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Do I need to switch mics or we don't know? Just let's just go with it. Yeah, who cares? Happy Father's Day. Good to see y'all again. I wanna just give honor. We were kind of joking on the side a second ago and we do just wanna honor fathers. Me and Phillip were talking. It really is true. It does seem like that in our culture, more than we need anything else, we really do need dads. And I think it's appropriate. You may not feel great about being a dad right now.
If you're a dad here, you may not feel a great job. I think I have found through talking to dads, most dads don't feel like they're doing a great job. And I'm gonna tell you something. One of the reasons I think that is, is because I think we listen to culture way more than we listen to Bible. And the culture may be telling you, you've gotta do all these things. You gotta have all this. The Bible says, train up your child that they should go. The children are a gift from the Lord. Dads, you'll be successful if you'll chase your heaven out. That'll work. Is there another mic that will work? It doesn't. Would this one work better? Juggling mic. I mean, I can just talk going in and out.
Who cares? All right, here we go. Let's just keep going. Megaphone? Does anyone have a megaphone in the house? Nobody? Oh man. All right. I did wanna do one more thing before we continued on. So hopefully this doesn't bug your ears too much, me going in and out like this. But I wanna thank so many of you for coming. Coming and being a part of this 24-hour call to prayer. I'm telling you, I have not experienced anything like that in a long time. I was so encouraged by those who all throughout. And what I found is, mic three. And y'all don't even know. I could be that squirrely without all of this happening, okay? I was so encouraged. I was so encouraged. Every time. Every time. Every time I was here is here when we started. I came back around a little bit before 1 a.m. And everybody who came in here was just seeking the Lord. It wasn't people goofing off on their phone, people falling asleep, you know, when Jesus goes to his disciples and he says, could you not keep watch for me for one hour? I'm just watching people. And we had this board up here filled with all these requests from the church, saints praying and believing and trusting God. And I mean, it was just spectacular. I enjoyed it. It was so much. So thank y'all, those of you that came. Some of you that came and you stayed for longer than an hour. Some of you stayed for really long periods of time.
It was just phenomenal. One of the things that we did is we're going into seven days of fasting and prayer tomorrow. And this will run all the way into next week. And Crystal has taken all of those prayers, because these weren't like little kid, you know, starter prayers. These were like big boy, big girl prayers. Like these were big prayers. And put those in a PDF that we'll send out. So be looking for that. If you need fuel for these next seven days, what was on that board was very fitting. Some big stuff. I think that we should join with the people who are praying those things. So all that being said, thank you. Thank you. Thank you for coming in. And I just don't understand why that wouldn't be a normal thing we do every year. So if you enjoyed it, we'll definitely make that happen again. For those of you that missed it, we'll definitely have it again. It'll be great. Okay. All right.
We're in this series and called Ta-Da. And last week, we opened up, Trace was talking about really what the mystery is. And Paul outright tells you, Ephesians, we're in chapter three. So if you got your Bible, we can open it there. I'm going to go back into the latter parts of the verses that Trace talked about. Because today I want to talk about the inside. I'm going to use a word from Paul's word there. We're going to talk about the insight to the mystery. He told us last week that the mystery was revealed, that God's not, He's not hiding it, that God's telling us. And I'm so thankful for those, even just those three songs that we just sang that are truth, that it, listen, it doesn't matter how you feel about what you just sang. If you got goosebumps or not, we just sang truth. And the reality is, is that because God loves you and chose to love you, he saved you. He chose you. And he loves you. loves you and He saved you, if you've put faith and trust in Him, that's the showing. And He brought you into this new life. When we sing those songs, there was a part of that song that Caleb was leading us that shared that vein of thought. It's wild that something so simple could be so profound. My heart would be today that we can dive into a little bit of that because I would start with just this thought with you. It is my belief that the American church struggles with the gospel being common, that the gospel, you know, I wouldn't be trying to get you worked up about those songs, but my goodness, the blood, the blood, oh, the wonderful blood, that through the blood of Jesus, I've been brought near to the sovereign God of the universe. What in the world? But I want you to even think about how you're hearing that right now. Come. You are. You know that the thought would be is that does it become so common? Do we lose the profound nature of that gospel? We themed this year our great gospel. In other words, the word gospel means good news. So it's literally we're saying the great good news because Americans need to have the extra adjective because just to hear good news is common. We need to hear that this good news is great good news, that it's not just a common, thing for us. And I hope that today we can do two things. Number one, that we can expand our view of the gospel. And number two, that it can mean something maybe to you that maybe it didn't prior. Ephesians chapter three, we're going to read verses four and six. Like I said, we're going to go back into what Trace ended with last week. And this is what it says. Verses four through six, Paul writing, he says, when you read this, you can perceive my, my insight into the mystery of Christ. Chapters one and two are the ways you perceive his insight because he's just written me theologians call Ephesians the jewel on the crown of the gospel because it unloads in chapters one and two, the insane reality, by the way, not to Jews, to Gentiles. I really want to emphasize that he's writing to a Gentile. There are Jews in that group, but he's writing to Gentiles and he's telling them things that would be ridiculous for a Gentile to believe. He says, if you read this, you can perceive my insight into the mystery of Christ. In the first of the year, we talked about the blessings that God gives us, that you're seated in Christ, that you're adopted as his son or his daughter, that you no longer are far away. We talked in our last series that, that where, you were, we need to go back. We need to run it back and see that you were far off. You were a stranger. You were an alien. You were not a part of what God was doing. And now you've been brought near by the blood of Jesus.
So think about it. These last two series or so have literally been Paul pouring out his insight to us, even, even though we weren't part of the church in Ephesus, it's for us today to realize he was saying, guys, I'm letting you know the insight to the mystery. And then he says, write out what the mystery is.
He said, it wasn't made known to the sons of men and other generations has been made revealed by his holy apostles and prophets by the spirit. This is the mystery that the Gentiles are fellow heirs, members of the same body and partakers of the promise in Christ Jesus. Everybody say these last three words with me through the gospel. That was very weak. I need you a little, I know the mic problem probably got you a little unsettled.
You're not quite sure. You're not quite sure of where we're going today, but I need you to say those three words with Paul. All right. So what we want to do is we want to expand our view of the gospel because the mystery is Gentiles get the same treatment as the promised children of God through the gospel. And it may very well be that you have thought of yourself more akin to the Jew than to the Gentile. And that's why there's sort of a sense of entitlement in the American church that says, well, of course, of course. I get to be an heir. Of course, I get to be a partaker in the promise. But as I hope it affects you as it has affected me this week, I'm like Courtney. My sin wasn't that I was out at a bar or doing this. My sin was that I thought I was my Lord. I thought I was good. And Jesus revealed my need for him and helps me not only be saved, but to love him. This is the gospel. We're going to pray. We really are going to ask the Lord. I'd ask that you would pray this with me, that God would help us with this, because this really is one of those things where it is so common. I think we could do this message and we could walk out of here and it just be like, put it on the shelf. That was another, you know, I'm just going to believe this is one of the best messages you've ever heard, but just put it on the shelf. You know, it's just, it's okay. But let's, let's get our, let's get our minds changed. Let's ask the Lord to do that because the Holy Spirit can. Holy Spirit. The same one that hovered over the waters of the deep in Genesis, the same one that overshadowed Mary in the virgin birth, the same one that came in power on the day of Pentecost, Holy Spirit. The only way we can know truth is through you. Illuminate these scriptures that we might have an expanded view of your gospel and that it might mean something to us today. Give me the mouth. Give me the mouth to say it. Give us all the ears to hear it.
In Jesus name. Amen. The gospel does something particular. I've got it in your notes and it'll be right here on the screen. Most American Christians think the gospel is for them. We even say it sometimes when we're trying to quote unquote lead someone to Christ.
We would say, do you want to trust Jesus as your personal Lord and Savior? And I need to say this because I, and not to plug this, but, as someone who dabbles in art, who thinks of himself maybe as somewhat of an okay artist, I love it when you see the image, but then find the insight. I like it when you look at a piece of art I've made and you go, oh, there's something more there than what I'm seeing. I really think that's what Paul is saying. You need to know that your own personal salvation, while it is real, it is not the most important.
Important thing. American Christians think God exists for their pleasure. While really you are in a meta-narrative, a story arc that goes from the beginning of eternity. Y'all tell me where that marker is. From eternity past into eternity future, you are a part of that arc, but you're not the character.
I love that, Courtney. Thank you for sharing that. You're not, like you don't really give off main character energy. You may want to, and in your flesh, you want this world to bend to you, but the sovereign God of the universe, the world bends to him. He is Lord of all.
And you and I, my friends, are but a vapor and a mist. Don't let that make you troubled. Let it free you of every worry that you have, because you are here for but a drip of time. You better know God versus trying to make yourself known. You better try to look and see what it is that God's doing versus what you'd like to do and what you'd like to accomplish.
He didn't bring you to himself so that you could be a navel gazer. Y'all ever heard that term before? You're just doing this all the time. Just walking around life, just staring at your belly button. God, help me in my problems. God, I need you to make this work out. God, I need this raised. God, I need my children. God, I need my wife, my husband. God, I need you better.
You said if I did, you'd show up. You said I didn't have because I didn't ask. Here I am asking. And I'm telling you, God, this world has not been here for you. This world was not created for you. God, and I'm telling you these things because the American Christian thinks God needs them to accomplish his plans. You don't. He doesn't. God needs nothing. Some people have even said that God created us because he wanted relationship. Let me go ahead and bust your bubble. The Trinity has eternally existed, and God was quite happy, the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit. You say, then why were we created? If we weren't created for God to dote on us, and while he does dote on us, he created you for his glory. If that is offensive to you, good. That's God, through his Holy Spirit, reminding you that this is not about you. If you are offended, then Christ might not be your Lord. You might be your Lord. It's so important to hear. We hear these things because the gospel becomes such a commodity, the church, and we think, oh, yeah, through the gospel, yes, Jesus is my personal Lord.
I'm not trying to question your salvation. I'm trying to say, do you realize that the gospel is more than just pulling you out of your pit? The gospel doesn't just create a new person. It does do that. 2 Corinthians 5, 17 says that in Christ, you, everybody take your finger, put it right there at your chest.
Who am I talking to? Talking to you. You in Christ. You in Christ are a new creation. The old things have passed. Behold, the new things have come. Wow, that's enough to worship God over. It also creates a new people. 1 Peter 2.10 says this. Once you were not a people, now you are a people. Oh, wait a minute. You mean it's not just about me? No, God's eternal plan was not to rescue individuals, but to make a people. Trace talked about that last week. God's bringing people together.
It doesn't just make. A new people. It comes from a new covenant. Luke 22.20, Jesus is installing the Passover as what we would now call communion. He is taking it and he's reformatting it. He's saying, guys, y'all have been having this meal to commemorate being let free from Egypt, and you've talked about the Passover lamb. I am now your Passover lamb. You do not have to sacrifice so that you can get forgiveness for an expiration date of one year. I'm going to do it. I'm going to cleanse you of all unrighteousness from now until eternity.
This cup, and when we drink communion, when we take that cup, he says, this is the cup of the new covenant. This is my blood, not the blood of a lamb that's sufficient for a moment. This is the blood of the lamb. Did you remember what Courtney said? We have overcome by the blood of the lamb. The reason you don't have to worry about the devil ruining your life is because the blood of the lamb is the blood of the Passover lamb, not the one in Egypt, but the one that happened on Calvary is under your life. That means you can go out there and you can do the stuff God's called you to do. No fear. You don't have to worry. You've been cleansed by the blood of Jesus. You have belonged to a new covenant. And listen, I don't actually really care if you respond to me or not. I'm going to get so happy preaching this message because I'm so happy about this message. God has provided for you a non-temporal sacrifice. It's eternal. The lamb of God, God was slain before the scripture says the foundations of the world. God knew we would sin. God knew we would run from him. God knew, God knew, God knew, and he provided. He wasn't thinking, oh, well, maybe they'll turn.
Maybe they have potential. He knew you didn't want him. He knew that you were rebellious. He knew that you would choose sin over him. And what did he do? Did he do it because he thought you'd turn out? No, he did it because he wanted to.
He was not forced by what you look like he was not forced. He was not coerced. He was not, his arm wasn't twisted.
He decided some of you need to get this in your mind. God is not wishy-washy. He decided if he brought you to himself, he'll keep you to himself. Some of you are worried about losing something that you couldn't get on your own anyway. Some of you are worried about losing your salvation.
That's why you, when you run to God, you try to list out everything. God has forgiven you. If you put faith and trust in him, worry no longer, saint. He's not going to let you go. He's got you in the palm of his hand.
New covenant. It's not covenant built off your effort to covenant built off of his. And my God's not, he's not whimpering. He's not barely getting by. He's not limping.
He's slain and seated. My God. From a new covenant for a new world. Revelation 21 says, and behold, I saw a new heavens and the new earth. The old earth had passed away.
So I'm helping. I'm just trying to dig us a little hole here. Sometimes it's bad to dig yourself a hole. Sometimes it's good. So we're gonna dig a little hole for ourself.
How do we need to expand our view of the gospel? Number one, you need to know, you need to know this. Number one, the gospel doesn't just create a new person. It creates a new people from a new covenant for a new world. Your hope is not that you get to heaven. Your hope is in that God is gonna remake where we are today. And yes, you will go to heaven. But if Christ returns and he renews all this, guess where we're gonna be? New earth. That's another message for another day because I'm sure some people's eschatology is not quite ready for that. I need to talk about something else. All right, moving on. So let's expand our gospel just a little bit further. I wrote this down in your notes because I think this is a good example. I like images. I like to think in illustrations. So I wanna give you a good one. Paul just said, if you read this, you'll perceive my insight into the mystery of Christ. And he says, this was something that was not shown to people in the past, but now it's been revealed to the prophets and to the apostles through the Holy Spirit, Paul of whom was one of those. He was an apostle and he was preaching the gospel. He was telling people, he was sharing with people the gospel has been unveiled. This is what God has been doing all through the ages to come to this point of bringing Christ the Messiah to die for sin, to bring the kingdom of God into the world and to see many people come to be saved, right? So he is saying that. And then he says, this is the mystery that the Gentiles, I'll read it to you one more time, that the Gentiles are fellow heirs, members of the same body and partakers of the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel. And here's what I, here was my problem in reading this text originally, okay?
Was this, this is what I said in my mind. Yes, I know that. Yes, I know that. Given a test, if I handed you out a blank piece of paper and I just said, tell me what the gospel is. You know, all of us would probably write something along the lines of Jesus came, lived a perfect life, died on the cross for our sins, was resurrected, was ascended to the right hand of the father and through trusting him, we are forgiven of our sins and we have eternal life with him.
And we could get the green light, ding, you did it, you, oh, great job. You described the gospel, great. I think that's good. I think you should know that. But how many of you know that while that has been revealed, there are insights, there are things to see in the gospel that you don't see day one when you trust Jesus?
I need some old heads in here. Doesn't necessarily mean you gotta be over a certain age, but I need some people that have been walking, with Jesus, to raise your hand real quick, let me see. If you've been walking with Jesus for over 15 years, I want you to let me know, real quick, let me ask you the question, then you can raise your hand. How many of you, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, I'm sorry. That was my bad.
I purpose the question or pose a question wrong. If you have trusted Jesus for over 15 years, you tell me that you are not, you are less or more, by raising hands, you would say, I have seen more over the years than just that one thing I saw in that one moment of being saved. You've seen things over and over and over again. If you've been trusting Jesus for over 15 years, let me see your hands if you've seen that. Okay, what am I trying to prove?
I'm trying to prove that the gospel is bigger, the gospel is more expansive than just our one moment of trusting Jesus. And yet, the majority of believers today, it seems like, are looking at that same insight as if there's nothing else to look at. There's nothing else to see. It's just Jesus on the cross dying for our sins. It says in the scriptures that the angels long to look in on this gospel message.
They want to know what's the, why would God do this? And you know, again, listen to how your inner monologue might be going right now. This is how mine would be going. Yeah, but we know Jesus died for my sins. I know it. If I needed to help somebody, yeah, this is what Jesus did. I want you to think about it for a second. Really think about it. Isn't it sort of like common knowledge? You live in the buckle of the Bible belt. We are not short on church buildings. We are not short on Christian tracts. We are not short on Christian clothing. We are not short on Christian this, Christian that. We know, but do we see?
I thought this was a good analogy. You can throw that one back up there. I think this is true. I think you'd have a better chance of spending the rest of your life trying to collect every drop of water in the ocean using an eyedropper than you would be able to comprehend fully all that God has accomplished in and through Jesus and his work on the cross. Now, I like that imagery because now think about it for just a second.
I am telling you, I know what you're thinking. You're thinking, nah, that's not true. Jesus died on the cross for our sins. Case closed. I think that's why we have maturity in the church.
We have people saying, well, I want to go beyond the gospel. What are you even saying? You have only uncovered. But the hymn of the garment of the gospel and you want to go beyond the gospel? Look at the fruit of your life.
Does it show the fruit of the gospel or does it show the fruit of works? Does it show the fruit of I want to try to be seen? Does it show the fruit of I want to be looked at a certain way? I want this in my life. I want this person in my life. Does it show the pursuits of someone who is constantly gripped by this gospel? And we should all be convicted by that. Sit with me on the beach. Let's pray. Go down to the Gulf of America and sit, take an eyedropper for the rest of your life. Every moment, every day, as a beachgoer, this would be so harmful to my soul because I'd have to sit there. One drop into the bucket, one drop into the bucket. Every moment of every day of every year for the rest of your life, you'd have a better shot at collecting the ocean than you would be fully comprehending the gospel. Now, that's true. It doesn't feel that way, though, does it?
Because when you think about sitting in the Gulf, taking an eyedropper, you'd go, that's insane, that you would need a thousand lifetimes to even get close. You're getting there. You're getting there in the spirit. If that was your comment, it would take a million lifetimes to get that much ocean into your collection box. That's how long it would take you since it's great.
It takes you an eternity to do that with the gospel. You will never get to the end of the expanse of greatness. The greatness of the gospel of Jesus Christ. And you'd have a better shot. That was the best drop sound I got, y'all. I'm sorry. I'm good at sound effects, but that's all I got. One, two, every day, every moment. And if we could be honest, the reason our church, I'm talking our church, we deal with apathy is because the gospel has become boring. We want something more, don't we? We want to be moved. We want to get into something. We want to do better. We think this, we think this is the only way. The solvent of our sin is to try harder or to find an accountability partner.
You are not going to be changed because you work harder. The only thing that has the power to change you is the reality of the gospel in your life. Only Jesus can change you. Only Jesus can make new that which is old. And this message is, and I know why so many pastors get fiery about it because they see it and they want other people to see it.
You know what I've realized? It is so hard. I've heard Father's Day, many of you are dads, you have sat with your kids before and thought, my God, how many times have I said this? How many times? Mom, how many times have I said this? I said this to these kids. I've said it a thousand times, haven't I? Because we think that hearing it over and over again is what produces the result. It's never been about hearing. James says, don't just be a hearer of the word, be a doer of the word. How do you get from hearing to doing? There has to be a switch in the way you do it. How do you think? Paul says, you should be able to perceive. I think everything he was saying in chapter one and chapter two should make all of us take one more step back.
Oh really? Take one more step back. Oh my gosh, are you serious? Years and years of stepping back and going, wait a minute, this isn't just this little event in Jerusalem on one day for a Jewish carpenter under Roman law. Man, you just keep backing up and you're like, what is God doing through the gospel?
He's making new people. He's making a new world. He's has a new covenant. He's doing all these things. And then it continues to expand.
And the thought would be, can the people of God take it in? Can the people of God really wrestle with the fact that one of the main issues of the gospel is not trusting the gospel beyond that one little simple phrase I just mentioned. We're not looking for insights. We're not perceiving insights anymore. We're simply living off of that one moment as if that's all God wants to do.
I need to finish up. I need to finish here. So I think that was the main part of my message. I want to expand the gospel. And please, goodness gracious, I heard somebody say one time, he was talking about going to a church service and he said, I can get yelled at anywhere. And this is what he was saying. And I understand I'm loud sometimes. There's parts of me before services and after services where I go, you should have said that differently or you should have whatever. And I'm trying to get better at just like, I'm just who I am. And if I ever say anything that you're like, God, that was really mean or that was really whatever. I think sometimes my voice is like, my voice gets loud because I just really get excited, okay? So if you're ever like, man, Jonathan just yelled at us. I'm not yelling at you. I just, I'm just excited, okay? So, and now that the mic's working, I was scared that I was gonna be in and out, but now you're hearing me crystal clear.
Look at God. Okay, here we go. The second part of the message was, how could this be meaningful to us? How could this scripture be meaningful to us? Well, I told you at the very beginning that my assumption would be that the majority of people who read this text put themselves not in the Gentile group.
Okay? And so this wouldn't be a big deal to you because most of us, we're raised, even if we weren't raised in Christianity, we were raised in the church. And if we weren't raised in the church, we're raised in the buckle of the Bible belt. So we know things about God before we're taught things about God. We have a culture about God, even if we haven't bought into that culture.
So I think what happens a lot of times is Christian believers oftentimes see themselves as the Jews of the Bible. And you're not. Like when you read, the Old Testament, it's kind of hard not to be like, oh, this story about Israel being judged is like me being judged. Or this story about David killing Goliath is like about me killing Goliath. And so a lot of times we just put ourselves in the story like that.
And I'm not saying that you're always wrong for doing that, but I would just say, I would say be cautious because you're not a Jew, you're a Gentile. The very first half of our Bible is about a group named the Jews. You need to know that Abraham was plucked out of paganism and made a Jew. There's never been a Jewish race until God made one. And he chose Abraham. And some things happened to Abraham. Abraham had a sign on his body. Not gonna try to get too graphic, but he was circumcised. Had a mark on his physical body. And after Abraham, every person who was to be a part of the Jewish race, was circumcised as a mark of what? In Ephesians, it says that the Gentiles are fellow heirs, members of the same body and partakers of the promise. What was the circumcision mark on the boys? It was a mark of promise. You are my people and I'm gonna give you a land. Y'all remember the story?
Filled with what? Milk and honey. That's a sign of prosperity. And I'm gonna give you all of this. And then he gives that people law.
Many of you know that as common as the 10 commandments, but there were so many others. This was God's promised people. Now, that was Jewish. You were not raised that way. As far as I understand it, we are all Gentiles. I don't know anybody in here was raised Jewish. If you were raised Jewish, we need to talk, okay? But because you've hidden it from us, okay? But every one of you is a Gentile. So don't think of yourself as a child of promise anymore, because that's not, you were not born into that. The reason I know that is because it's so easy to put ourselves in the, well, of course I should be saved. That's how Jews thought. Of course I get the promises. I am a child of Abraham. And you know what Paul tells us Gentiles?
He tells, he's telling the Jews too, but you know what he's telling the Gentiles? You're a child of wrath. You're not a child of promise. You're not a part. Go back and read chapters one and two.
You are a stranger to the promises of God. Your assumption that because you live in a Christian world in a lot of ways is that you should be engrafted in. And I'm here to tell you, it's a miracle of grace that any of you got in. It's a miracle of grace that I got in. The mystery is that you as a Gentile get to be a child of promise. But I wanna show you a couple of places where, we're gonna do a Bible drill real quick. So if you've got a physical Bible, Mark four, sorry, Mark seven, go to the middle of your Bible, Matthew, Mark, Mark chapter seven. Goodness, I always get helped by the scriptures. But this week when I was reading this text, I am, y'all know I'm an emotional person. It didn't take a lot to get me worked up. I could listen to a piece of Mozart and get worked up. So I don't want you to look at me getting worked up right now as like some ultimate sign of spirituality. I'm not trying to do that. I'm just trying to tell you, it hits me on an emotional level to see how God's treated me. Y'all, some of y'all, you think you know me, but you don't know me like God's known me.
I heard somebody say this not too long ago and I thought, it's so true, we have to see ourselves, but God sees everything about your life. He knows every thought. And I just, you know, just for a second, I just wanna say, I've had the thought over the years. If my past or in a moment when I got in an argument with somebody or something happened in my mind and it was projected immediately so everyone around me could see, I would crawl. I would crawl into it.
I would go into a pit, man. And I would cover myself up. I've seen my pettiness. I've seen the wickedness in my heart to turn away from people. I know me, but God knows me better.
And I'll tell you on my best day, I wouldn't choose me. I wouldn't choose me. Cause I know me, God knows me better. And he chose me. So when I look at these texts, it's hard because some people would say, why won't God save everybody?
And I'd say, why would God save me? Why have I been offered? Why would he give me this gospel? Sometimes I think it makes sense for them. Look at their life.
God says, I don't choose based on the life. I choose based on what I want. I'll need some of y'all to hear this. God's gonna work out your sin. You'll die with some of it still running through your bones.
But if you think God's measure of love is conditioned by how much sin you do or do not have in your life, you do not know the gospel because you were not chosen. You were chosen because of how holy you might be one day. You were chosen because he decided to delight. And when he robs you of your sinfulness and you see more of it healed and changed, God loves that. Cause that's God working in you to do exactly what he said he would do.
Conform you to the image of Christ. Some of you are so bored with your life with God. And I would tell you, how can you be bored? You either haven't seen yourself or you haven't seen the glory of the gospel. Matthew 7.
Verse 24, it says, Jesus arose and went away to the region of Tyre and Sidon and he encountered, entered a house and did not want anyone to know. Yet he could not be hidden. Immediately a woman whose little daughter had an unclean spirit heard of him and came and fell down at his feet. This is a big deal. Don't know how big of a deal I can make it.
Only the spirit can make it as big of a deal as it needs to be for you. Jews did not hang around non-Jews. The only thing I know to compare it to are the race relations that had been in Alabama. Most of us were not alive for that, but many of you remember some of that. Some of you had interracial relationships.
You had friends that were black or friends that were white. But in the height of the civil rights movement, if you were a white person and a black person came into your midst to hang out with you, most people around that time, would have had feelings about that. Guys, we are in a state that had bathrooms for different races, water fountains for different races. We can somewhat touch the fabric of what this would have looked like. This woman comes in, Syrophoenician woman, and it makes the point in verse 26, Mark is a Jew.
He's writing this as a Jew. He's letting you know she was not a Jew. Now, this woman, or this woman, was a Gentile, Syrophoenician by birth. And she begged him, Jesus, to cast the demon out of her daughter. And he said to her, I want you to listen to these words, let the children be fed first, for it is not right to take the children's bread and throw it to the dogs.
So, oh, Jesus is painting a little illustration. No, he is telling you the condition of his culture. It is not right. In that Jewish culture, for him to give what was rightfully the Jews to this Gentile dog. You say, I can't believe Jesus said that.
Jesus didn't say that she was a dog. Jesus said, it is not right. In other words, this is how it is now. Right now, the children of promise deserve this bread because that's how the system was created. The Jews around that table probably thought, that's right, Jesus, tell this dog to get out of here.
But we've got an approaching whisper of the gospel. Listen to what she says. Yes. Yes, Lord. Yet even the dogs under the table eat the children's crumbs.
And Jesus, because of this response, said, your daughter has been delivered. He says, she knew she was a Gentile. She didn't say, that's offensive what you said. I'm not a dog. You need to heal my daughter.
He said, she said, I'm a dog. But sometimes, like, dogs get handouts, right? Maybe you could show a little mercy and give this dog some bread, even if it's just crumbs. That expands. That expands my view of the gospel.
You might say, well, it sounded like Jesus was calling her a name and Jesus was being mean to her. No, Jesus was setting up so we could see that the gospel and the mystery of the gospel was, it just wasn't the promised children of Abraham, but even what would have been considered the dogs were going to get to eat from the bread of promise. Now, you may have thought I'd have been one of Jesus' buddies. No, you would have been the dog. Now, I've got a dog.
His name's Ace. I think you got a picture of him. He looks really, like, regal in this picture. You can really see his, all his definition. But this is what he looked like when we first got him.
And that was probably a couple of, I don't know, maybe three or four weeks. I put it, listen, y'all need to know something about this dog. I'm gonna tell you this story real quick, I promise. I wasn't blowing a kiss at the camera either. I don't know what's going on with my lips here.
It looks like I was like, mwah, okay, but I wasn't. All right. This dog was in a ditch over here. Kingston, our oldest son, found him. One time after service, we got done with service and he was roaming around as he does.
And he found this dog in the ditch and its stomach was distended, swollen up, like it probably hadn't eaten in a while. And then he had a form of mange. It was called red mange. And Kingston was like, we can't leave him here. He's gonna die.
If you know our family, we've historically not done well with animals. That's gospel truth. That's real truth. It's like they come there to be done away with. I don't know how it happens, but they just don't stay around long.
We wanna thank you, God, for Ace's perseverance right now, because he's made it past the year. But I'll be honest with you. Even dogs get the crumbs, right? I was like, you know what? Put him in the car.
I went and talked to my sister. She was a vet. So we're trying to figure out like, how do we treat this mange thing? Ended up not being that bad. Gave him a couple of baths.
And it was like, he came to life. Jennifer's like, oh, man. I was over here shaking her head. Jennifer still does not like Ace. She's not a fan of Ace.
But so then Ace, Ace is our dog. It's our dog. I put clothes on him. It's been fun. I thought finding, I thought shirt animals for, or shirts for animals, animals for shirts is wild.
Sorry, that was like a Cruella de Vil type moment. I need to repent right now in Jesus' name. I thought putting clothes on animals is this really weird thing. And then I put a shirt on Ace. I was like, this is the most awesome thing in the world.
Like, first off, why are they naked all the time? They need to be clothed anyway. So now this dog really has, this dog is really my dog. I don't care what my kids say. You know, they mess around with him.
This dog is my dog. Now, what would not be weird is that I showed compassion and now we feed this dog, this dog lives with us. But what would be weird to you, and it'd be weird in general, is if I told you that, and this has not happened, I'm giving this as an illustration before you're like, oh my God, you're like weird. If you found out that I had gone to the social security office and we had gotten Ace a social security number and that I adopted him and now his name was Ace Jonathan Fox and that he had his own room and that we were sending him to Warrior Elementary next year. And that I was doing everything for them, for the dog, that I would do for my kids.
And you would say, that is so strange. Why would you do that? You can't do that. You, a dog can't become your child. I'm telling you, that's what the gospel's done.
As absurd as Ace becoming one of my children is to you, is how absurd it should be to you, that you, a dog, have become a child of God. You went from D-O-G to C-O-G and you didn't even know it, right? You went from dog to child of God right there. You didn't even know it. I planned that, it didn't land as well as I thought it would.
So we're just gonna continue on. I thought Trace would appreciate that, yeah. Okay. So the gospel is absurd. The gospel is absurd.
You're not a child of promise, you're a child of wrath. You're a dog, the system says. But now you've been, Paul says, grafted in. You've been brought in. You're not far off.
He's not just shown compassion on you cause anybody can show compassion on someone in need. He's done something far greater than just showed compassion to you. He's made you fit for His presence. He's made you holy. He's brought you into His, literally, He's made you holy. you can go in and request from God at any moment, at any time, whatever you need to help you.
I need to close. I had lots of other stuff to say and I just, I don't have time. I knew this would be that kind of message. It's amazing how if you look at it, Paul wrote this letter. Who better to write this letter?
He would be called an apostle to the Gentiles. He was a Jew of Jews. As far as being Jewish, he was the most Jew that you could be. A Pharisee of Pharisees. Acts 10, it was so engrafted in Peter's mind that the children of promise were the Jews.
Even before Jesus ascended, he said, when are you going to restore the kingdom to Israel? He wasn't thinking gospel. He was thinking Israel. He was thinking, I'm a Jew. I want the promise of the Jews.
And in Acts 2, the Holy Spirit falls and all of the the Jews that were there to pray were filled with the Holy Spirit and they came out speaking in other people's languages, but they weren't Gentiles, they were Jews. And if they were, they were proselytes, they were won over to Judaism, meaning they were keeping the law of Moses, they were eating kosher, they were circumcised. In other words, the gospel was being proclaimed to the Jew. Jesus said, go into all the world. And Peter was like, we're doing it.
We're going into all the world, reaching wherever there's a Jew, we're reaching them. Now, Acts 2, he's probably like, man, this is crazy. In Acts 10, he has a vision. A sheep comes down out of heaven and it's filled with all these animals and he hears a voice and it says, the voice of the Lord. He says, kill and eat.
And Peter says, as Peter does, by the way, Peter is very convicted to the point he's convicted even in being wrong. He told the Lord, you're not going to the cross. And Jesus was like, get behind me, Satan. Like, you're not thinking right. Peter's like, far be it from me, God.
I'm not, I've never eaten unclean things. And Jesus says, don't call unclean that which I have made clean. Peter coming off the vision going, huh? What would that means? Like, we've got a good perspective here because we've read the story, right?
A person comes to him and he says, hey, this Gentile wants you to come over his house. He wants to know about like the gospel or whatever. So Peter's like, I don't know. Maybe that's what this whole vision is about. He goes, he preaches.
He preaches the gospel and they're filled with the same spirit in the same way that the Jews were on the day of Pentecost. And he's like, what? Oh, this is, wait a second. This isn't just a Jewish thing. Like God's saving everybody.
Any who would come, he's saving them. But later, a church is starting in Antioch, primarily Gentile. I said I had more to go in. I just started going into it. So you're just gonna have to bear with me because I just want us to be astounded by it.
The idea is that in Acts 15, there's a church in Antioch gets started. It's primarily Gentile. And there are Jewish people a part of this church and they start bothering the Gentile brothers and sisters. And you know what they start saying? You have to do what we had to do.
You have to keep the law and you have to be circumcised. I don't know about you, but if I was in there, I'd be like, hold up, brother. You know, wait a minute, wait a minute. What are you saying? They get them so worked up.
There's a brother there. That they decide to send back to Jerusalem to figure out what they need to do. Any guesses who it might be who they sent? Paul, a Jew of Jews. They send him back to Jerusalem.
And you know what Peter says when Paul gets to Jerusalem? When I was with this guy, he received the spirit. It's like God's given them the spirit the same way he's giving us. And he gave it to them without them eating kosher, without them following the law, without them being circumcised. It's almost like the way someone is going to come to God now is through a new covenant through Jesus' blood and not through the law and the sacrifice.
It's almost like the only prereq is that you believe on Christ and the same spirit that raised Christ from the dead would fill that sinner's heart and they'd learn to love God and give their life to God. It seems like going on. So they wrote a letter. Said, who should we send with this letter? Who do you think they sent?
Paul, a Jew of Jews. An apostle ends up being an apostle of the Gentiles. Now that was around the year 30. Paul gets sent and he's a... Listen, an apostle is one who's sent.
And Paul was sent with the good news to let a group of people who thought they were dogs, who knew they were dogs, did not have to do the things that people said they had to do to get what God was willing to give through Jesus. I'm telling y'all, we act like Jews sometimes because we're like, no, you got to act right. No, you got to do this. You got to do this. No, you got to come to him and you got to say what Courtney said.
I am not the one you are. I don't want to be the sinner of my life anymore. And I just believe there's such a call on this church to get back to the genuine nature of the gospel. Guys, there are people around here who need to be freed from their religious efforts. They need to be freed from the thing in their heart that's condemning them.
When we do the sending liturgy here in a second, I want you to remember, you're being sent like the apostle Paul to hold true to the genuine gospel. The mystery is you were a dog and he made you a son. And there are people, there are people that need to hear the love of God through Christ Jesus, that when he shed his blood on the cross, he finished a work that doesn't have to be added to. So when Paul says, when you read this, you'll perceive my insights. I hope you can see why Paul would say that.
That Paul would say, I know firsthand what it's like to look someone in the eye who thought they were a dog, who was trying to figure out how they were going to get under the law, get circumcised, do everything the Jews were pushing on them and to realize it's Jesus, Christ and him alone. Amen. Can I pray for us and over us? And hey, listen, if you're here this morning and you don't know Jesus, I really want to try to avoid an emotional plea. But I ask like Paul, I beg you, I beg you to turn to Christ.
If you've been here and you've acted as a Jew, you think you've inherited life with Christ because you've been around the church. I beg you, come to Christ. He, through him, is the only way to the Father. And there is no other name under heaven in which we might be saved. As I pray, if that's you, cry out to him, ask him.
Just like Courtney said, I don't want to be the sinner anymore. I don't want to be in the middle. I want you tired of being the Lord of my life. I see the gospel. Jesus, if he's revealing himself to you now, then today is a day of salvation.
Call out to him. Father, we pray that the drawing of your spirit might be upon your people. Lord, if you're calling a son or a daughter into your loving grace, I ask that it's cemented in their heart right now that they're being shown their lostness. They're being shown their sin. They're being shown what they lack and that you lack nothing.
And that through your decision to send Jesus as a perfect substitute, to bring a new covenant, a new promise to people that were a part of Israel and those who were not, to bring sonship to dogs, as absurd as that sounds, Holy Spirit, if you're softening a heart right now, I pray they call out to you. Jesus. Jesus, let your salvation wash. Let your work on Calvary expend every area of sin and may they be cleansed from all unrighteousness. Holy Spirit, fill them right now so that you might have the newness of life that comes from the resurrection of Jesus.
May they be filled with wonder and awe and love for you and for the one who has been around culture but has not come to that same place. Father, I ask that Holy Spirit, you would quicken their heart. It can seem embarrassing when it feels like you've been a part of something so long and realize that you really weren't a part. But Father, I pray you clear away that embarrassment and you bring the sober reality of being known by Jesus. Your salvation is good for the Jew and the Gentile, for those who think they deserve it and for those who know they don't.
Your grace is sufficient and I pray that that grace be at work in Jesus. In Jesus' name we pray, amen, amen. We've got a few things I wanna throw at you real quick. We're going into the seven days of prayer. I'm really asking all of you, what was on that board so many times over and over again was a seriousness, just the seriousness, the things that were written on that board.
I thought, man, hey, for these next seven days, can you turn on the serious? I don't mean be fake. I just mean like really pray, really seek God over these next seven, like I said, Crystal put together a list too. We'll make sure that gets out. If you would need help in like, how do I pray?
What would I pray? We'll make sure you get that list so that you know. If you've got something going on and we can partner with you in prayer, you can do one of two things. You can, if you wanna be more discreet about it, you could tap that tap disc or fill out one of the cards. But the way that I love the most about connecting around here is face-to-face.
If you've got something going on, ministry can happen through an email and through a card, but we believe the best ministry comes through ministers. And we believe that every member of this body of Christ is a minister. And so we would love to minister with you. If you need a prayer or anything like that after this service is over with, take time for that. This is the last thing, and I know I've gone like so far over.
Can you throw that first slide up there, Peyton, about the groups? Okay, so if you've been, who has been a part of Move Church like since the beginning? All right, so what those of you that didn't raise your hand may not know is that Move Church may not know is that the way we've done groups feels like a bouncy ball being thrown into a very small room. It's just like, doink doink doink. It's all over the place.
We've landed over the last couple of years on discipleship groups, which is our 101, our 201, our 301. We've also been doing what we call growth groups, which is just a particular group that deals with prayer or how to read your Bible. We would say these are places where people feel like they need to grow, and this would be a safe place for them to learn where they can grow in that particular area. And what we've realized is that we thought the work of the enemy was in interest groups. What I mean by that is what we saw so often with an interest-based group is just people going around, just doing something, hanging out, and we don't have to sponsor that.
If you want to go out and have a pickleball group, you could have a pickleball group. That's just how our mind was. But I think what has happened is we really do see a calling for every man and woman in the world. If you want to be a member, to be a minister in a new way, and we're going to use interest-based groups for that, you may be interested in leading a group. We've got the group semester for the fall is about to be coming up.
Sign-ups for that are going to open up in July. And so if you're interested in leadership, if you're interested in discipleship groups, we usually push towards our elders and deacons and those who've been through 301. Our discipleship groups, we usually have people that have been through 301. Those are kind of prereqs. But for the interest-based groups, we're just asking that you've been through our 101 and 201.
And if you have an interest in leading that group, you can scan that QR code. In fact, they're going to, if you can, Peyton, leave that up there after we do the sending liturgy. He's the man. All right, thank you, Peyton. You're awesome.
So I'll throw that up there. Keep that up there. If you want to, you've got interest in it, you can scan that QR code, fill that stuff out, and just let us know, okay? I think that's all. That's everything.
Why don't you all stand to your feet? We'll say the sending liturgy together, and we'll get you out of here. Dads, we've got donuts for you. Come on, give it up for donuts. On the other side, I'm sure that if you're really loving and caring, you'll give your donut to your children.
You won't even get to taste it. Hallelujah. Praise the Lord. All right. Hey, seriously, hey, we're being sent, aren't we, church?
We're being sent, all right? So as we say this, let's just declare it over our lives. Let's believe it. So say this with me. We're not leaving this place.
We are being sent. We are obeying the command of our Lord to go. So send us, Lord, to find you in secret, in prayer and devotion, to love and care for our families. To strengthen and encourage our brothers and sisters in Christ. To faithfully work as under the Lord in the marketplace and home.
To wisely steward all you have given us. To recognize our place and ability in our community. To witness of your goodness and grace to neighbors and nations. Send us now in your presence and power. Amen. Y'all have a great Father's Day.
