Getting into the message this morning, I spent a lot of time this last week thinking about kind of the earlier days of this church. I don't know if any of you were around in like the early days. This is not some type of sifting of like who the real his hands people are and the not real his hands people. But just out of curiosity, if you were in this place circa 2005 to 2008, anybody, anybody go that far back? All right, not that many of us, and that makes sense. There were a lot fewer of us uh here back in those days. We had some really awkward mornings in this room early on, because a hundred people in here is it's it's interesting. Um but if if you came in the early days of his hands, you would have seen a sign on our building. And that sign would have said this. I've been thinking about it a lot this week. Party on Sunday. Anybody remember the party on Sunday days? Yeah, there you go. Uh this offended a lot of people. Like, we got letters. Like, honestly, we did. Like, how dare you say party on Sunday? And understand what was going on. Like, you know, it was it was people who um just thought it was maybe like sacrilegious, um, making light of something sacred. And that is not like look, we we love Jesus. That's really clear. If you're here on a Sunday morning one time, you know that we we take our faith really seriously. We just don't take ourselves very seriously. That's always been a core concept in the church. And so this offended a lot of people, but what we were trying to say uh was that Sunday mornings are gonna be a celebration. When we get together, we're here to celebrate the fact that we have a God who's alive and he loves us, and that should always be exciting. That should always be something that we cheer for and yell about. That's a good thing, right? And so we celebrate that. We we we party together. Um and then our next our next uh billboard sign, we may, I'm just gonna be honest, we were trying too hard at this point in time. Um, because this is what our next one said said happy hour Sundays at 10 o'clock. And uh man, if you think that first one offended people, oh my goodness. And again, admittedly, I think we were I think we were trying too hard. I think we were pushing a little bit. Well, we're trying to communicate again. We're like taking a stand. People were, some people were mad about the party on Sunday. We're like, no, we're gonna take it even further. We are happy. We are happy in church. And some people are like, you're not allowed to be happy in church. That's against the rules. I don't know if that was ever spoken. Um, and I understand the connections to alcohol and whatnot. And again, I wasn't in charge those days, so I can say not my decision. Uh I'll tell you a funny story though, real quick. Uh, we had a person on our staff back then who would just like do random uh kind of office-related stuff. And and before smartphones existed, because this was pre-smartphone, we we had a lot more uh paper and pen, right? A lot more people signing up for things, doing stuff with with pen and paper. And so she ordered like a thousand pens that said happy hour Sunday, 10 o'clock. But she forgot to include our church's name on the pens. So there was no context. There's no context, I didn't say his hand church, I just said a pen that said happy hour Sunday, 10 o'clock. And I was thinking about it, you know, I know that there's still some of those pens out there in the world. Because that's what happens with pens, right? Like you use one, you take it with you, someone else grabs a hold of it. And someone got that pen and was like, what bar is open on Sunday at 10 o'clock and has happy hour? Because they had no context for what that was. So this was a this was one of our earlier signs. Didn't stick with this one for too long. Uh, we ended up moving to this one, and and this is one that's really important for our conversation this morning. Uh, Jesus, not religion. Jesus, not religion. Now, I want to say this on the front end. All of us come from different experiences. Some of you grew up in church, and that was a really good thing. Some of you grew up in church and you have uh maybe at best mixed feelings. Uh, some of you it was it was negative. Some of you didn't grow up in church at all. And so this word religion is a little loaded. I want to explain this really quick as we get in here. What I what I mean by religion is not a genuine uh expression of faith. Not a genuine, authentic expression of love and gratitude to God. But uh just a system of rules, do's and don'ts, that are designed to make you feel like you're one of the good ones, and the ones who don't live that way aren't. Okay, that is that is what we mean by religion. And just so you know, religion in scripture is used a few times really positively, like it says taking care of widows and orphans. That is true religion. Um, but when Jesus would use the phrase uh religious to describe the people he was talking about, it wasn't a compliment. And so early on in our days as a church, we said that this is gonna be a place that's about Jesus and not religion. And I want you to lock that into your mind this morning. That's actually the title of the message this morning. That's what we're talking about, and you'll see why here in just a second. But for some context, we are almost done with a series we've been in for the last month or so called Free. And we're looking at a section of a letter in the New Testament called Romans. I don't know whose idea it was to go through the letter of Romans. That was a bad idea. No, I'm teasing. That was my idea, and I am the one who regrets it because Romans is tough. If you've ever read it before, Romans is probably the most comprehensive explanation that we have of who Jesus is and what Jesus coming and dying for us really means, what that's really changed for us, and then how do we live in response to that? And so we've been going through Romans bit by bit for the last year. We take lots of breaks. I kind of like to think about it uh in terms of scuba diving. You know, we go down deep and then we gotta come up for air every once in a while because Romans is it's a deep dive. And this particular section we're in in Romans is maybe, maybe the most complex part of the entire letter. We've been going through Romans chapter six through most of chapter eight. Today, actually, we're in chapter eight, so we're we're almost finished with this conversation, but this section, it is it's kind of a mess. And so this has been the diagram I've used every single week to describe where we're at in Romans. It's a big mess. And the cool thing is, this is not just uh a diagram of how this section is written. It's all kinds of concepts that are interwoven together, it's actually kind of a diagram of us. Because I'm I'm kind of a mess most days. And we've called this series free because that's what it's ultimately all about, but this is also a diagram of freedom. Romans chapter 8, verse 2, we'll end up reading this one today in our section that we study, but this has kind of been the theme verse for this entire series. Because you belong to him, like we just sang, right? I give my life to you. If you've given your life to Jesus, if you meant that, you belong to him, and now the power of the life-giving spirit, that is the Holy Spirit, that joins with your spirit when you give your life to Jesus. That spirit has freed you from the power of sin and death. You have been set free. But here's the thing about freedom: it is messy. It is messy. It's one thing to be handed freedom, it's another thing to know what to do with it once you have it. And we've used this very often as an illustration. America. We're like one of the first free nations, and that freedom that was given to us, won for us, we haven't always known what to do with that freedom. And we haven't always used that freedom in the right in the right ways. Our history is a bit messy because freedom is messy. And so if you read this section, and I know many of you may be coming for the first time, there's all these concepts, and there's just so many of them. And every time we read a few verses, you're gonna see them all together because it's it's a lot going on. This is a very nuanced section of scripture, but you should never be afraid of the nuances. Never be afraid of the nuances. Even if you're new to the whole Jesus thing, you might not even know whether or not you believe in Jesus. I want you to know this. You were created by God with a capacity to understand spiritual things. And so you're it's gonna make sense to you because you're designed this way. And if you've been following Jesus for years, don't be afraid of the mess. Don't be afraid of nuance. This is a chance to fine-tune your faith. You want to have a fine-tuned faith because the broad strokes will only get you so far. Now, I promise I'm done with the review section after this. We've been using this as kind of a framework to make sense of the mess, to make it a little bit more clear. Here's basically what this section is telling us. Uh, this is a uh a diagram of two people, okay? And both of those people are you. Right? Makes sense. Uh you were all born, and when you were born, you received a nature. And scripture often calls our nature apart from God flesh. Sometimes it's called a sin nature. And these are just the things that you naturally desire. These are your thoughts, your desires, your imagination, the way you might say, the way you're wired. This is us apart from God. And the truth is, um, no matter how hard we might try, and there are lots of redeemable qualities about us for sure, but this leads to death. Living this way leads to death. And we've all experienced this. It might be kind of harsh language. This is what scripture says, right? For the wages of sin is death. Uh, but but we've all experienced this because when you live life just doing whatever you want to do, because that's how you're wired or that's the way you were born, it leads to death. Death of trust, death of relationship, death of self-respect. We've all lost a lot of respect for ourselves because we were just doing what we wanted to do. And when our justification for the way we live our lives is just I really, really want to, that's just the flesh. And it doesn't lead us to a good place. But something has happened. Something monumental. Jesus came and he's offered something to us, a new life. Jesus says in John chapter 3, you must be born again. And so now we have this birth. We put our trust in Jesus, we become born again. And when you're born again, you get a new nature. This nature, it's wired to desire the things that God desires. To want the very things that God would want for you. And when we live out of this nature, it leads to life. Jesus said in John 10, 10, I've come to give them life and life to the full, abundant life. That is what happens when we live according to our spirit. Now it looks nice and neat here, but in reality, in practice, it's a big mess. There's a lot going on inside of us. And so if you've ever felt like you don't understand yourself, you don't know what's going on inside of you, you're in good company. Because there's kind of a little bit of a battle here. And we have to try to figure this out. What is this, what does this look like? What does this mean to live this way? For all intents and purposes, this person is dead, but I don't know about you. I'm really good at keeping this person hooked up to life support. I make lots of decisions, I do lots of things that just kind of keep this one going. And the reality is, and we've said this every week, this is so vital. It's a total shift in thinking. We are we are conditioned to believe that this is the real us, and this is some type of like, yeah, I was born again, and I got a spirit inside of me, and you know, I'm trying my best. Like, no, no, no, no, no. This is the imposter, this is the real you. And we've got to rewire our thinking to start saying things like when we say the phrase, I was born this way, this is just the way I am, like, which birth are we talking about? Because almost always when someone says, Well, I was just born this way, they always mean this one, even if they're a Jesus follower. It's like, yeah, but that birth, that one doesn't count as much as this one. You were born again. You were born again. And it's funny, I've been thinking about it. I I've never done this before, like, celebrate your birthday on the day you were born again and not this one. But we kind of should, right? Like, this is the one that matters. This is the one that matters. This is the one that lasts forever because this person will die. That's what flesh does, it dies. Spirit does not. And this person will never die. This person will spend eternity in heaven united with the God who created you. It's really, really cool. So, this is the real you, but you have to you have to think that way. So, with this in mind, with all this in mind, I want to go ahead and open up Romans chapter 8 with this framework in our brains, and let's just go through it. Romans 8, I'm gonna read verses 1 through 4. That's what we're gonna focus on today. So now, and you might say, now what? Now that we've given our lives to Jesus, now that He has He's He's made us a new person, now that we've been born again. Okay, so now there is no condemnation for those who belong to Christ Jesus. Because you belong to Him, the power of the life-giving Spirit has freed you from the power of sin that leads to death. The law of Moses was unable to save us because of the weakness of our sinful nature. So God did what the law could not do. He sent his own son in a body like the bodies we sinners have. And that in that body, God declared an end to sin's control over us by giving his son as a sacrifice for our sins. He did this so that the just requirement of the law would be fully satisfied for us, who no longer follow our sinful nature, that is the flesh, and instead follow our spirit. Okay, so you can see a lot of these concepts in virtually every sentence. That's the way this section of Romans is. So here's what I want us to understand. This is saying something really major, something really big. And what it's talking about is the difference between death and life. This is like the fundamental issue that Jesus solves. See, Jesus makes dead people alive. That's what he does. Now, when we we think of death, we think physical. And very often when Scripture is talking about death and life, it's not talking about physical death, physical life, it's talking about spiritual death, spiritual life. And what it's saying is that apart from Jesus, we are spiritually dead. And we need Jesus to bring us to life. And that might be hard for us to think through. But we actually have some really good uh real-world ways to understand what that kind of spiritual death looks like. And I like to think about my phone, my cell phone, right? How many times have you said that your phone is dead? Like my phone died, my phone is dead. I'm so sorry that you called my phone was dead. What we don't mean when we say that our phone is dead is that it is physically broken. And usually we just mean the power isn't there, right? Like it's it's there physically, it's fine. It's just it doesn't have life, it doesn't have that power inside of it that allows it to be what it's meant to be and do what it's meant to do. Apart from Jesus, we cannot be who we're meant to be. We cannot do what we're meant to do because we're spiritually dead. And so for all of history, for all of human history, there's been this challenge for people to figure out how do I move from death to life. Now, now that language might not be the language that's used, and in our modern culture you wouldn't really hear people talk about it, but but let me phrase it in a little bit of a different way. Because this is something, irregardless of culture, irregardless of faith, whatever the name of religion is, this is what it is. It's who we are and who we ought to be. For all of human history, for all of human history, people groups across the world have recognized that we are not as we ought to be. There's something that's just off. And we have a word for that in our faith, it's sin. But even those who don't share our faith understand that. In fact, I'll never forget, last year, amongst all the craziness of coronavirus and all the social unrest, I read a statement from a governor. And the statement was we all have to do whatever we can to confront the implicit bias that exists within all of us. And I was like, Oh, you're talking about sin. That's spiritual language. Okay, and regardless of what your opinions about all that stuff are, just recognize that our culture has this understanding of there's something in us that's keeping us from being what we ought to be. There is a gap between who we are and who we ought to be. And the question is, what is going to bridge that gap? What's the solution? And for years, this was the solution. I'm strong enough to open this, I promise. Hold on, my fingers are just sweating. All right, this was the solution. It was law. It's really bad handwriting, but I'm a lefty. So let's make the L taller. There we go. Law. That's the solution to sin. That's the solution to bridging the gap from who we are to who we ought to be. And so uh in the Old Testament of the Bible, you see these people struggling to follow the law because the idea is uh I'm I'm not who I ought to be. This is who I am, and if I can follow this law, if I can have a list of rules and I can do it really well, then I can move from who I am to who I ought to be. So you just have to follow the law. Now, the most basic version of that would be the Ten Commandments. And I don't know how recently you've read the Ten Commandments. I heard a pastor say this years ago. Love it, it's like beautifully put. Uh it's not exactly the pinnacle of human achievement. You know, like it doesn't say in the Ten Commandments, it doesn't say uh give all your money to charity. It doesn't say volunteer lots of time to serve those who are needy. It doesn't say anything like that. It just says stuff like, yeah, don't kill each other, don't lie to each other, you know, don't covet what your your neighbor has. It says like, hey, one day a week, one day a week, just take a day, rest, and honor God who created you and literally holds all things together. One day. It's a pretty low bar. And yet, we're all really good at limbo when you think about it. You know, like limbo the game where you go under the bar? Like all of us have found a way under that bar. And sometimes, I don't know if you're like me, sometimes I surprise myself. I'm like, whoa, I didn't know I could go that low. I never realized that before. I'm actually kind of impressed because the bar is this low. It's like I dug a hole in the earth and went under it. Like, look how I figured out how to be the worst version of myself. It's cool, right? Never done this before. The truth of the matter is, the Ten Commandments are not some like crazy high standard of life. They're actually a really low bar, and yet we can't get across it. Like we can't rise to the occasion. It's the law. And this becomes the struggle of human history. Because here's what the idea was. The idea was that, you know, we we go from here, we use the law, and we become who we ought to be. But what actually happens in practice is people do the law, and the law just reflects them back to who they actually are. You try your best, and it's like, oh no, I just realized in trying to follow the law that I'm this person and this isn't good, and so I'm gonna try harder, and it just keeps going back, and it's like this barrier, and all the law does is remind you over and over and over again that you are not who you ought to be, because you can't do it. And over time, this whole thing gets solidified and it becomes this big mess called religion. Just a bunch of rules designed, maybe even with good intention, to help you bridge the gap between who you are and who you ought to be, but in reality, you're just locked into this cycle and it becomes toxic. Because you know what? If we can't follow those rules, if we can't follow those basic, you know, treat each other well, love God, love people, that's really the Ten Commandments in a nutshell. Let's just create other rules that we can follow. Rules that if we follow these like meaningless things, like wash your hands the right way, stuff like that, and in the Jewish culture, that's what it was, then we feel like we're good and they're bad. And it becomes this toxic cycle called religion, and it doesn't lead to life, it leads to death. Let me show you some hallmarks of religion. This is what religion is all about uh outrage. When you live with a religious spirit, you are super easy to offend. All you gotta do is see a billboard that says party on Sunday and you're mad. Right? But I mean, let's be honest, like we've all we've all been here before. There's just things that just you're just you're outraged instantly. And you know, it's it's funny, this is a character trait that's good, provided that you are only ever outraged by the right things. Like God gets outraged from time to time. Like in the Old Testament, uh, the people of Israel were uh participating in a cultural thing that was happening around them that was child sacrifice, and it outraged God. And he literally says, I never even imagined you doing this. Now he should be outraged by that. And we see times in Jesus' life where he gets outraged a little bit. It's it's few and far between, but when he does, it it's justified, it's righteous. But but religion gets outraged at all kinds of crazy stuff. You know, say the wrong thing, don't say the right thing, wear the wrong thing. It's just, it doesn't, it's like little tiny things, and it's just outrage and offense. That's religion. Okay? There's another aspect of religion: rigidity. Religion is rigid. There's no room for discussion, there's no room for dissenting opinion. It's like, here's the line, toe it or else. And if you step outside of it, ooh, watch out. And we we we struggle sometimes to not see God that way because that's the way He's presented to us. You know, there's this phrase that you've probably heard of, uh, the straight and narrow. And we think in our minds, it's like this this path, and boy, you better walk that path, and one step to the left or to the right, and God's gonna be so outraged, right? Because that's what religion's all about. But that straight and narrow is actually a nautical term, like the Strait of Gibraltar, which leads from the Atlantic Ocean into the Mediterranean Sea. It's a very narrow path that leads into a wide body. And Jesus, he's the path that we take. And in Jesus, you go through him and you're opened up to all that God has for you. The will of God is not a tightrope. Yes, there are things that he tells us to do and not to do, but it's so much more about freedom than we could ever imagine. But religion is not about freedom at all. Religion is a tightrope, it's rigid. You better not move to the left or to the right. If you do, you're in trouble. And if you actually do that, and all of us, let's be honest, have, uh here's what you get waiting for you. What's behind door number one? It's a bunch of shame. Right? You win shame. You should be ashamed. Now, some of you have heard that spoken over you, but I'm gonna guess that all of you have heard a voice inside you at some point in time say, You ought to be ashamed. That is not the voice of God the Father. Because religion will accuse you. It will give you a standard so impossible that no person could ever hope to live it. And then when you inevitably fail, you ought to be ashamed. And you feel worthless. And ultimately, what it leads to, this is where all religion ends condemnation. Condemnation. You're out. You don't measure up. Now, here's where this gets really relevant. Because like what what I do, just so you guys know, the process of a typical Sunday for me, is not like, hmm, what do I want to talk about? And let me find some scripture that goes with that. Like every once in a while there might be something happening culturally or whatever that we go that route with, but but we teach from scripture for the most part. And when I do that, what's great is that I have to go, what does this say? And how does this apply? How does this connect to where we're at in life right now? So I've spent a lot of time thinking about this because what it said was that Jesus did what the law, what religion, could not do. And I I don't know if you've experienced this or not or thought about it in these terms, but I believe that we are living in the most religious time in our nation's history. Now that religion may not express itself by people going to church in mass on Sunday mornings, but we live in unbelievably religious times. Everything is becoming a religion. Everything, politics, has become a religion. And the reason you know that is because if somebody doesn't have the right political opinion or dares to challenge whatever the dogma of the day is, people are outraged.

Right?

It's rigid. There's no room for any discussion. There's shame. And we don't use the word condemnation because we just have a different word. Uh you don't get condemned, you just get canceled. Right? There you go. Cancel culture. Right, that's all that is. That's just condemnation. That's just another word for fruit. Yeah. Canceled. And it's everything, it's politics, and it can be both sides of politics. Even science, it's amazing if you look at the world that we live in right now and our culture. You know, science is actually supposed to be about discussion and dissenting opinions, because dissenting opinions will sharpen truth. And a true scientist would always welcome a challenge, welcome a dissenting opinion. But whether it's COVID or global warming or whatever it might be, there is no room for dissent. There's no room for another opinion. It is believe this, and if you don't believe it, we'll be outraged. It's rigid, you'll be shamed, and we'll cancel you. That is religion. We live in unbelievably religious times. Our nation is becoming more religious by the day, and it is not going to lead to a good place. And it's funny because as like a Jesus follower who knows the history of my faith, our faith started off as a movement that religious people could not figure out how to categorize. Like the religious people, they hated Jesus. They hated him so much. They killed him and they thought that would stop things. And that plan backfired tremendously. Because when you die and you get back up again, it's a whole different world, right? And so Jesus gets back up and then he gives the Holy Spirit to his followers, and they start going out and they preach in the streets, and people are becoming Jesus followers, like left and right, and the religious leaders are like, What do we do? These people, they don't make any sense to us. Like they would threaten, they would threaten the Jesus followers. They would say, Hey, stop preaching about Jesus, stop it, or we'll throw you in jail, or we'll kill you. And they're like, We're not afraid of that anymore. And the religious people had no power. And so they literally just go, We don't, we don't know what to do. And the movement of Jesus was something unlike anything this world had ever seen. But if you study the history of our faith, you know that at certain points in time, it sort of became a religion. And not even really sort of, it like really became a religion. Because there's this gravity, there's this pull to religion. And eventually, the structure of the church and the structure of many things, it began to look very different than the person of Jesus. But here's what's great: God loves us. He loves his church. He loves the church, even when the church is way off track, just like Megan talked about during Lord's Supper. Like God loves his kids even when they're in the wrong. And so what does God do? He's like, yeah, let's let's let's bring it back. And we've had these amazing movements over the last several hundred years, really began with the Reformation. And it's still happening today, this desire to make sure that we're focused on the core of what Jesus is really all about, that we're following Jesus, not religion, because our world does not need more religion. It has plenty of it. Our world is becoming more religious by the day. It's just everything's becoming a religion. Our world needs Jesus because he is completely different. You know, in the earlier days of our church, I've been talking about this with several people, you know, the 2000s, 2005, whatever. What do we even call that decade? What do you call 2000 to 2009? Like, I don't even know. Does anyone know? No one knows. Okay, that's good. That's gonna work well in history. We don't know. Uh, because you know, we have like the the the tens, the teens, or whatever, and the 20s, and we're living in the 20s right now. What are that? What's that first group called? The zeros? I don't even know. But in those, the aughts, oh yeah, I've heard that, the aughts, which, hey, who you ought to be. It connects. Great, thanks. Um, you know, in those days there was this buzzword in church culture. Because I've been like, I've been a part of churches for years now. And the the buzzword was relevant. And the idea was that church needs to be more relevant. And what that meant for most people was that it needs to look more like the world. And in part that was okay because the idea that you should have to put on a different set of clothes to go to church, like, I'm fine with that not being the case. That's great. You know, like this is as dressed up as I get. And I love that, to be honest with you. I love that. But but it's one thing to try to be more relaxed, to be more to be more accepting is good, to be more accessible, that's definitely good. But relevant has a different meaning. When you're when you're really, really hot, let's say you're working outside and it's 90-something degrees and you're just sweating, and someone brings you a glass of water, do you expect that water to be hot or cold? Well, if it was hot, that would be relevant, right? Because it's just like you. Like, what would happen if you're sweating outside and someone's like, here's some water, and you take a drink and it's like hot water, what would you do? You'd be offended, right? You'd be outraged. We're good at that. We're good at religion. Religion isn't good to us, but we're really good as people at religion. That's why we turn everything into one. Um, but you'd be you'd be upset because this is not what you need. It's not relevant to you because it's actually not different. See, what makes cold water relevant to you is that it is not like you are, it has the ability to change you. And we have to remember that what makes Jesus relevant to our world is that he is nothing like the world. He is totally different. He is cold water on a hot day. He is different and he can change us. And we have to understand that. That our job as Jesus followers is to remember that and to live that way because think back to those hallmarks of religion, right? Outrage, rigidity, shame, condemnation. That's not Jesus. That's not Jesus at all. Like, Jesus isn't about outrage, Jesus is about understanding. He's about understanding. Matthew chapter 9, verse 36. This big crowd of people comes to Jesus. And this is a crowd of people that the religious leaders of his day would have looked at and been offended by. How dare they? Do they not realize who we are and look at them and they would have thought about all the judgment and all the things these people did wrong? And it says in verse 36 of Matthew 9, when he saw the crowds, he was outraged and offended at their very oh, sorry, he had compassion on them because they were confused and helpless like sheep without a shepherd. If you ever feel confused or helpless, like you just don't know what to do, you can't figure it out, maybe whether it's in your marriage or in another relationship or your job or your faith, and you're like, I don't even know what to do. God is not going to look at you and be like, Well, you should. Because we know what God will look at you and think. We see it. Jesus is the perfect representation of God. He had compassion on them because they were helpless and they were confused. What does that mean? Jesus has understanding, not outrage, understanding. Even when we're doing things that Jesus would look at us and be like, you got it, you should stop that. Like, that's not, that's not good. Don't do that. He wasn't afraid to say that, by the way. But even in those moments, he had tremendous understanding. He had the ability to have compassion and try to put himself in the place of those people and say, this is what they need. The reason they're acting this way, the reason they're doing all these things that are outrageous to the religious zealots of his day is because they're confused and they're helpless. They need help. So with Jesus, you don't get outrage, you get understanding. And let's just take a quick poll. What's better? Outrage or understanding? Who says outrage? We need a big dose of outrage in America right now, right? More outrage, no? Anyone, more understanding? You think that would help us a little bit? More understanding? Yeah, all right. That's good. I know it's a leading question. Sorry. I'm not trying to manipulate, I'm just going this way. All right. Uh, with Jesus, you don't get rigidity, you get tremendous flexibility with Jesus. Someone's super passionate about flexibility. That's awesome. Okay? We just looked at Matthew chapter 9, verse 36. Let's look at Matthew chapter 9, verses 14 through 19. One day the disciples of John the Baptist came to Jesus and asked him, Hey, why don't your disciples fast like we do and the Pharisees do? In other words, they're saying you're not doing the religious thing right. Jesus got that a lot. So Jesus replies, Well, do wedding guests mourn while celebrating with the groom? Of course not. But someday the groom will be taken away from them, and then they're gonna fast. Besides, who would patch old clothing with new cloth? The new patch would shrink and it would rip away from the old cloth, leaving an even bigger tear than before. And no one puts new wine into old wineskins. For the old wineskins would burst from the pressure, spilling the wine and ruining the skins. New wine is stored in new wineskins so that both are preserved. Jesus had a tremendous ability to roll with it. Like it's if you read the story of Jesus, it's pretty cool. If you just look at it from the perspective of Jesus' ability to be flexible, he starts his ministry off and he's preaching in the synagogues, in church. And that's where you should, right? That's where the people who want to know about God are going. But every time he preaches in church, people try to kill him. It's a really income. I'm so glad that doesn't happen here. I'm so glad that every Sunday when I'm done, I don't have to like book it out of this place because people are trying, they're coming after me, you know? It's great. But that's how Jesus actually experienced church for a while. He would preach, and then they're like, we're gonna kill you. And he's like, Oh, I'm gonna go this way now. And eventually he just got flexible. He said, You know what? I'm gonna preach out there in the wilderness where the people are. And then all of a sudden things changed because now he was not on the turf of the Pharisees. He's out among the everyday people. And the Pharisees would still show up and just be outraged because that's what they were really good at, but they didn't have any power, any influence there. Jesus kind of rolled with it. He did that so many times. And he does that with you in your life. That's what you have to understand. Like some of us are here today and you're watching from home and you feel like you've messed it all up, that you've ruined it. As if God can't take what you have and make something amazing out of it. Like he's so flexible. He will never look at your life and be like, well, there's nothing I can do with this now. He will look at your life and he'll be like, oh, that was an interesting choice. That went a direction I didn't intend. But oh, I could do something really cool with that. I could do something really cool with that if you if you'd let me. Some of us are holding back our brokenness from God because we feel like he's gonna be outraged and disgusted. All you're doing is holding back God's ability to take your mess, and as Cindy Fournier often says, make it your message. He can do, he's so flexible. That's why he says, you gotta be like a new wineskin. You gotta be flexible. God's always doing something new. And I know so many people who who have done the things that we would all go, oh, that's that's the that's the bad stuff, right? And it obviously is, and yet, and I'm looking at many of you right now, I see the way that God has taken your life. And many of you probably would have felt like the realistic possibility of you being in church on a Sunday morning 10 years ago was like zero, and yet here you are. And you've experienced the love of God, and he's taken your mess and your brokenness and all your mistakes, and he's turned it into something beautiful. Because he's really good at that. He's flexible. Okay? Shame? Nah. You don't get shame, you get grace. So much better than shame. Can we all agree on that at least? Yes, okay. If you need proof with Jesus, how about Matthew chapter nine? As Jesus was walking along, he saw a man named Matthew sitting at his tax collector's booth, follow me and be my disciple. And Jesus said to him, uh, so Matthew got up and followed him. Later, Matthew invited Jesus and his disciples to his home as dinner guests, along with many tax collectors and other disreputable sinners. And I'll just, I've always loved that verse. I always stop when I read this and talk about it. That some of you are reputable sinners. And I guess you wouldn't have been at that party. That party was for the disreputable sinners, right? You gotta be one of those. But when the Pharisees saw this, they asked his disciples, why does your teacher eat with such scum? Like he should be ashamed to be in their presence. These people, they have no business being with a teacher, with a rabbi. And when Jesus heard this, he said, healthy people don't need a doctor, sick people do. And then he added, Now go and learn the meaning of this scripture. I want you to show mercy, not offer sacrifices, for I've come to call not those who think they are righteous, but those who know they are sinners. And you just know that the Pharisees, like, there's no comeback for that. Like, I think he's talking when he says the people who think they're righteous, do you think he means us? Yes, he does. And so Jesus gives grace. I mean, we we have a hard time understanding how hated the tax collectors and the people who would have been at this dinner would be by the Pharisees. I mean, they are the lowest of the low, and they should just be ashamed to they should hide their face to even be in the presence of a Pharisee or a teacher like Jesus was. And Jesus sits down at the table with them and he eats with them, and he calls those people to be his disciples. It's because there's grace. You know, mercy is not getting what you deserve, grace is getting what you don't. So, Jesus, you don't get shame with Jesus. You get grace. Let's go to that last one, condemnation. Guess what? You don't get condemnation with Jesus, right? Romans 8, verse 1 says, now there is no condemnation for those who belong to Jesus. How much condemnation, by the way? Little bit of condemnation? No, none. You should pick that up. Uh, no condemnation whatsoever. Instead, we get sacrifice. Instead of condemning you, Jesus just pays the price for you. And guys, there's so many times we think about the cross, and the cross is obviously the ultimate example of that, but but honestly, there's so many other examples. And by the way, I realize I just made a joke about the phone. You should not feel ashamed that your phone rang in church. That is totally fine. Uh, a few weeks ago, it was my phone right backstage. It was just ringing. Um, so you're good. I just realized in making that joke, I might have made you feel ashamed, and you shouldn't. That would be the opposite of everything we're talking about. Okay, so with Jesus, so everybody turn your phones on. Everyone get on joking. Um with Jesus, you get sacrificed. Check this story out. Matthew chapter 9. I'm just joking. We've used Matthew 9 three times in a row. John chapter 8. This is one of my absolute favorite stories. I believe if you want to be a Jesus follower that really knows who you're following, this story is as crucial as any you will ever read about Jesus. Jesus returned to the Mount of Olives, but early the next morning he was back again at the temple. And a crowd soon gathered and he sat down and he taught them. As he was speaking, the teachers of religious law and the Pharisees brought a woman who had been caught in the act of adultery. They bring her to Jesus. They're trying to trap him. And they put her in front of the crowd. Teacher, they said to Jesus, this woman was caught in the act of adultery. The law of Moses says to stone her. You see that? The law of Moses, which in their culture is just religion, says we should be outraged. She's not followed the rigid path, she should be shamed, and she should absolutely and totally be condemned. It's all those things happening at once. The law of Moses says we should stone her. What do you say? They're trying to trap him into saying something they could use against him. And so here's what's happening: they bring Jesus, this woman, and they're in front of all the people Jesus is teaching. Now, if Jesus says, no, don't stone her, then he's not obeying the law. And then they can use that against him. But if Jesus says, yeah, stone her, that would go against his reputation for compassion and for goodness. And then the people would be uh less enamored with Jesus and they would have some power over him. So they're thinking that they've got Jesus, but again, it always backfires with Jesus because he's well, he's Jesus. Um and so here's what it says Jesus stooped down and wrote in the dust with his finger. We do not know what he wrote. We have no idea. Many have have guessed and thought about it. I've heard people say that perhaps he's just writing some of the things that the men that are in front of him have struggled with. But it says he just started to write in the dust. And they kept demanding an answer. So he stood up and said, All right, yeah, okay. But uh, why don't why don't one of you, whichever one of you has never sinned, go ahead and throw the first stone? And then he stooped down again and he wrote in the dust. Now they were not prepared for this. He's like, oh yeah, yeah, sure, I get it. Yeah, she's done something wrong, and you guys stoned her. Whichever one of you's never sinned, you go ahead and go first. And that's why I like the picture of maybe Jesus writing the stuff they'd struggled with, right? Sins in the dust, because they're like looking at, like, oh, that one is me. Oh, yeah. Again, we don't know that. But it says, when his accusers heard this, they slipped away one by one, beginning with the oldest, until only Jesus was left in the middle of the crowd with the woman. And then Jesus stood up again and he said to the woman, Where are your accusers? Didn't even one of them condemn you? No, Lord, she said. And Jesus said, Neither do I. Now go and sin no more. Now, again, one of my favorite stories, I think it's very important, that last line, go and sin no more. It's very important to realize that when Jesus sacrifices for us, saves us, he does want us to do well. He wants us to make the right choices. Sometimes people will tell that story and they'll leave off that last part, and it really changes the story. Jesus is totally okay looking at his people and saying, Stop that. It's not helping you, it's not blessing you, just you've got more available to you. But but what I hope you understand is that that woman, think about the embarrassment, think about the shame of being dragged in front of Jesus, caught in in an act of weakness, and having that displayed in front of everyone and being accused and condemned, and what it would have been like for Jesus to sacrifice himself for you. Because that's what he did. He stood in the gap for her and he sacrificed. And he doesn't pay the ultimate price in this moment, but see, every time Jesus did that for people, every single time Jesus stood up for the people that the religious were accusing, he sacrificed a little bit more and a little bit more, a little bit more of his reputation with those people in power, a little bit more of their patience and tolerance level for him until in the end it cost him his life. And he knew that. He stood in the gap and he looked this woman in the eye and he said, Think about this, guys. What would her face have looked like? What would her expression have been to hear Jesus say, Neither do I. I do not condemn you. And what I need us to understand is we are all that woman. Because all of us have failed, all of us have messed up, and all of us have an enemy. And Satan, by the way, in scripture is called the accuser, and he will drag you before God, and he will point out your flaws, and he will point out your mistakes, and he will tell you that you should be ashamed and that you should be condemned. And Jesus Christ, perfect and holy and blameless, will look at you and he will say to you, I do not condemn you. And that is beautiful and that is powerful, and every single one of us should feel the weight of that. Because I know my stuff, I know my mess. And it's hard for me, even knowing what I know about God, and even being part of a church like this, it's still hard for me sometimes not to believe that God looks at me ashamed. And yet he looks at me, and just like he looked at that woman, he says, I don't condemn you. See, Jesus, he's different. He is cold water on a hot day. He's not religion, he's not outrage, he's not rigidity, he's not shame, he's not condemnation or cancellation or whatever word we want to use. Jesus is understanding, he's flexible, he'll work with you even in your struggles. Jesus has grace for you, and Jesus will sacrifice everything to save you. That is who he is. And so let's go back to this. There's a gap between who we are and who we ought to be. And so, what fills that gap? You guys got we're in church. You can just go ahead and say it. Jesus. It's not the law, it's Jesus. Jesus is who we ought to be who we ought to be look at Jesus and you look at his life trying to try to find something to do. It's really hard. He had every right, every logical right. Living the life that he lived and just lorded over us. He gave himself for us. Put himself in our place. He says, look if you just put your faith in me. I'll take you where you could not be that's what we have to understand. Jesus is not religion. This is what religion is in a nutshell. God is on the mountaintop and you're in the valley. And God looks at you and says, do better get here. And you try and you try and you try and you try to climb up and maybe you get a little bit further than you did the last time but you slip up and you fall and maybe you get a little bit further. And some people, you know, some people are pretty good climbers. And maybe they get there but no one gets to that mountaintop and God on the mountaintop says sorry not good enough. That is religion and by the way that is every religion in the world no matter what name you put on it. The name of the God might be different the the rules that you should follow might be different but that's the way it is not enough. Try harder do better but that is not Jesus. This is not a religion in the sense that the way the world uses that word because Jesus is God who left the mountaintop and he jumped in the valley and he got involved in our mess and he got his hands dirty and he picks us up and he takes us to the sun and he carries us there. And he says you belong here with me I do not condemn you our world needs Jesus and so here's what we do with that as we as we wrap up and worship team you guys can make your way out. We have to do our best and this is not something we do in our own strength we're all gonna mess up and it's okay. We have to let the Holy Spirit grow us to be Jesus to the world around us because like honestly you know I I don't comment on on culture too too often but I I do look at our world right now and I see the growing religious nature of everything. Everything is becoming so so loaded right like every it's getting to the point where you you meet someone you don't know and you don't know what where they stand on certain issues and you're like let's just not talk about any of that at all. You know and and even to the point now where if you don't use the right words it's like I don't even know what words to use sometimes when I talk to people. And and that's tragic. And see I look at that and I go oh as a as a Jesus father that breaks my heart because I know where this road goes I've seen what religion does that's not going to a good place. It doesn't lead to unity doesn't lead to love it leads to division and anger and outrage and condemnation all those things that we experience because you know you know why is uh you can't like law never works religion law it never works because you can't make it illegal to be a bad person doesn't work you can't say it's now illegal to be a bad person and people go oh in that case I'll be good it doesn't work it just leads to anger and frustration and I see our world just brimming with that and it's like what does our world need what's going to change this oh yeah Jesus Jesus and how does Jesus operate in the world through us that's why Ephesians chapter 5 verses 1 and 2 says Imitate God therefore in everything you do because you are his dear children live a life filled with love following the example of Christ he loved us and he offered himself as a sacrifice for us a pleasing aroma to God be imitators of God in other words do your best impression of Jesus every single day. And sometimes that's really hard because we're not we're not Jesus but his spirit's inside of us and we are called to be Jesus to our world here's what that means guys we can't let church become religious we can't let this thing that we have that's so special become religious and actually I'll say I think we're good at that I I'm proud of this church. I think we're we're we're we're good at that but we we can't become proud about being good at that because in other words we'd be religious. And we can't become religious about not being religious. That's important. Like back in the day we used to have this thing on our staff and it was kind of a funny thing that if you said a super churchy word you get you got fined a dollar and you had to put a dollar for saying a churchy word and then I was like isn't this exactly what a religion would do you know it's like oh yeah it's defeating the purpose right we can't let this become religious but guys we also can't just go join other religions and right now they're they're everywhere I've seen so many Jesus followers people that I love get sucked into the political nature of this last year and become hyper religious about their politics. It's not going to lead to a good place. You might have super huge passions about certain political issues. Fine great but if you let that rise to the level of religious devotion it will it will ruin you. And here's what how you'll know you'll become outraged. You're just outraged all the time I'm so mad that's the first step in religion you're mad all the time it doesn't lead to life it leads to death this is not a religion this is Jesus so we're supposed to be him our world needs him right now so badly and so imitate him do your best to do an impression of Jesus when you when you go home today just try to do a Jesus impression and you're not gonna nail it perfectly right there you no one's gonna get the Jesus impression just right but just do your best when you go to work tomorrow do it do an impression of Jesus and you know it's funny when when I first became the pastor here I had no idea what I was doing unlike now as an expert um you know I had no clue but I'd had some really great people mentor me and there were days that I would go into meetings and I would just like I'm just gonna act like I would imagine they would act and I didn't know because I didn't know what to do. I didn't know what to say. I'm like I've never been in this situation before and I would think to myself what would you know what would Steve what would Susan they're our founding path what how would they act? And I just I'd been around them enough that I could just do a pretty good impression of them. And Steve would always just sit quietly in meetings and not say much and just kind of nod his head. So when I was in really hard meeting I would just be like don't say a thing. I'm really not good at that but that I would just do an impression. Think about Jesus spend time with Jesus the more time you spend with somebody like the better you get in impersonating them right I promise we're wrapping up I'm just I love it. We only have one service so it doesn't matter how long it goes um like anyone in the room can I'm not gonna make you do this don't worry anyone in the room do like a really good Christopher Walken impression or some other celebrity or like I have a really good celebrity impression. Raise your hand if you're a good celebrity anyone have like an Arnold Schwarzenegger impression in the office like almost every morning someone comes in in our office and I'm not good at Arnold Schwarzenegger but they'll just be like good morning how are you? Like that we we just that's like our culture. That's Arnold Schwarzenegger right um no I it's hard to do a celebrity impression none of you raise your hand how many of you can do a pretty good impression of your mom like be honest it's Mother's Day how many of you can do a pretty good impression of one of your family members like oh I'm gonna I'm gonna do real quick I'm gonna do uh this is uh this is Liam my oldest when he's been asked to clean his room this is all right ready you're gonna love this you don't know him so you won't know if it's accurate or not but uh like that's it now if you lived in my house you would be like nailed it right see I'm around him all the time and so here's my point when you're around Jesus a lot when you spend time with Jesus you get pretty good at impersonating him and that's what our world needs that's what our world needs so I'm I'm I'm encouraging you don't become religious not about your faith not about church but also not about all the other stuff in our world right now that's just becoming more religious by the way be Jesus because he's the answer like Romans 8 said Jesus did what the law what religion could not do so be Jesus all right I'm gonna be done now I promise let's pray Jesus thank you so much for this day thank you Lord for all that you're done that you've done for us and God I just pray in your name that you would help us to to be like you to not get sucked in to all the stuff that's going on to not get sucked into all of the craziness all of the outrage all of the religion that literally every aspect of our culture is becoming by the day our world doesn't need a new religion our world needs you Jesus we love you Lord I pray if there's one person in here one person watching from home that has not given their life to you that maybe today would be the first day that they would recognize that you're not on the mountaintop demanding that we get to you. You're the one who comes down the mountain comes to us picks us up and takes us where we could never be without you I pray that we realize that and I pray Lord that we surrender and let you do what only you can do because you can do what the law, what religion, what nothing else in this world cannot you can bridge that gap between who we are and who we ought to be thank you Jesus we love you. We pray all this in your name amen