Life.Church with Craig Groeschel - Am I Too Bad for God? | Doubting God: Part 5

Episode Date: May 15, 2022

Do you ever wonder if you’re too bad for God? Or maybe you’re searching for the meaning of life. Consider Jesus. In this message, we’ll ask some of life’s biggest questions—and the answer could change your life. ABOUT THIS MESSAGEIt’s easy to think of doubt as a sign of weak faith. But it’s not. God isn’t afraid of our doubts, so we don’t have to be either. In our new series, Doubting God, we’re creating a space for the questions we’ve been afraid to ask. Together, let's discover how doubt can actually build our faith. WE’RE OPENWe’re continuing to monitor guidelines and best practices for gathering in a safe way. Learn more about everything we're doing to keep you safe and how you can help by using hand sanitizer, washing your hands often, and more: https://www.life.church/updatesFind a time and attend a service with us: http://www.life.church/locationsNEXT STEPSHave you made a decision to follow Jesus? You may be wondering what’s next on your journey. We want to help! Let us guide you to your next steps in your walk with Christ: https://www.life.church/nextABOUT LIFE.CHURCHWherever you are in life, you have a purpose. Life.Church wants to help you find your next step. Our hope is that your journey will include joining us at a Life.Church location throughout the United States or globally online at https://www.live.life.church. Find locations, videos, and more info about us at https://www.life.church or download the Life.Church app at https://www.life.church/app. FIND US ON SOCIAL MEDIAFacebook: http://www.facebook.com/life.churchInstagram: http://www.instagram.com/life.churchTwitter: http://www.twitter.com/lifechurchTikTok:https://www.tiktok.com/@lifechurchCONNECT WITH PASTOR CRAIGYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCIId...Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/craiggroeschelInstagram: http://www.instagram.com/craiggroeschelTwitter: http://www.twitter.com/craiggroeschelTikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@craiggroeschel#lifechurch #craiggroeschel #considerjesus Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

We are in a message series called Doubting God, and today I want to talk about one of the big reasons why some people doubt God, or maybe I should say they doubt Christianity. When you think about it, one of the reasons that people doubt isn't because of the way that Jesus lived. They don't doubt Christianity because of the way that Jesus loved. The reason that so many people might doubt Christianity is because of what Jesus is because of what Jesus lived. claimed. And let me try to explain. You've probably noticed that in our culture today, you can talk about God and you can talk about spirituality, and there's not going to be a lot of controversy. An athlete at the end of winning some kind of match or game can lift up the trophy and say, I thank God. And everybody goes, ah, a celebrity can say, I've been praying to God and nobody

freaks out. You can talk about God or you can talk about spirituality, and there's not a lot of controversy, but when you bring up the name of Jesus, things often get tense quickly. And it's interesting when you think about it, because almost everyone actually likes Jesus. You don't have to be a Christian to like the guy that loved sinners. I mean, he was amazing and gracious to people, and he spent time with the poor, and he humbled oppressive leaders who took advantage of widows and he went to parties and he restocked the wine barrels at parties and he multiplied a boy's lunch and had an all-you-can-eat picnic on the side of a mountain. People like how Jesus lived, they like how he loved, they just don't like

the exclusive claims. And when you think about it and when you objectively look at Jesus, Let's just say you're not even a Christian, but you just look at Jesus. You have to admit he was ridiculously humble. The guy would wash the feet of his own disciples. That was a job reserved for those who were seen as the lowest in society. He was ridiculously humble, but he wasn't modest at all. He wasn't modest. For example, you may know the story whenever Lazarus, his friend died,

and Mary and Martha were like freaking out. Jesus didn't say, oh, well, that's life. He said, no, I am the resurrection and the life. That's a bold claim. Whenever the Pharisees got mad because he did miracles on the Sabbath, he says, you can't heal on the Sabbath. He said, no, no, you don't understand. I am the Lord of the Sabbath.

That's a bold claim. He was audacious enough to say, if you love your mom or your dad more than you love me, you're not worthy of me. One of the reasons that so many people doubt Christianity isn't because of the way Jesus lived and not because of the way that he loved is because of what he claimed. He actually claimed that he and the father are one, that he is the only way to God. In fact, if you look in John 14, there is a very, very powerful declaration that Jesus made when he was comforting his disciples. And he said, I'm going to go away and I'm going to prepare a place for you.

And Tom is like, oh, oh, oh, I got a question. Where are you going? And Jesus said this. Watch his claim. John 14, 6. Jesus answered and said, I am the way and the truth and the life. no one comes to the Father except through me. I am the way to God.

I am the life that you're looking for. And I am the truth. And no one gets to my Father in heaven unless you come through me. People don't criticize the way he loves people. They don't criticize the way he lived. They criticize the audacity to make the exclusive claim. Jesus can't be the only way to God. That's too exclusive.

That's not fair. And when I look at that, I kind of want to just tell you you may hate me and lead the church. I kind of understand. Like, the only way? That doesn't seem very fair. Like, who's to say? Okay, so that's your opinion and you're invalidating someone else's opinion. So you're really that smart.

your theology is the right one and everybody else is wrong. That's how right you are. And then it leads me to the next logical thought. Well, it really probably doesn't matter what you believe, as long as you're sincere because there's so many different people, which leads me to the thought that, well, certainly all paths must lead to God and to some extent all religions are the same. That actually sounds pretty good, doesn't it?

You're afraid to nod your help? It really does. I mean, that sounds reasonable. That feels loving. It's inclusive. The problem is, it's just not true. It's not true that all religions are the same. And what I want to do as a Christian, unapologetically a follower of Jesus,

I want to shock some of you and tell you right now, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that there is some truth and beauty in most world religions. You can look at all sorts of different world religions, and you can find things that add value and things that are beautiful and things that are helpful and things that are true. And though you can find things that are beautiful and true,

we have to acknowledge that they are not all the same. And so what I want to do for just a moment, and I have to apologize because I'm not going to do it really well or thoroughly, but I want to look at some of, not all, but some of the major world religions, and I'm going to give you a very brief overview, and I apologize because I do it with respect. I'm going to summarize in like seven seconds

major world religion. So I'm just acknowledging it's going to be very, very incomplete, including Christianity, but I want to do it just to show you there may be truth and beauty in some, but there's not all the same. And so let's look at a few different ones and just kind of acknowledge from a high perspective. Let's start with Buddhism.

A Buddhist would believe that there is no God, and there's no type of final existence after this life. There's just countless rebirths and endless ongoing cycles. So a Buddhist would believe something different from a Hindu because Hinduism does have a God, but it's an impersonal God, and you approach that impersonal God through deities and statues and idols.

Let's take both of those together, Buddhism and Hinduism. They both have no forgiveness of sins and no supernatural. help only karma, which actually seems like a pretty real thing. Like you do bad and you get bad back or you do good and you get good back. And so that's what those would believe. A Muslim, though, they're going to worship Allah, who is a personal God. There's no secondary gods. There's a total ban on idol. So keep your statues out of here. You're standing with God. It depends on your religious devotion and it depends on your faithfulness and it depends on your good works. Take kind of the new age

movement and this is different from the rest. There is no personal God, but someone in the new age movement might be seeking a higher consciousness, becoming one with the universe or the cosmos and then contrasts all of those with Christianity. Christianity believes in a personal God who loves his people unconditionally, who became one of them in the person of Jesus, and sacrificed his life for the forgiveness of sins. So we have to acknowledge, although it feels kind of good to say, all paths lead to God, all we're living there are basically the same. There may be truth and beauty in most, but they are not all the same.

What I want to do today is I just want to plead with you. you, beg you, invite you just to consider Jesus. Just Jesus. Let me be really, really clear. I'm not talking about considering our church because our church doesn't get everything right. I'm not asking you to consider Christians because, oh dear God, many Christians don't get it right. Some are ridiculously loving and full of grace

and generous and some of them. I don't want to claim sometimes. Is it rude to say that out loud? They can be very, very hateful, narrow-minded, critical, and judgmental. And so don't consider Christians. Don't consider even our church. And don't even consider me. Because unfortunately, as much as I want to always be God honoring,

I am capable of sin and to the best of my ability I try not to, but somehow I still seem to let people down. Don't look at any of those things. What I want you to do is just consider Jesus. And what we're going to do is consider three aspects of the life of Jesus. You want to do that? If you're ready, say I'm ready. Are you ready?

The first thing I want you to do is simply consider the ministry of Jesus. Just the ministry, the way he loves people, the outcomes of what would happen whenever Jesus was around. Consider the ministry of Jesus. And we'll contrast it with a group of religious leaders known as the Pharisees. The Pharisees were the religious leaders that would snub those people with loose morals, those people who have a past, those people who were too poor or too different or had something wrong with their bodies, they wouldn't let them say let them come to synagogue.

The religious leaders would often snub them. And those that other people despised and ignored and rejected, Jesus loved and he accepted them. Consider the ministry the way that Jesus treated people. In fact, you can read about it in Mark's gospel, Mark chapter 2, verse 16, says, when the teachers of the law, who were Pharisees, saw Jesus eating with sinners and tax collectors, gasped, they asked the disciples, why does he eat with tax collectors and sinners? on hearing this, imagine the love in his heart when Jesus said to them, hey, let me tell you why I came.

It's not the healthy who need a doctor, but it's the sick. Imagine, feel the compassion if you're sitting there, if you're one of the ones that are broken, lost, hurting, and dead in your sins when he says, I have not come to call the righteous, but I've come to call the sinners. Just consider the ministry of Jesus. Think about the miracles. What did he do? When he see a blind guy, he could open blind eyes.

He could heal deaf ears. He cast out demons. He walked on water. Jesus raised the dead. Here's what's interesting. Even if you're not a Jesus follower, wouldn't you to understand? His critics did not question the validity of his miracles.

They just wanted him to stop. Consider the ministry. The person sitting near you might be the result of the ministry of Jesus. Because I promise you I am. I am. If you don't know my story, I was lost, dead, broken, almost incapable of telling the truth in my early teen years. I would pretend like I was one person to one group and another person to another. and lied all the time.

And I'm embarrassed to say, but I cheated and I stole. I stole so much. I got arrested for shoplifting. I was hooked on chemicals at a very early age and couldn't stop drinking and hurt people after people and hated myself and didn't know how to change and couldn't change and couldn't stop my abusive lifestyle and my addictions.

And I started reading about Jesus. And one day I cried out to him. And I knelt down to pray. And when I knelt down, I was one person. And when I stood up, I'm telling you, let me promise you, I was different, different. Consider the ministry of Jesus, the broken people that he loved and the lives that he changed.

Consider his ministry. I'd also invite you, urge you, beg you to consider the resurrection of Jesus. Consider the resurrection. What do we know about the Christian God? the God of the Christian Bible. We know that he loves people so much, but he hates sin. And the Christian Bible teaches that God became one of us

in the person of Jesus. And Jesus, the Son of God, became sin for us. On a cross, hanging naked and ashamed, while the creation mocked Jesus. He looked up to heaven. and prayed for them as they were cursing him. Father, forgive them, for they don't even know what they're doing. And he said, it's finished.

I did what you sent me to do. Into your hands, I commit my spirit. At the moment he did, the earth shook. And the Roman centurion who doubted the divinity of Jesus looked on and said, surely, that man is the son of God. And three days later, there's a bunch of people who believe that the stone was rolled away and the tomb was empty. And Peter is the one who said this.

Peter said, you killed the author of life. But God raised him from the dead. And Peter said, we are witnesses to this. We saw it. We were there. We experienced. We touched him. We ate with them.

he was dead and now he's not dead anymore. And some people would say, but oh, no, the disciples must have stolen the body. Well, to believe that, you'd have to believe that these unarmed guys overpowered some Roman guards and you'd still have the testimony of the guards. It was so interesting is when you look at this,

you have to ask yourself, would you really expect any rational thinking person to believe? The 11 small town, uneducated, average men devised the most elaborate, deceptive scheme in the history of the world, pulled it off, kept it secret, and it continues to spread 2,000 years later. And they did all this with no personal motive. All they had was extreme personal loss. Meaning of the remaining 11, all died the death of a martyr except for the lucky one, John. John lived. After, they dipped him in boiling oil, and somehow he survived that, and he was lucky enough

to be cast off to an island exiled to the Isle of Papas. And every single other one of the men who saw the resurrected Christ were willing to die for their faith. personal loss and cheating the whole world into being in a better place. Consider his ministry and his love and his grace and who he came for. And consider the resurrection of Jesus that people saw him. Hundreds of people saw him and were willing to give their lives for him. And then finally, I'd ask you to consider the message of Jesus. Just think about, look objectively, at what it is that he taught.

Consider the message of Jesus. In fact, I want to spend a little bit more time here, and I'm going to quote from 1 John first, and then we're going to get directly into the message of Jesus. But John said this. He said, hey, don't believe every spirit. He said, I want you to test the spirits because there's many false prophets.

There's going to be those trying to lead you astray in the world. And he said this. He said, 1 John 4.2, he said, This is how you can recognize the spirit of God. Every spirit that acknowledges, what do you have to acknowledge? That Jesus Christ has come in the flesh. If you acknowledge that, that spirit is from God. Now, I'm going to dive into this verse,

and I want to share with you some thoughts that I learned from Tim Keller, so I give him credit for his ideas. Basically, he pointed out that scripture says that Jesus has come, in this instance it didn't say he was born. Obviously, he was born, but over and over again in the Bible It says that Jesus came into the world. What that means is if he came into the world, he was somewhere else before he was in this world.

When you look at it, every other religious founder was a normal human being. But Jesus was God in the flesh who came to this world, and that fact distinguishes Christianity from any other world religion. In fact, he came in the flesh, into this world. Every other world religion will try to separate you from this world. Many Eastern religions will say, will you overcome the world through stages of consciousness? In the West, there are many that would teach you through good moral behavior and through good works and through charity and through doing the right thing and through prayer.

You escape this world and then you go to heaven. But Christianity tells us, God so loves the world. that he came to us to do for us what we couldn't do for ourselves. So the salvation of God through Christ isn't just to escape this world, but God will actually redeem this world. He will redeem death, disease, poverty, and injustice. And that's why one day the God of the Bible will will wipe away every tear from their eyes.

And there'll be no more death or mourning or crying or pain for the old order of things have passed away. God doesn't just deliver us from the world he created. He redeems the world as he redeems his people to reign with him for all eternity. So when you look around, what do you believe? Let me just kind of get in your business. I can't convince you.

I'm not even going to try. I'm just going to present the facts the best way I can to let you decide. In the day, one day, you die. Game over. And something happens. You go somewhere to the ground. You become a butterfly. You go to heaven.

You go to hell. One day, doesn't matter how many Instagram followers you got, how many shoes you wear, where you went on vacation. One day, you go there, wherever. And so my advice to you, just as someone who cares about people in general, is let's do our homework. At some point, you're going to ask, like, what's the meaning of life? And many people would conclude, but we've got to find the truth. Let's get the truth. Let's get the truth. It's interesting is sometimes when people know the

truth, they become arrogant, right? I got the truth. You're stupid. I'm right. I got the truth. You're stupid. I'm right. the truth. That can be a weakness of Christians. Can I just say that? Any world religion, we got the truth. It means we're better. But Christianity tends to humble, not create pride when you really follow Jesus. So choose your truth. What's your truth? What's your truth? What's your truth? Whatever truth you choose, there's going to be some rules. And I want to tell you right now, the rules can't hug you, the rules can't forgive you, the rules can't encourage you, and the rules can't you. So if it's not truth, what's the meaning of life? Well, let's try love. Let's find acceptance with people. Let's be popular. Let's find the perfect person who meets every need and is our

soulmate and fulfills our dreams and makes every love song on the radio makes sense and makes the little hair stand up on the but tingly-wingly. The one that I went out walk on, my hero is home and I love you so much. And we've been happily married forever. We've never had a fight. Let's find that person. The problem is when you find that one, they're imperfect just like you. And they let you down. And I don't know what they might do, but they might lie to you. Or they might be self-centered. And they might not live up to your expectations. So you conclude, well, just as truth can't love you, those we love aren't always true. They're flawed.

So what do we do? We do what so many people today have done. We abandon truth. I'll do my own thing. Whatever feels good to me, I'm going to do it. We abandon truth and we get cynical about love. And all that leaves us is time to post hateful comments on social media. Can you smile and acknowledge that?

You'll be quiet today. just do our own thing. I can't trust people, so let's just go through life bitter. Maybe it's quiet because we're getting close to where a lot of people live. And Jesus said this. He said, and it's an audacious claim. And he's either true or he's crazy, but he's not a hobby. He's not an add-on.

He's not a feel-good toy. He's not your therapy. He's either who he says he is, or he's pure-blown crazy. But he's nothing in between. And that's why we don't take it lightly. Not just church membership and good works. It's a sincere, honest examination that you will not be here one day on this earth.

You better ask him questions today. I'm asking you to consider Jesus. And what he claimed was is that he is the way to God and the only way to God. The only way to God. And he said he's the life. He's a life that you've been looking for.

And he claimed that he's the truth. If he's the truth, then truth isn't just an idea, but now we can say truth is a person in Jesus. And because this truth is a person, then Jesus is a truth that can actually love you. And because he's without sin, then he has a love that will never, ever let you down. And that's why I would declare to you with every bit of faith that I have that Jesus is the name above every name. His name is above every name. At his name one day every knee would bow.

and every tongue would confess. And so if you wonder, what's the meaning of life? Am I too bad for God? I would invite you to consider Jesus. Consider Jesus. Consider Jesus. And Scripture says this about his message, that we are made right with God.

How are we made right with God? By placing our faith, not in our good works, not in our church, not in our religious belief system, not in our own effort, but by placing our faith in Jesus Christ. And this is true for everyone who believes. Watch this. Watch this. No matter who we are.

No matter what you've done, no matter how dark your life is, no matter how often you've fallen short, no matter the secrets that you don't want anybody to know about you, how are you made right with God? The Bible teaches it's by Jesus and Jesus alone. We would say it this way. What is it? It is Christ plus nothing.

Plus nothing. Plus nothing. Plus nothing. Plus nothing. Take any religious system and religion teaches, it's about me, my works, my goodness. You take Christianity. It's all about Jesus.

It's about Jesus, his goodness. You take a religious system. system. And it teaches, if you really love God or whatever it is, then you'll obey and then you'll be good and then you'll try harder. But Christianity says, because God first loved me, I get to choose to obey. I want to worship him. I want to live for him because he initiated while I was still sinning. He came from heaven to earth to give his life for me. It's about him. Religion is all is spelled do, do, do more, do this, do this, do that. Don't do that. Do this. Christianity spelled D-O-N-E. It was done. It was paid for on the cross.

You can't add anything to it. The work is perfect. It has been done. Jesus declared it is finished. And he claims to be the way. And he claims to be the truth. And he claims to be the life. And either he's right or he's crazy. I would just ask you to consider. And if you're like me, And you look at the evidence I see. I have the faith to believe that he is who he says he is. But he's so exclusive. Christians are just so exclusive. Ah, you're just so narrow.

Ah, Christianity is so exclusive. Hey, listen, it's the least exclusive of everything you're going to see ever. Because God, through Jesus, allows the weakest, the most broken, and the worst sinners to come. And so I don't know about you, but that's the grace, that's the love, that's the truth, and I believe that's the way. And so I choose to surrender all of my life and follow him. Not a hobby, not an add-on, not a, oh, I feel good when I go to church and they play my favorite song.

Oh, I got my little small group. No, dying to myself, following him, because I believe his name is above every name. His name is Jesus, and I ask you to consider Jesus. Father, I pray today that you would do what only you can do because I know there are a lot of smart people and a lot of smart hurting people. And a bunch of people, they're going to die one day.

So I just ask God at some point in all of our lives, lives, we would have the courage to ask some real questions and do some real homework. And God, I thank you that even as we study that will still come across some questions we may not be able to answer. And ultimately, we're going to have to have faith. And so I thank you, God, that there's something that comes from heaven that is different than anything that we can create, that you draw us by your Holy Spirit. I thank you, God, that you're drawing some people today. As you're praying, nobody looking around, for those of you that are committed followers of Jesus, and you want to be even more committed to him, unusual question, but I want to just

consider it. Because it's easy to become comfortable, it's easy to take him for granted. It's easy to be lukewarm. And you say, okay, yeah, this is alignment again. This isn't about me. It's not about my house, my comfort. That if I really believe this Jesus stuff, I want to be, I want to be even more devoted to him. I want to show him. If you feel that conviction today, would you just lift up your hand just for a moment? You can type it in the comment section. Help me be closer to Jesus. Help me be more devoted to Jesus. And I pray that your Holy Spirit would just do us stirring in us, draw us to you, just to fall in love with you all over again. We need you, not just for salvation in the beginning, but we need you today. We need your strength. We need your power. We need your comfort. We need

your grace, we just, we need you. God, stir up our church to be fully devoted to you, not to a church, not to a denomination to Jesus, to Jesus. To live like he lived, to love like he loved, help us be devoted to Jesus. As you keep praying today, let me tell you what's happening right now to some of you. And it's not because I'm a prophet, it's because I know how God works. That right now, some of you, you're just being strangely drawn to him. And for some of you, there were like weird things happening. So we were like going, is that God trying to reach me? You've kind of, you've been on the edge, you've been kicking the tires.

Let me tell you that you're not here, you're not watching by accident. You're watching. You're here because God came to you first. He sent Jesus into this world. He didn't shout from heaven. He didn't establish a bunch of rules you have to keep. He showed himself. God so loved the world that he sent his only son.

Jesus, look at Jesus. He came for the broken. He came for the sick. He came for the hurting. He came for people like me, and I promise you, he came for people like you. And some of you recognize, you need his forgiveness.

You need his grace. You need his presence. You need his comfort. He's not here just to help you get to heaven one day. He's going to redeem your life. He's going to make you new. He's going to one day redeem the whole world. That's how good he is.

Wherever you're watching from those who say, I really do, I know I've done wrong. You can't work your way to him. You can't be religious enough for him. You're only saved by grace, by putting your faith in Jesus. Jesus plus nothing, wherever you're watching from, those who say, I want that. Today, here's what we're doing. We're just stepping away from our self.

We are sinful. We're stepping away from our sins. And we're putting our faith in Jesus and we're becoming his disciple. We follow him. We live like him. We let his word direct us. We let his spirit empower us wherever you're watching from today. who say, I want it today by faith.

I surrender by faith, by faith, God has been drawing you by faith. I surrender my life to Jesus. Jesus, save me today. I give my life to you. That's your prayer. Lift your hands high now, all over the place. Lift them up, please. Oh, my gosh.

Thank God for people today coming to faith in Christ. Oh, thank God. Somebody, let's give them praise today. Online, wherever you're watching from. Just however you want to say it, type in the chat. I am committing to be a disciple of Jesus. Just however you want to be. want to say it in your words and we're going to pray together and then we're going to give God

some thanks today. Would you just pray everyone, no one prays alone. Pray Heavenly Father. Would you forgive me? I know I've sinned. Change me. Fill me with your spirit so I can know you personally so I can experience your grace so I can show your love. Thank you that you're a personal God, thank you that you came from me. Thank you that you loved me when I didn't deserve it. I give my whole life to you. Use me to share your love. Thank you for Jesus. He is my Savior. He is my Lord. I give my life to him. In Jesus' name, I pray, could somebody celebrate now and give God thanks.