Amen. It's it's starting to come along and man, the building is really coming together. We're excited about that. Hey guys, if you have a copy of scripture, I'm going to invite you to turn with me to Colossians chapter three. I want to say hello to our campuses as well this morning, man.
We're excited to be diving into the word together. Just echoing this video, I will say my favorite thing from deeper I think for the whole two years was the deeper depot. Just a clever naming of that. So you guys check that out.
If you're brand new, there is a deeper depot. And every one of the campuses lobbies right here at regional and man everything deeper and all the information you need is right out there. So guys, check that out. All right, Colossians chapter three is where we are today. And I think it's worth us sort of just given a couple minutes to make sure we've caught everyone up.
What are we doing in this series? The book of Colossians is the most Christ centered of the Christ centered book of the most Christ centered book in all the world. Okay, it's all about Jesus. It's all about the gospel. We've been plumbing the depths of that. We're going to continue to do that. And here's what we've sort of landed on. You don't need to look for more when Jesus is more than enough. All right, we don't need to move on. We need to go deeper into I sort of think about it like this. If you have a really awesome plate of steak in front of you, or maybe one that you just devoured, you don't then get up and go looking for spam. No offense to any of my spam people out here.
Okay, but there's a big difference. We love steak in our house. It's one of the perks of raising your own cows. I love our cows. We have two cows right now. And we love them. We even named them one is named Chuck Rose, the others named t bone. Okay.
And I am very excited about their futures. Okay, so, but I will say like, man, the gospel is the steak in a lot of ways. All right, so you think about what the gospel is. And it's like, man, the gospel is the fact that God loves us. So we love him. The gospel is that we have no condemnation now because of our sin. The gospel is we trade in our shame and guilt.
And we get joy and hope. This is what we don't move on from we go deeper into see the spam is the junk. Nobody ever got a junk email that was called a steak email. It's called a spam email. Okay.
And the reason is because it's junk. We want to if we move on, this is the spam moving on from steak into the is works based righteousness that won't satisfy. Spam is I need more of a religious experience. So I want to move into ecstatic sign gifts and praying to saints and praying to angels. I need to hear from God I need visions I need more than what the Bible gives me. This is what we're talking about moving on from the stake and moving into something that is is not going to satisfy and is going to end up undercutting what God actually has for us. So when Jesus is enough, we don't need to go looking for more. All right, actually, our band, our awesome worship bands here at Mercy Hill have released a single this past or this this weekend called more than enough.
It's out now. It's about all of this. It's this idea. You don't need to look for more when Jesus is more than enough now. All right, now that we're kind of caught up. Here's where we go today. Whenever we become satisfied in Christ, and we begin to understand that we don't move on from him, but we go deeper into and we leave and we learn more about and we get excited about more theology that has to do with the gospel and the scripture rather than moving on into other things like works based righteousness and all that when we understand that things in our life change. We become marked by the gospel and our everyday lives are different than the world. You know, one of the things that we've talked about over the last couple of weeks is and one way you could say it is this we go from grave clothes to grace clothes.
We go from man. We were dead in our sin to now all of a sudden by the grace of God. We are alive and and and we are found righteous not because of what we've done but because of what he's done and it changes us. It marks us and what I want to talk to you about this morning. Y'all all of our campuses is this when we go from grave clothes to grace clothes things about our relationships with one another change the family relationships are different than the way the worldviews change the family relationships.
You can say it like this. Y'all the gospel changes the way we treat each other. because the gospel has this big glaring picture that we understand because of our own personal story in life that Jesus went first for us. You know, every little kid in the world is you know, and all we are is growing up versions of them. Okay.
So if you watch them run around, you you get a lot about human personality. Me before you. Okay. Like I'm looking out for number one and and it's no fault of their own. This is what we do. We teach them unselfishness and all that but how they are born thinking me before you.
I will get mine and then if there's anything left over, then I can give it to you. I will react to you the way that you react to me infantile love, right? I love you because you love me but I'll also hit you because you hit me right. It's this idea of how you are to me. I will be to you. Wait a minute. The the gospel calls us to something else. What did Jesus do? How many of us are pretty glad today that Jesus didn't say the way you are to me, I'll be to you.
Right? In the gospel, we have the great reversal where Jesus says, no, no, no. I I'll come for you not about how you were to me but I'll go first instead of me before you.
What did Jesus do? I'll put you before me. That's what I deserve which is a place in the family of God. When we come into the relationship that we have with the Lord because of Christ going first, it helps us go first. If this sounds very theological or philosophical, let me bring it home. Do you want to have a better relationship with your husband or your wife?
Do you want to be able to give honor and respect to that boss who don't deserve it? Kids, do you want to have an easier time with Obedience and I mean teenagers and all that right that this principle that we're gonna get into today It helps us with those things and I think that it's really gonna be something of a marked moment in our church Colossians 3 says this wives submit to your husbands as is fitting to the Lord and Husbands love your wives and do not be harsh with them Children obey your parents in everything for this pleases the Lord fathers Do not provoke your children lest they become discouraged Now what the Bible is getting into here is this idea? Based on the couple of chapters that we've had already in the book of Colossians remember grave clothes to grace clothes I was dead in my sin, but God has done something to make me alive in him Okay, when that has happened in our life then things in our life you know in a practical way in an everyday way begin to change and One of the things that changes is we can go from me before you to all of a sudden we can start saying You before me and when we do that we can begin to have some different Relationships in the home and with the family now one of the things that marks all of these relationships What do we say?
We said wives husbands husband wives children to fathers a very literal translation of that I think would be a little more like parents maybe father with the lead step But this is also just talking about parents here children. Obey your parents you know what the Bible is getting into right off the bat is something that our culture just kicks and screams about because the Bible is talking about authority and submission and we don't like that because we live in a culture that runs on equity and inclusion and so we don't love the idea of proper kind loving gentle authority and willing submission But here's what I would say very quickly and especially if you're not a believer you're one of our campuses man This is your first rodeo. Okay, I'll probably you're gonna find if you read the Bible long enough, man It starts to hit on things that go to the very core of society because the one who wrote this book wrote the human heart Here's what I'm gonna tell you. We want to run on equity inclusion, but society runs on authority and submission The most basic building blocks of society are authority and submission You know how I know because every single one of us is pretty glad today that we get in our cars and we drive home Then everybody understands the concept of authority and submission and we just don't decide to drive on whatever side of the road we want How many of us our kids are gonna go to school in a couple weeks and all of us are pretty glad that the teacher Has a different place in the classroom than all the kids Right, they're all gonna be running the asylum If it wasn't that way Every I mean going all the way down to the core of society now, I understand this can be abused, right? I mean it is abused it's abused all the time But at the same time that doesn't mean that you throw the baby out with the bathwater Human flourishing is dependent on a proper understanding of good right kind Authority and a willing submission and here's the deal Every single one of us me included Okay, every single one of us find ourselves at different times in our life on either side of that coin Sometimes with a coach sometimes with a player sometimes with a parent sometimes where the kid sometimes with a boss sometimes where the employee Like we find ourselves and so every one of us is going to need the truth that is here There is something about what God has done in setting up team Organization business first building block family that gets us to understand Authority and submission now he starts here.
You guys can look back with me. He starts here with wives husbands and children Now, why does he start there because I'm gonna tell you something again You might be newer, but this is the reality in society and civilization The family is the first building block of a society It is the first building block of a civilization if you want to undo civilization One of the first things you do is undermine family You know, this is an overtly political book, which I don't normally don't reference But I will say that the name of this book has caught me Ben Carson has written a book on the the erosion of the American family and all that and he and he named the book the perilous fight and he taught any and the reason I that caught me so much is because he pulls that right from our national anthem and what he's Saying is in the same way you guys know the story of of the War of 1812 and the way that the The you know, the book got the national anthem got written and all that You see the barrage and it was a perilous fight. And what he's saying in this book is that there is a barrage against the family in our society and can we not see it a sustained barrage of misinformation cannonball after cannonball trying to attack the gates a barrage of devaluing a barrage of trying to strip authority away from fathers a a barrage of distrust a barrage of media portrayals that tried to elevate everything that is against a traditional family and I think that's what that's maybe why Paul starts here Hey, if we're gonna understand where the Bible should mark us Let's start in the family and let's start by talking about these relationships that should be different because of what Christ has done now Here's what he says.
He starts with wives and he says, you know wives submit to your husbands But then he talks about husbands loving wives and then he talks about children loving parents But here's what he says in every single one of these things He says something to the effect of as is fitting to the Lord That's what he says in verse 18 right as is fitting to the Lord Look what he says in verse 20 obey your parents for this pleases the Lord one of the things that we've got to understand before we get into the sort of nitty-gritty verse by verse here is That there is a principle that Paul is trying to remind us of and that is a very simple fact That behind all of our familial and even extended relationships there is somebody that we have a chance to honor that is not just that person and That should mark a Christian that every time I'm in an interaction I have the opportunity to honor the Lord you could say it like this the way we treat each other is Ultimately about honoring God There is a God who stands behind all of the relationships children the way you treat your parents You know wives husbands the way that relationship is going it's not just about them and it's not just about you It's ultimately about God now verse by verse. Here we go You ready wives submit to your husbands as is fitting to the Lord our culture kicks and screams about this idea I promise you you have never seen Colossians 3 18, you know with somebody on a big sign behind a goalpost at a football game Okay, Colossians 3 18, right? Um, I want to tell you this if you're newer to Mercy Hill We are a church that does not run from verses like this. We don't try to hide verses like this We love verses like this and every other verse in the Bible because we believe they are given from the hand of a good and loving father Okay, so, you know trying to be mealy-mouthed about this stuff.
There is no reason to do that We need to understand it. All right, so here's what the Bible says The Bible says that we first that first talking about what he speaks to wise first Why I submit to your husband's couple things about this number one. This does not say women submit to men That's not a Bible verse. Okay, and we don't live in a you know, we don't live in an arranged marriage society So I will say off the front right off the bat here like wives This is something to consider when you are thinking about considering marriage Like it's a choice that you are making here.
So this is not about women and men This is specifically about the institution of marriage for the flourishing of a family in the economy of God's kingdom The second thing I want to say is this it is very important in verse 18 that we understand this concept as is fitting in the Lord and The reason I say that is because there are you know, this is heartbreaking and tragic But there are many women who find themselves in a situation where authority is being abused and it is not fitting to the Lord It is not fitting in the Lord. And so I would say is this y'all abuse And I know that's kind of hard to define in our culture. We live in a therapeutic culture So everything seems like it's abusive, but just the actual definition of abuse to treat a person with cruelty or violence especially Repeatedly one thing I would say to so women here really anybody here that's in an abusive situation there is no time when abuse is fitting to the Lord and And what and here's the thing I said this Thursday, I think I need to explain a little more your body is a temple Putting it in a position where it is being abused is not fitting to the Lord Now some people are in a situation where they can't you know child or whatever they can't but if you have agency This is not the right thing to subject yourself. I mean we have a church here that if you're like man I'm not sure if I am or not.
That's where community comes in. We need to talk about those things We need to get that to a pastor We need to try very hard to enter in with you in a situation like this if something like this is going on But if that's you know, that's that so that's just a little bit of a caveat. I want to make sure we understand But let's get into what submission actually is. Y'all submission is a choice to follow It's a choice that we make to follow and this is very important for us to understand guys if you're married There is no Bible verse that says anything about a man Getting his wife or forcing his wife to submit to him. This has almost nothing to do with you It's between her and the Lord It ends up coming out in your relationship But this is a choice that she makes to honor God you just happen to be involved Okay, so it's not about I'm gonna make her do this or make her do that I think our culture wants to get us to see this picture of wives submitting to husbands as the slob on the couch Screaming at his wife to bring him another beer That's not the picture Okay, the picture is a choice that she has made to follow and and hopefully what's happening is the other side of this Is a love in Ephesians 5 that looks like Christ or a man is winning His wife's submission to him by going first over and over in his life to set her up for success That's hopefully what is going on Submission is not the same thing as obedience. Although it does entail something of obedience.
Now you say why does that matter? Well, but because of because it it matters to say this wives are called to submit Children are called to obey those two different things And you know why because the the children are called to obey whether they want to or not You know, that's different than what we're talking about here. What we're talking about here is a wives willing Submission a choice to say I want to follow godly leadership in our home You know our old community group leader would talk about obedience with his kids. I love this You know obedience with children is like man.
They don't have to want to he would say he would say hey go clean your room I don't want to and the kid would say I don't want to and he would say oh great You don't have to want to You just have to go do it Right. This is obedience. It's not about the heart it a little bit it's about like hey, there there is there is a proper authority in the home where children need to obey and This is a little different than that because this is more about I should have put this on the screen Y'all submission is the choice before we get into anything about obedience Submission is the choice of saying my heart posture in the home this is what I want to make that choice that I will follow godly leadership and And again, this is about men picturing Christ to their wives winning them to this I think that in our culture what we have is this idea of submission? I thought where do I hear where do we ever hear the word submission? Oh, yeah, MMA fighting.
Okay So you hear you know, it's a you know, they were submitted They got in the armbar or whatever and they got that's not the picture here now God does submit his enemies and there is an opportunity in the scripture where you see that type of submission. This is different This is a choice. This is not about women tapping out. This is about women opting in To God's design for the family now, I've shared different examples of this from our life I have not always gotten this right But I do want to draw on a couple of examples here to try to help make this pop about what it should look like Okay, there's a bit of a model and yes, I asked Anna if I could share this. Okay, um For for us there are times Anna loves to work out. Okay, it's like her hobby I think that is such a cheat for people by the way, okay that their hobby is that they like to exercise, okay? But she loves it. She likes to exercise and There are times though in our life where things are heating up in other areas of our life where maybe You know the kids are sick or or she's got you know, she's always got a bunch of stuff going on with you know Training church planter wives and she's meeting with people from the church all this kind of stuff And maybe there's some crazy things. Well, there are times doesn't happen a ton but there are times I can see That the battery is getting drained for her And and i'm gonna tell you that she will she would never Not get up at five or six a.m And go to the gym like she's gonna do that a hundred times out of a hundred there are times As dad as father as her husband you do this for your kids as well It's like you see something and you say hey, um, I think you need to sleep more Over the next couple of days.
We got a lot going on. You have a lot going on This stuff is taxing on you and she doesn't like that but she made a decision a long time ago That she is going to do her best to follow that the authority. Hopefully it's loving and respectful And hopefully it's kind and gentle but hopefully she's going to follow that authority in the home I'll give you one more example.
Okay. She told me I could share this as well It's like I don't know if you guys ever have like that mama bear moment. Okay, um, you know And and this can come out whenever your kids get hurt. So I think about um, With uh with a new school like if your kids are going to a new school like they have to train transition schools And that first day doesn't go so well I don't know about y'all but in our house that can be like mama bear comes out and it's like well we're just going to bring Them home and forget the whole thing You know, we're going to move them back to home school or we're going to do this or we're going to do that And it's like I can understand it because a mom feels different about uh, you know About about the child's pain and all that kind of stuff and there are times where i've had to sort of step in I say hey There's got to be a decision that's made here and the decision in this situation is going to be That we're going to kind of let them fight through this and have some adversity. I understand how this feels to everybody And i'm not saying i'm going to let you fail But we're going to we're going to maybe we're going to give this like a month before we make any crazy decisions.
Okay? And that's that to me. That's another example here Now one let me say this and then we're going to move on to men. Okay, if you're a young woman or a single woman In our church, I I gotta I gotta stress this you got people around you that are constantly calling you not to lower standards You got a family that's calling you not to lower your standards on marrying a godly person. I'm going to tell you why Look at what you are giving them in marriage Look at the authority that you're handing over The direction for life man the way that we're going that that kind of thing. That's what the bible is talking about You better marry more than just quote a christian.
I mean we live in the south. Everybody's a christian Even unsaved people are christians. Okay, we we need to marry a godly i'm chasing the lord.
I have community That that's right. You understand if you're going to give those type of keys over to somebody they better be the right dude And if he comes up into the driveway and honks the horn for you to come out, he's not him Right That's not him Because what's going to happen later on in the world is that you're going to have to marry a godly What's going to happen later in your life? You understand?
Okay. Now here we go verse 19 husbands love your wives and do not be harsh with them Children obey your parents and everything for this pleases the lord fathers do not provoke your children lest they become Discouraged well, he says it clears day here and this is the other side of the coin guys If you want more on this you need to go read ephesians 5 ephesians 5 is sort of the flip side And it gives us more information on what he's talking about here But here's what he's saying husbands love your wives sacrificially Not just sexually sacrificially That you would go the you know, you what did christ do for us? That's ephesians 5 love them in a way that christ loved you. He goes down so that we go up He took the cross so that we get the family of god and there's a pattern in that that is supposed to be for husbands That we would set them up for success This is what leadership looks like now.
I want to say this guys. I am not talking about trying to make your wife's life cushy That's not the point of this The point is are you setting her life up as the first disciple in the home? To fully express her god-given talents and passions and reach her full potential For some that's going to look like working in the home homeschooling others That's going to look like a wildly successful career on the outside.
It's going to look like health It's going to look like spiritual health. It's going to look like she has friendships. It's going to look like she is rested Here's the point are you doing everything in your power to make sure the best comes out in her?
Loving her in a way that wins her over to be able to follow you But setting her life up so that you see the best in her come out. You're like the gardener And you're trying to see the fruit come out and really your whole family, but she is first. She is before the kids She is the first disciple She is the first one and so we want to try to set her up the very best that we can So that we will see fruit come out in her life and then secondly and I love this post-covid We have a lot of kids that come into the services. They do the serve one at ten one parents do that They'll come in and they'll go do their community group Or vice versa here.
So if you're at our campuses As well, we have a lot of kids in here and and I mean teenagers as well all the way up I think this is very important. What did he say children? Obey your parents? Why I want to go back and I want you to remember this when you obey your parents It is about more than just you honoring them. You can say it like this children you honor him by honoring them You honor the lord by honoring your parents. I promise you they don't get it right all the time I know that because I don't get it right all the time But you have an opportunity kids to honor God by choosing to obey them chores screen time curfews Rules around social media they get a little bit older and it's things like, you know It's a me and anna.
We're talking about this the other day high schools has it. It's all it's still 20 years later It's still the same thing drug sex and rock and roll. Okay And and and and kids you're getting into you know, you're getting into the high school years and those are still the same pitfalls You have a chance to honor Your parents but you honor the lord This is grave close to grace close. We treat each other differently. I'm not just treating them the way they treat me I am treating them the way that God has treated me That changes the way that I go about these relationships in my life.
I love what it says here I think we got to just man. We got to just see this for what it is verse 21 fathers Do not provoke your children lest they become discouraged You know, here's one of the things that we've got to wrestle with guys The the apostle paul says don't be harsh with your wife and don't provoke and discourage your kids He wouldn't say those things if they weren't a problem It's like sometimes man, we've just got to be willing to take that on the chin and say he got yeah, you're right He wouldn't bring this out if it's not a problem, you know at mercy hill We attract a lot of leaders in this church and I love that we attract a lot of people who want their lives to be different In a year than they are now. They want a big life Man, they're growing they want to grow spiritually.
They want to grow financially. They want to grow relationally And they're and they're hustling and here's the thing I'm, not saying this isn't anywhere but by and large what we're probably not going to struggle with as a body here is the lazy apathetic unengaged Father it a little I think what we're going to struggle with is a little bit more like this Like man, I can't make the switch from talking to my family like they're my employees Like i'm i'm on them all the time I'm provoking my kids. What does provoking mean provoking means you're nagging them to death talking about everything that's wrong in their life And if you I mean i'm talking i'm talking to myself before anybody else. I promise you It's like man you you see something that they did and what do we all do dads? What do we do?
What do we all do dads? What do we do? We assume what was good and we point out what was bad? This is provoking them and we man we do it.
We got to just say hey, I get that How do we get away from that? We've got to get back to remember This comes after the first couple of chapters of the book of colossians. Is that how jesus was to us? Dads, can you imagine if jesus was provoking towards us? If if if our relationship with jesus was i'm going to sit back and just point out every single thing you've ever done wrong It'd be a tough relationship, wouldn't it? But instead jesus goes first and he's like man.
Hey despite those things. I love you in this way And you're still my son. You're still my precious daughter and that is going to motivate you towards a life of godliness And so we need to do that now look what he gets into here. We'll call it We'll kind of close the uh scripture portion with this and i'll do some application will be done. All right bond servants obey in everything Those who are your earthly masters not by way of eye service as people pleasers, but with sincerity of heart fearing the lord Whatever you do work heartily as for the lord and not for men Knowing that from the lord you will receive the inheritance as your reward You are serving the lord christ for the wrongdoer will be paid back for the wrong. He has done. There's no partiality then Chapter four verse one masters Treat your bond service justly and fairly knowing that you have a master that is in heaven.
Now. Can you see what he's doing here? That whole idea of honoring god through your relationships. He is extending it into the bond servant and master relationship I know as americans. This is baffling to us.
We don't love this. Okay, we have our own brand Of american slavery in our mind from hundreds of years ago And what we do in our mind is we cannot fathom this what we're what this is saying is Uh for the bond servant for the slave you work as into the lord master you work as into the lord You remember that you have a master. We don't want it to read that As americans what we want it to read is bond servants form an army and rebel That's what we want. This gives us a chance to wrestle with the bible Now one of the things I think we've got to point out is man There was a bunch of different types of slavery two thousand years ago But I don't want that to be a crutch here where we think all of them were good and happy and nice It's not exactly the same thing that our country wrestled with but it's still pretty tough situations here And what the bible is telling these bond servants is hey you need to honor the lord in how you work You and masters.
I mean this is this is crazy. All right people want to look back at the bible as if it's so regressive Can you imagine two thousand years ago somebody saying to the master of slaves? Hey, you need to remember that you have a master You need to remember that there is one who's watching everything you do as well now again I would say this from the slavery standpoint just like a woman who in a marriage there is no fitting situation Where you are to allow yourself to be abused that's not fitting to the lord And this is funny two thousand years ago some kind of way I don't know exactly what's in paul's mind when he says bond servant master But some kind of way it was an institution to where he had put this relationship In the family, let me think about it wives husbands children, then he gets into you know So it's hard to imagine that he's in his mind. He's talking about a super abusive situation right here So I don't know exactly but all I know is this he is saying hey you work as into the lord and masters You have a master It's very important for us. I don't know how many of you guys are in Uh, you know working relationships where this is one of those things where you need real bad because you're like man my my work Is a little bit of people pleasing and eye service and what i'm doing is i'm working real hard When the boss is looking over my shoulder, but when he's not i'm not I'm working for a paycheck and what the bible is saying here is a if you're one if you're an employee Man, you realize there is an inheritance that you have that should mark your work and it's not a paycheck You work as unto the lord You are giving him glory not a boss man You're giving him the glory for your work.
I think when he's trying to get masters and bond service I would say employees and and workers. I know that's not one-to-one, but it's probably the best application we can do in our culture 2000 years later what I would say is hey there should be a weight To thinking about working for the lord that is heavier than thinking about working for a boss man There's something about working for god that should be heavier to you and should weigh more to you And it should weigh more to you. I had opportunity Um last last week to go and take my oldest daughter to a father-daughter camp. Okay, uh, it was awesome It was so fun. It was just like adventure camp We did all this stuff together and one of the things that they had at this camp was a blob you guys Have you guys seen a blob? All right it's in a lake and it's like this massive air pillow and people jump off and hit one side and then it Launches this person that's laying down into orbit. Okay, and uh, and it's it's awesome So you're only supposed to have a hundred pound weight differential between the uh, you know Well, I guess the blabber and the blobby. Okay, so the hundred pound weight differential Well, hattie joe goes around and she convinces these two guys to go off the top rope at the same time with me laying on it And I look up there and i'm telling you if i'm lying i'm dying. There's 650 pounds of man standing up there One of these guys is a cheeseburger short of 350.
Okay And they go off the top rope and they hit that thing and I went into the biggest flailing flipping Swan diving thing in the world. It was super fun Um, and we had a good time at the whole thing and i'll mention something else in a minute But I I that immediately came to my mind because one of the ways that christians are to understand listen The glory of god is a simple term weight How much does it weigh? This is the point This is the point when the glory of god is heavy to us. It displaces other stuff You're working for a boss man, you're having a hard time with that.
No, no, you work for the lord What god thinks about your work the inheritance that he has for you that weighs more and it displaces. I remember me and anna We're going to get married junior year going into senior year of college We did get married when I was still in college. So we were going to be married and all that and i'll be honest I'm, not going to go way into it. I'm not i'm not making a huge judgment either It was hard to play football for the head coach. I was playing football for in college Okay and we were going to get married and I was sort of thinking about moving on I had this vibrant ministry going on on our On our team I didn't think but I was just and so I was really contemplating You know, I didn't want to play for this guy and I was really contemplating quitting the football team for my last year And I had a mentor tell me he went to this passage and he said brother you got to remember Ultimately, you don't play football for any man And I remember that and it actually changed my attitude a great deal And it changed the whole course of that next year of my life I didn't quit and I had the ministry and we played football and all that and had a good year and all that Here's the thing some of us need to remember that you don't work for a man or a woman You work ultimately for the lord And those of us that are in a position where you have a chance to influence things from the top You're a boss. You lead a team. You're the head nurse on a floor Whatever it is that we need to think there is a master that is over us Man, how are we making things fair?
How are we paying people? Are we more concerned about their development and who they're becoming rather than just them being a cog in our will to produce something It's all wrapped up and being to them as God has been to us. Here's the application y'all treat others the way God treats you A marker of grave close to grace close is that it changes the way that we treat each other Man, we we all of a sudden become a person who understands authority and submission because we have seen something About what God has done for us and it marks us and it changes us And over the course of our life it changes us and that's my prayer today. I said this earlier My prayer is today would be a marked moment for many of us Well, we have a chance to repent of the way that we are treating one another because the way that we're treating one another Maybe is the doom loop Okay, and it's infantile.
It's the same thing. I talked about with kids I'm gonna treat you the way you treat me rather than saying i'm gonna treat you the way that god has treated me So let me put this in the context of marriage because it makes it pop really easy Do you know the doom loop in a marriage that ends all the way in divorce? 100 of the time and if it doesn't end in actual divorce it will end in one of these things where you're living totally separate Lives and you're just staying together for the kids whatever that means. Okay 100 of the time.
You ready? Here's the doom loop I will respect you and submit to you when you begin to love me in the way the bible talks about I will do for you when you begin and what happens on the other side. Here's the other doom loop. Oh, okay When you begin to love me when when or when you begin to respect me, then i'll start to love you It's the doom loop love me and i'll respect you respect me and i'll love you and when down and down we go All the way till we crash against the rocks of divorce Here's what I want to call you to do today whether it's that or whether it's another relationship child parent You know whether it's something with boss employee. I don't know Somebody has to go first Somebody has to go first Somebody has to say, you know what I i'm not going to be to you as you are being to me What i'm going to do is and this is part of the gospel prayer that we talk about at mercy hill God as you have been to me i'll be to others Somebody's got to break the cycle. Somebody's got to go first and this is what I want you to see y'all What did jesus do for you? He has given you the opportunity to go first because he went first for you How many of us can say today? I am so grateful that jesus didn't say i'll be to you as you were to me I mean in our sin in our dishonor he did the opposite of that If jesus would have said honor me and i'll love you.
We would all be doomed to hell But he didn't you know what he did jesus died for our dishonor He went first he went to the cross making a way for us to come back into the family of god paying the penalty for all Of our sin, you know what it does. It does two things in our life. Number one. It gives us gratitude that allows Us to be this way to others.
You've got a relationship in your life right now where you are very tired of going first all the time Man, go back to this. How grateful are we that jesus doesn't tire of going first for us And secondly, I would say this knowing that christ knowing what christ did releases us from shame and guilt, you know Especially I talk as a father because I am one but a husband wives. I'm sure you're there children I'm sure you're there y'all we can remember acutely the times that we have not treated each other. Well It's one of those things that sticks in our mind like kind of forever and we can remember those things and we can beat ourselves up with those things or We can go back to the gospel and understand Man, god is calling us to treat each other in a different way But he has forgiven us for all the times that we have failed in that All the times that we didn't say the right thing all the times that we blew up all the times that we lost our temper All the times we didn't submit all the times that we didn't obey all the times that we were harsh and provoking So I hit everybody here Jesus forgives us of those things man.
The the way your life works is not hey I'm going to be afraid that the next time I mess up that god's going to kick me out of the family So be very afraid that's not what you were built to run on you were built to run on You were built to run on an overwhelming gratitude from forgiveness that god has already given you in christ That's where we go. We go back to that over and over and over again and it will change us I told you guys I went to that um camp With haddy joe and uh, we get there. So it was actually in northern california Okay, so this is like a long way away and all that and so we're flying out we fly out there we get there And I go to the uh rental car place.
We got like a five-hour drive from there. I mean, so it's a long way so it's a long way and I get to the rental car place and Um, the lady is super nice. She's like, oh I see here you booked a mystery car I'm like, oh great.
What is that? She's like, well, it means it's a surprise I'm like, okay. I didn't know anything about this. Well, what's the surprise?
She says surprise. It's an electric vehicle I was like surprise that ain't happening. Okay, not doing that. I'm like, I don't know where we're driving I don't know where you plug the thing in that's not happening. Okay And and this is why I bring that up. All right, when when you're on a long drive or something like that You're you know, you're you're a little worried about like how are we getting fuel here?
You know, is it that whatever battery or gas or whatever like i'm a little concerned. Am I gonna have what I need to make it I want you to hear today Christian you are not built to have the gas tank run on fear What if I mess up again what if I mess up again no man today what we need to do is bask In what god has done for us in forgiving us and seeing us as a person who is submissive Not harsh. He sees us as a person who is not provoking children. He sees us as a person who is obedient Why because that's who we are in christ If we remember that's our identity identity we will live out of that So let's take that thought and let's go to the communion table. All right, father. We thank you For this opportunity to gather but we thank you for this word. I pray we will treat each other in a different way God, I pray today will be a marked moment in our church at our campuses As people begin to treat each other in the way that you have treated them in christ's name. Amen
