of heaven. Okay, today we're gonna cover this first of the three parables. Okay, so Matthew chapter 21, starting in verse 28, this is Jesus speaking. Get the picture? He's in the courtyard of the temple. The religious leaders interrupted him. He just exposed their incompetence and their lack of integrity. The people are gathered around. He's about to continue this teaching. Cause he wants to drive home the truth of the kingdom of God to people who maybe don't, maybe, just maybe aren't fully realizing it. This is what he says.
He goes, what do you think?
Here comes the story. Here comes the parable. A man had two sons.
He went to the first and said, my son, go work in the vineyard today.
The son answered, I don't want to. Sound familiar, parents?
I don't want to. But later he, the son changed his mind and went.
Then the man, the dad went to the other, the other son and said the same thing.
I will, sir, he answered, but he didn't go.
Which of the two did his father's will?
They said the first.
Jesus said to them crowd, including the religious leaders. But he's specifically talking to the religious leaders here. He says this truly, I tell you, tax collectors and prostitutes are entering the kingdom of God before you.
For John. He's talking about John the Baptist, right? If you remember the prophet John the Baptist, he came calling people to turn away from their sin, to embrace the Messiah, Jesus.
Jesus says, for John came to you in the way of righteousness and you didn't believe him.
Tax collectors and prostitutes did believe him.
But you, when you saw it, didn't even change your minds then and believe him.
Alright, so that's our parable.
What I want to do is I just want you to get the picture here. I want you to view it almost like a movie in your mind. Okay?
You have the dad and he goes to the first son. Son number one tells the son to do his chores. And the son responds with classic kid moment. I've done it. Your kids have done it. If you're a youth in the room, you've done it. I don't want to.
Is the son one's response. I don't want to.
And then later it says that son changes his mind and actually does what the father told him to do, right? And then the dad goes and asks son number two to do his chores and his Response is, I will, sir. So really respectable. Calls his dad sir, says he's gonna do it, and then actually doesn't end up doing it, right. And Jesus goes, which son did the father's will?
And the religious leaders, I don't know if you caught it, they actually answered the question correctly.
They gave the right answer.
It was son number one.
That's who did the will of the father. Son number one, the son who says, I don't want to, but changes his mind and does what his father told him to do.
Now, remember what I said. Jesus, he has this way with people. He has this way of exposing the truth about people, whether it's godly or whether it's not.
And remember, he just got done exposing some ungodly truths about these guys, these religious leaders. He just got done exposing their lack of integrity and their incompetence as leaders. And right here he exposes something else. Did you catch what it was?
He's exposing their hypocrisy.
He's exposing their hypocrisy.
So I grew up playing sports, and the sport that I spent the most time playing was basketball.
And for those of you that played basketball growing up, this will resonate with you, but it seems like almost every team that I played, there was always like this one dude on the team who couldn't stop running his mouth.
And oftentimes it wasn't even one of the better players. It was just some dude who, like, made the squad. And he's there and just constantly chirping, constantly talking trash, constantly running his mouth, and again, couldn't really back it up.
Now, one of the things that I found really interesting in that environment was that guys would talk like, serious trash even when our team was destroying them. Like, they would talk trash when they're down by 20.
And one of the classic responses that our coach instruct us to say so that we wouldn't take the bait and get into like, kind of the trash talk, banter back and forth is he would just go, when we're winning and some guy on the team's talking trash, just say one word. You guys know what the word is?
Score. Yeah. You guys know scoreboard because it is just like it exposes, like, you're just running your mouth. You're not even really helping.
You're just talking trash for the sake of talking trash. So the classic response was scoreboard, and you're done. You're just moving on. Keep playing the game, right?
Tip for you, athletes just want to say this. Don't talk trash unless you can back it up. It's like a thing. You become the annoying person on the court or on the field, on the pitch.
But listen, this idea of, like, scoreboard, right? Don't talk trash if you can't back it up. Because your words alone. In any sport, your words alone are not enough.
Your words alone. They're not gonna put points on the board.
They're not gonna do that, right? You have to actually do something to put those points on the board. Now, listen, Jesus, he's using this parable to teach something kind of similar.
He's using this parable to teach something similar. He's saying, you religious leaders, all of your words, all the things that we say to present ourselves a certain way, he goes, they don't actually affect the score of the game.
Hear me. Our words are not enough.
If you're a note taker this morning, my first point is this. Words without works is hypocrisy.
Words without works is hypocrisy. Okay? In this moment, Jesus is exposing something else about these guys. He's exposing their hypocrisy. He's saying that these religious leaders, he goes, you guys, you're like son number two in the parable, the story I just told, he goes, you guys have words, but you don't have works. You're just talking trash, but you're not putting any points on the board.
How does this play out for them in their relationship with God? He's saying, you don't actually do what God instructs you to do. You just run your mouth. You just talk.
Now, if you are familiar with the New Testament, you know that Jesus, he talks about hypocrisy a lot, especially here in Matthew.
It feels like every other page, Jesus is. He's talking about hypocrisy, and he's kind of condemning it, really.
In Matthew, Jesus says things like, these people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me.
And the more you read about Jesus in the New Testament, the more it becomes really clear Jesus has got a big problem with hypocrisy.
My wife Ebony and I, we've been together since 2003, so I forget what year it was, but we crossed that threshold where we have, like, been together as a couple longer in our lives than we've been apart.
Makes you feel real old.
But I. Man, I was thinking this week about the early days of our kind of relationship as it was blossoming and our love as it was growing. And we started dating in the summer of 2003, and I just remember that season Ebony would like.
She's always been a very thoughtful person, but I remember being introduced to her intentionality and her thoughtfulness.
Like, I can remember there's a time when there was a cd. You guys know what a CD is? It's a compact disc.
There was a CD that I really was, like, into at the time. I didn't own it, but there were songs that were just really in my heart.
It was Coldplay's record when it first came out, Rush of Blood to the Head. I loved that. The songs were so. They were so good.
And so I'm working with Brandon and Jill at the pizza store, and I come out of my shift, I get to the back of the store, and I come out to my car. I'm leaving. And she had bought the cd, put it on my car with, like, a note. Just really intentional. I wanted me to have. I was like, oh, man, this girl.
This is great.
I remember her intentionality. I remember for my 18th birthday, we'd only been dating, like, geez, a couple months.
She sent me on this, like, all day long scavenger hunt where I had to go to people that I knew and loved, and they would send. It's like this beautiful. Like, they'd send me to the next place, which had somebody else there, and, like, a gift, and it was just like this beautiful thing. It took me most of the day, but it was just like, oh, my gosh, she. The planning and the thought and the, like, the care and the intentionality. I remember, like, dude, this girl's different. Like.
And I remember as our relationship started to kind of progress and I started to see her more clearly for who she was and how wonderful she was, and thoughtful and intentional and beautiful inside and out, I remember just thinking, like, man, my feelings for her are growing. Her feelings for me are growing. And we came to this point in our relationship that every couple who stays together eventually gets to.
And it's the point where it's like, okay, who's gonna say it first?
You know what I'm talking about?
Who's gonna say those three little words first? What are those three words?
All right, you guys are tracking who's gonna be the bold one, who's gonna be the courageous one. That's like, all right, we've been together for a while now. My feelings for you are very strong. Your feelings for me are very strong. Like, am I going to put words to this in such a way that's vulnerable?
I love you.
Because here's the thing. You can't like rush into that.
That's not like a second date thing, is it? Guys, you want to freak a girl out.
Girls, you want to freak a guy out.
Second date. I love you. Don't do it.
You can't rush through that, because. Why?
Cause saying I love you is a powerful thing.
It could be a very powerful thing.
Now I want you to do something with me.
I want you to imagine a relationship between a guy and a girl.
I want you to imagine a relationship with a guy. He rarely talks to the girl for more than a couple minutes.
When he does talk to her, he kind of says things that are like, honorable, lack integrity.
He doesn't really spend much time with her. When he is with her, he doesn't really serve her.
In fact, oftentimes he kind of will avoid her unless he wants something from her.
He doesn't really care to understand her heart or her desires or her dreams.
He doesn't seek to bless her or protect her when she's vulnerable.
But he does say, I love you a lot.
Would you believe him?
Young ladies, shake your head no, but he's tracking with me. Would you believe him?
No.
Listen, saying I love you is powerful, but it's not that powerful because words alone are not enough.
Words without works is hypocrisy.
That's what Jesus is trying to teach here in this parable, guys. In fact, In John, chapter 14, verse 15, Jesus, he says something about love.
What he does not say is he does not say, if you love me, tell me, what does he say? Is it up there?
Yeah. If you love me, obey me.
If you love me, obey me. Because words without works is hypocrisy. And according to this parable, listen to me, hypocrisy keeps a person from the kingdom of God.
This is really, really big.
Hypocrisy keeps a person from the kingdom of God. Now, you've heard me talk about this a little bit before in the past, so bear with me. If you heard this before, if you haven't, it'll be helpful. But in the original language, the original Greek, when it talks about hypocrisy, or Jesus calls someone a hypocrite, or he exposes it like he does in this parable, the original language of a hypocrite, it meant a masked actor.
So actors back in the day, 2,000 years ago, they would wear masks as part of their costume, as part of their. As part of the character that they were cast to play, right? So a masked actor, someone who performs wearing a mask. Okay, so hypocrisy is when we pretend to be something we're not, when we pretend to be something we're not, when the outside that we are presenting to the world doesn't really match what's going on in the inside.
Now here's the thing.
All of us are hypocrites to some degree, every single one of us, myself included.
So hear me, Jesus, point here. His point isn't that inconsistency disqualifies you forever from the kingdom.
But hear me.
Persistent, unrepentant hypocrisy.
It does.
It does.
Our words alone are not enough.
Okay, you and I, we can say I love God.
If you're a Christian in this room, right, you're a follower of Jesus in the room, we can say, I love him, I worship him, I'm a disciple of Jesus. We can say these things. I love God. But hear me, are there areas of disobedience in your life that you have not yet turned away from?
Like things that you know you ought not do or things you know you should do, but you don't hear me? A person can say they love God just like a guy can say he loves his girl.
But listen, words alone are not enough.
That's what Jesus is exposing about these religious leaders in this parable, that their words alone are not enough. Jesus is saying, if you want to enter the kingdom of God, you want to come inside. You want to enter the kingdom of God. Hear me. Partially right now, partially in the presence, and fully in the future, in eternity with God. If you want to enter the kingdom of God, both now and forever, your words alone are not enough.
Some of you are like, where are you going with this, bro? This feels like anti gospel. Oh, just wait.
Hear me.
Your words matter.
Don't misunderstand. Please don't hear what I'm not saying. Our words matter. They really do.
But words alone are not enough.
To enter the kingdom of God requires what the first Son did that the second Son did not. Did you catch what it was?
Look back at verse 29 for me.
Look back at verse 29.
He, the first Son answered, I don't want to.
But later he what?
Changed his mind. Step one and step two. So changed his mind. Okay? That's step one of what the Bible calls repentance. We talk about this all the time.
Step one of repentance is what?
Change your mind. Okay? It's a changing of the mind.
Step two of repentance is obeying the Father, changing the mind. Step one. Step two, obeying the Father Okay? So repentance, please hear me. This is critical. If you wanna follow Jesus, okay? If you wanna live in the kingdom of God, both now and forever, you have to hear me.
Repentance is first the changing of the mind.
I'm not gonna live that way anymore, okay? Here in your mind, it's a changing of your mind. I'm not gonna live this way anymore. And then it's a change of behavior instead.
Going to do what the Father says to do or not do.
So listen, Repentance requires obedience.
Wrap your mind around this.
Repentance requires obedience. So listen, if you recognize sin in your life, which, if you're in this room, I hate to break it to you, you're just like me. You're going to struggle with sin, okay? You're going to struggle to put yourself at the center of your life. You're going to struggle to do things your way instead of God's way. You're going to struggle to. So sometimes it's gonna come out sideways against the people that you love and care about. But you don't need me to tell you that if you're in this room, you're just like me. You struggle with sin, okay? If you recognize sin in your life, let's just use kind of three super common ones that everybody in the room has been guilty of at some time in their life. But let's be honest, let's be open, let's be real and just acknowledge we are all imperfect people. Let's just use three as a case study, okay? Pride.
How about gossip?
And how about lust?
Anybody in the room never engaged in pride, gossip or lust, raise your hand.
Okay, cool. So we're on the same page. Great. We all need Jesus. So pride, gossip and lust. Pride. If you're wondering what does he mean by what does he mean when he says pride? Pride is when you think too high or too low of yourself so you can err on either side.
I'm just a worm that doesn't agree with what God says about you.
Your opinion has just trumped God's opinion. He says you're fearful and wonderfully made. There's nobody like you. You're worth the body and the blood of Jesus. You with me? And then there's the arrogant pride where it's like, I'm the best person in the room. I'm not like him, I'm not like her.
You see pride, right? It's thinking too high or too low of yourself. Gossip. What is that? You don't need me to tell you, but I'M gonna tell you anyway. It's talking about other people behind their back in harmful or damaging or even divisive ways.
That's what gossip is.
Lust. It's not just in sexual stuff, although that's very common. But lust, what lust is, it's an over desire for something or someone that violates God's design.
So hear me, if you ever recognize pride in your life, or you ever recognize gossip or lust, three very common things that we all agree we've all done.
If you recognize pride in your life or gossip in your life, or lust, hear me. But you continue to do it.
You continue to disobey the Father in that specific way. Hear me. You haven't yet repented.
You can have remorse.
But if you continue in that behavior, continue in the disobedience, you have not yet repented.
Why?
Because repentance requires obedience. It's step two in the process. You with me?
Now this leads me to my second point. If you're not take or take this down. Obedience is the doorway into the kingdom of God.
Obedience is the doorway into the kingdom of God.
What do I mean?
Super simple. When we do what God says to do, when we do what God says to do in his word, right? So that's the scriptures, the Bible, Old Testament and New Testament. God is not shy. He is very clear on his desire, on his will, on his law, in his way, what it looked like, when he's ruling and reigning, it's there, man. So when we talk about, like, when we do what God says in his word in the scriptures. Now also hear me, when the voice of God's spirit comes to you personally, when we do what God says to do, that's the kingdom of God. When we refrain from doing the things that God doesn't want done, that's the kingdom of God. Now I want to just side note this for a second. I brought the Holy Spirit and how God speaks to you through His Spirit. Oftentimes God will use the scriptures to personalize them for you. Okay? But there's some debate amongst Christian circles of like, okay, to what degree does God speak to you? Quote, outside of the scriptures, outside of the Bible. Now listen, God's spirit, the Holy Spirit, he will never, ever, ever contradict the Bible. So if you're sitting there and you feel like he's like, gosh, I feel like the Lord is leading me to lie.
I feel like the Lord is leading me to like, put on pride and call someone out in a way that's damaging or divisive. Or if God is calling me to, like, leave my family and. And go pursue my dreams of singing on American Idol. And, like, I'm just come. I'm just. Yeah, I just came on my forefront of my mind. But I'm just like, listen, like, we can laugh about that, but that's like, that's clearly not the spirit of God.
It might be a spirit, but it's not a holy spirit, okay?
Because God's spirit, He will never contradict the Bible. He will never contradict the scriptures, ever.
He will always reinforce the truth of what he's revealed in the scriptures.
But make no mistake, God speaks to his children.
He will clearly speak to you in a language that you understand, both to bring conviction and comfort and guidance and wisdom, because God speaks to his children.
When we obey God, that's the kingdom of God.
That's the kingdom of heaven. When we don't hear me, that's opting out of the kingdom of God.
Here's the thing.
God will allow people to opt out of his kingdom.
That's the stuff that terrifies me as a pastor.
Do you believe the Bible when it says that Jesus is coming back?
Like, do you really believe that?
The Bible is super clear. Jesus is coming.
He came once, he's coming again.
The first time to reconcile the world to himself, to absorb the wrath of God in our place so that we can be reconciled to God and one another in the kingdom of God forever.
But his second coming is different.
His second coming.
It's all over the Scriptures, Old Testament, in the Psalms, in the New Testament, and all the epistles. Like, not all, but most of them.
Clearly, in the Gospel account, like, everywhere, it's clear Jesus is coming back, and he's coming back to judge.
Like, the Bible talks about Judgment Day, the day when every single one of us is gonna stand before God totally exposed.
Like, the masks, they're not gonna be there.
The words won't be enough. Like, just completely and utterly exposed before God, and he will judge us. Either enter into paradise with me or depart from me.
It's not figurative. Like, hell's real.
It's not metaphorical.
It's not symbolic.
It's real.
I need you to feel the fear of the Lord for just a minute.
I need you to feel it, because it will do things to you. It will produce things in you that you need.
If you love someone and they were playing soccer on the freeway, would you warn them of the danger?
You would.
Let me just read you a couple passages. Hebrews, chapter 10, starting in verse 23, let us hold onto the confession of our hope without wavering. Our hope in Jesus, our hope in Christ without wavering. Since he who promised is faithful.
And let us consider one another in order to provoke love and good works. Not neglecting to gather together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging each other. And all the more, as you see the day approaching.
That's judgment day.
That day's coming. He's like. As the day's approaching, don't stop gathering together. Don't stop loving one another. Don't stop encouraging. Don't stop serving. Don't stop pressing in. Don't. Don't go numb. Don't let the algorithms disciple your life. Like, press in, stay together.
Cause the day, Judgment day is coming. Verse 26.
For if we deliberately go on sinning after receiving the knowledge of the truth, listen to this.
There no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, but a terrifying expectation of judgment and the fury of a fire about to consume the adversaries.
Anyone who disregarded the law of Moses died without mercy, based on the testimony of two or three witnesses. How much worse punishment do you think one will deserve? Who has trampled on the Son of God, who has regarded as profane the blood of the covenant by which he was saved, sanctified, and who has insulted the spirit of grace?
For we know the one who said, vengeance belongs to me. I will repay.
That's God speaking. And again, the Lord will judge his people. Verse 31. It is a terrifying thing to fall into the hands of the living God.
It's a terrifying thing to position yourself as an adversary to God.
In other words, to opt out of his kingdom.
It terrifies me because he will allow people to.
Let me just give you one more second. Thessalonians, chapter one. Starting in verse five.
It is clear evidence of God's righteous judgment.
His judgment's righteous. It's perfect. He's the perfect judge because he sees it all. He exposes it all. He sees it all. He judges it all. He's perfect.
It is clear evidence of God's righteous judgment that you will be counted worthy of God's kingdom. That makes me feel so good. For which you are also suffering since.
Listen to this. It is just for God to repay with affliction those who afflict you and to give relief to you who are afflicted along with us. This is Paul writing. This will take place. Listen to this.
This will take place at the revelation of the Lord Jesus from heaven with his powerful angels, when he takes vengeance with flaming fire on those who don't know God and on those who don't. What?
On those who don't know God and on those who don't obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus, they will pay the penalty of eternal destruction from the Lord's presence and from his glorious strength.
You feel that?
Hear me.
Obedience is the doorway into the kingdom of God.
I'm sharing this on Mother's Day because some of you might be in danger.
Some of you might be totally unaware that you're playing on the freeway and you think it's fine because you see other people playing on the freeway.
Other people who go to church are playing on the freeway.
Other people who are really influential and quote, unquote, successful in life, they're playing on the freeway. And you're like, yeah, this is cool. We can play on the freeway. Some of you might be in, like, severe danger. And I would be an awful person.
I would disqualify myself as a pastor if I didn't go, don't play on the freeway.
I don't care how good of a soccer player you are, how fast you are. It's really, really dangerous.
It's not good for you. It's not good for anybody else.
Some of you. You might be in danger this morning.
You might be opting out of the kingdom of God.
Please hear me.
This parable, and frankly, the entire New Testament, it tells us we are not judged purely by what we claim.
We are judged by whether or not we actually obey.
Why? Because our words are not enough.
Theologian Stuart K. Weber says this quote. Jesus will accept those who obey him and reject those who only claim to obey him.
James, the half brother of Jesus, wrote the book of James. In James, chapter 2, verse 26, he describes the same concept this way. He says, for just as the body without the spirit is dead, so also faith without works is dead.
Obedience is the doorway into the kingdom of God. Friends, now listen.
I have disobeyed God so many times in my life.
Like, more times than I could possibly count.
The flesh is real.
Temptation is real.
I've disobeyed God so many times. This passage, dude, it really convicted me this week.
But you know what else it did?
It radically comforted me.
One more quote for you. William Barclay says this quote.
The key to the correct understanding of this parable is that it is not really praising anyone.
It is setting before us a picture of two very imperfect sets of people, the two sons of whom one set were nonetheless better than the other.
Listen to this.
Neither son in this story was the kind of son to bring Full joy to his Father.
Both were unsatisfactory, but the one who in the end obeyed was incalculably better than the other.
The ideal son would be the son who accepted the Father's orders with obedience and with respect, and who unquestioningly and fully carried them out.
End quote.
I have spectacular news for you.
I have wonderful, joyful news for you. There is an ideal son.
There is an ideal son that William Barclay is talking about, one who perfectly obeyed the father, didn't he?
He perfectly obeyed the Father. It's the son telling this parable, the Son of God, Jesus Christ, who hear me, who flawlessly obeyed the Father every single moment of his life.
He's the one who lived the perfect life that I never could in my place. I'm never gonna stop talking to you guys about this. In my place, he lived that perfect life that I never could in my place, and he suffered the death that I deserve for all of my disobedience in my place. Jesus, he was the perfect son that I could never be.
He was the perfect son or daughter that you could never be. Why? For you.
For me, that's the gospel.
You guys know this. You've heard it a thousand times. If you've been journeying with us, the good news of who God is and what he's done, I am not the perfect son.
At best, like me, at my absolute best, is Son number one.
But Jesus, oh, do you see him? For you? Do you see him?
My last point, if you're taking notes, is this. Jesus is the perfect son.
Jesus is the perfect son.
And to the degree that that reality actually makes its way to your heart, not like, just for a little bit, but like the seed of the gospel makes its way deeper and deeper into your heart, it will start to produce things, it will start to change us. It will start from the inside out. Like, it transforms the human heart.
It really is powerful. Guys, when the gospel takes root in the human heart, you know what it produces?
It produces a desire to obey.
Not like the begrudging, like, fine, I'll do the dishes later.
But, like, absolutely.
A deep, profound drive and desire to obey. Like, hear me, you literally start to want to obey more than you want to sin.
It changes you, it transforms you.
Like Jesus, I want to obey the one who gave himself for me, like, it's my delight.
You are the perfect son for me. I will whatever you say. I'll do whatever you want. Why? Because I know you love me, and I know you're trustworthy. And yet you know best I'll do whatever he tells me to do because he loves me and because he knows best. Hear me. That's living in the kingdom of God.
My question for you this morning, right now, today, this week, are you living in the kingdom of God?
Are you living in the kingdom?
Are you living in the kingdom of the perfect Son who loves you and gave himself to you?
Hear me. Despite your disobedience, he didn't wait for you to figure it out.
He looks at disobedient Tom and goes, yeah, I'll be the perfect son for you.
Are you living in the kingdom of God?
He says something we could do a whole series.
Jesus said to them, truly, I tell you, tax collectors and prostitutes are entering the kingdom of God before you.
Before who?
Before the hypocrites.
So let's talk about this for just a second. Tax collectors, if you're familiar with what they are, great. If you're kind of fuzzy on what is it? Okay, tax collectors. It's not necessarily the irs. Okay, tax collectors, here's what you need to know. Tax collectors were Jewish people, typically amongst Jewish people. So their neighbors, right? Jewish people who got rich by financially cheating the people in their communities.
All right, so they were embezzling the taxes. They were defrauding their neighbors. Okay? Real talk. You want to know the closest thing I can think of of like a modern day equivalent for us in Temecula, California.
Think most California politicians.
Not all, but most.
Defrauding the people in ways that are just clear and they get exposed. It's not good. Okay? The embezzlement, the cheating, right? Think most California politicians today. Side note, Matthew, the author of this book that we've been going through for 101, 101 Sundays, he was a tax collector. He was hated amongst his people because he was living that way until Jesus called him to leave that life behind and come follow him. And what did Matthew do?
He did imperfectly, but he did so. Tax collectors, right? And he says, prostitutes, People who sell their body for money.
Do you realize what Jesus is saying here?
It's wild.
Jesus is saying corrupt California politicians and those people on Onlyfans, they're entering the kingdom of God.
Do you realize what Jesus is saying?
Listen to me. This is what he's saying. There's no sin so great that it cannot be forgiven if you turn away from it.
Think about that for a second.
Think about your least favorite California politician.
Jesus is going, there's no sin so great that you won't be forgiven if you turn away from it. And Embrace my lordship in your life.
The people that most of society looks down on because of their scandalous behavior, because they do things out in the open that most people only do hidden.
Jesus goes, those people, there's no sin so great that. That they can't be forgiven if they turn away from it and embrace me.
This is fantastic news. For people who know they're broken. For people who are clothed in pride.
This is ridiculous.
Guys, there's no sin. I want you to just do an exercise with me really quickly. You're gonna love it. Consider the worst thing you've ever done.
So much fun. Happy Mother's Day.
Listen. Consider the worst thing you've ever done. The thing that you would want no one to ever find out about. You'd work really, really hard to go. I hope this never gets exposed.
Think about the worst thing you've ever done. Think about the worst thing you've done this week.
The worst.
Please hear me.
According to Jesus the Christ, the King, the highest authority, the supreme ruler, he says there is no sin so great that you cannot be forgiven if you turn away from it and embrace me.
Do you believe him?
Guys, the message of Jesus is simple and it's so gracious.
Repent.
Change your mind.
Change your mind and then change your behavior.
Embrace me.
Come on into my kingdom.
Change your mind and obey. I need you to hear me say something.
God's not like sitting back waiting for you to blow it so he can punish you.
No, he's graciously inviting you into his kingdom.
Do you see it?
He's graciously inviting you into his kingdom, but he will allow you to opt out.
Alright, I'm going to close with this. Ben, would you join me up here?
Prayer team, would you assemble?
So a couple weeks ago, me and Ebony got away with the other lead pastor couples in our family of churches.
So we all got away together for an annual kind of getaway where we just minister to one another, we pray for one another, we do some kind of.
So my teaching and just different inflow things that can help us in the ways that we lead and the unique things that we face.
And so we're away together and we got away this year to Palm Springs.
And so we had the schedule for the couple days that we were there, two or three days that we were there.
And there was one block in the schedule that was about like a three hour gap of just kind of free time.
And so Brad, he leads our sister church in la.
Brad goes, hey dude, bring your clubs, let's golf. When we're up there. And I was like, great idea. So I bring my golf clubs.
And so me and Brad. And actually we had Andy join us.
Me, Andy, and Brad, we go golfing in Palm Springs.
And it was hot.
Even in what month of May? Or was it April? I don't remember.
It was April. It was hot.
But, dude, we had fun. It was so good. I played really good. You guys can ask Brad who won later if you want to. He's really happy about it. But.
But, no. So we. We play and. And we finish up the round, and we come back to where everyone's staying. And, like, I'm tired. I'm in the sun all day. I'm sweaty. I stink. I'm hot.
And we walk in, the three of us, and we walk into, like, kind of the courtyard area.
And everybody else is there, and they're all in the pool.
And the first words out of their mouth were this.
Get in here.
Like, get in here. And I remember thinking, like, oh, yeah, dude, that sounds perfect. Right now I'm all sweaty and gross. I'm like, okay. I change really quick. I hop on my swimsuit, I jump in the pool, and, like, listen, this is gonna sound so silly and simplistic.
Some of you guys have pools, so you get to do this all the time. It was.
Do you remember those old Coca Cola commercials where you'd hear. You just hear. You would just hear someone, like, take a drink, and what would. The sound that would make afterwards?
That's what my. My soul felt, guys. It was like, oh, yes.
And so I'm there. I'm in the pool. You guys can play.
You guys can play.
I'm there. I'm in the pool. I'm feeling this. My body's feeling refreshed. I'm feeling comforted in ways that were just, like, amazing. It was so nice.
And you know what? Like, on top of how great it felt for me, like, just personally and stuff, I'm there. I'm not alone. You know, like, my wife is there.
Some of the people I'm closest to are there.
Everybody there. I have, like, a deep love and appreciation for, and I'm there. And I'm just, like, going, this is.
Man, this is exactly what I needed.
This felt better than I thought it would.
It was that good.
And like I said, it might sound really simple, but it was an incredibly enjoyable experience for me.
Listen, as amazing as being in that pool was.
Being in the kingdom of God.
Oh, infinitely better.
Being in the kingdom of God. The forgiveness.
Ah, The grace.
Oh, the love Some of your heart is starving for love.
You're made to receive love that way.
The love, the. The joy, the. The supreme. Hear me. The supreme pleasure.
The supreme pleasure. Hear me. It's all waiting for you in the kingdom of God.
It's all waiting for you in the kingdom of God. Can I just tell you what my loving brothers and sisters and friends told me as I came into that space out of a round of golf? Tired, hot, sweaty. Can I just tell you the same thing they told me?
Get in here, man.
Get up in here. It's better than you think.
Believe it or not, you actually. It's what you need. It's what you're craving. Get in here. Hear me. That's the message of Jesus gospel.
Get in here.
Get in here.
Don't wait. Get in here. Don't hesitate. Do whatever you gotta do. Get in here. Like, no matter who you are, no matter what you've done, no matter what's been done to you, get in here, man.
It feels amazing.
Oh, the grace and the love and the goodness of God, friends.
You feel it.
If you don't, you can.
Because the invitation is there. It's been there your whole life, and it will continue to be there.
Get in here.
So listen to me. If there's disobedience in your life, if there's hypocrisy in your life, or if there's unconfessed sin in your life, hear me. If you've opted out of the kingdom of God in any way, get in here.
It's amazing. Come on. Nothing can disqualify you except for yourself.
Jesus says there's no sin so great you can't be forgiven if you turn away from it. And embrace my kingdom, my lordship, my leadership.
Get in here.
It's amazing. And hear me. It's what you were made for.
It's what you need.
Stand for me if you're able to pray for us.
Spirit of God, I thank you for the ways that you convict us.
I thank you that you are a. You're the most infinitely wise Father.
You're perfect in all of your ways. You're brilliant.
There's nobody like you. I honor you.
I worship you in this moment. We worship you in this moment. I thank you for the ways that you convict us, to deliver us, to bring us into your kingdom where we belong. And I pray right now just for this entire room. I pray for every single person in this room. That you would strengthen their faith, that you would gift them and grant them with more faith to trust you. And obey you even when it's hard. And I pray for every single person in this room who's carrying the shame and the guilt of disobedient living. I pray, Father, that instead they would exchange that for the freedom of forgiveness, and they would be a person who becomes an expert in practicing repentance.
Christians aren't perfect. They're just practicing repentance. That's what we are. That's who we. That's who you've empowered us to be. So I pray, Holy Spirit, that you would move all across this room in the hearts and the minds of every person here and bring freedom, bring inspiration, bring deliverance in the name of Jesus. I pray, Father, that all of us would enjoy that of living life in your kingdom, both now, tomorrow, every day, moving forward, and for forever eternity with you.
I love you, Jesus. Rule and reign among us. I pray in your holy and beautiful name.
Amen.
All right, friends, we have about 15 minutes, and we're going to respond to God together, both individually and corporately. We're going to fill this room with praise.
Christians in the room. I want to ask you sing to Jesus really loud because some of the people around you, they might have a hard time letting the truth of the gospel come deeper into their heart.
It's a powerful thing when the people of God are praising him because of who he's done, who he is and what he's done in their life. We're going to fill this room with praise. If anything that I've said, if God's poked you in any way and you want to. You want to experience more freedom and more forgiveness, maybe you are living in disobedience. Maybe you are living in hypocrisy. Maybe you are just struggling anyway. Come forward. There's trusted and trained men and women up here who would love to pray for you. You can come forward at any time. Okay?
Enjoy him.
Love you guys.
