The Church of Eleven22 - Week 13: Money Mismanagement

Episode Date: September 3, 2023

The love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. James 5:1-6

Well, good morning, church. I don't see you reaching for a Bible. So go ahead, grab a Bible. And if you don't have one, there's one sitting right in front of you in a chair back in front of you. If you don't own a Bible or if the only Bible you own is your grandmas and it was out of Ye Old English, take that one. It's our gift to you. And if you take it, I'll tell you where we're going to be. We're going to be on page 111, 115.

So it can be real easy. So as you're turning there, we are in week 13 of our study of James. And the big idea in James is when James says faith without works is dead. And what he means is just a genuine faith plays itself out in our lives. Faith works in our lives. It plays out. It is actually practically into our day-to-day life. And so as we've gone through the book of James, we've talked about trials and temptations.

We've talked about tests. We've talked about wisdom and discernment. We talked about our words, the power of our tongue, fights, quarrels. We talked about partiality, future planning. We talked about that last week. Now, listen, we are almost to the end. Like next week is the end.

We're so close to the end, and we've made it so far without talking about the topic that I know you have been dying to talk about. Money. So let's do it today. It's where James goes. So we're going to talk. We're talking about money.

You made it. It was so close. So close. I remember when I was just starting seminary and everybody, the class was kind of all knew. Nobody really knew each other. And so we were sitting around one day a group of us and people were talking about where they had come from, what they had done and all this sort of thing.

And so they were talking about where they had gone to college. And it was like this Christian college and this Bible school. And I'd gone to Wheaton and I gone, you know, all these. all these real Christian places they had all gone. They were talking about what they had studied and, oh, I'd studied Old Testament, I studied Greek, or I studied some ancient Semitic language

or, you know, church history or something like that. And I'm just kind of sitting quietly over in the corner. And they look at me and they're like, Adam, where did you go to school? I said, well, I mean, I went school in the promised land of Gainesville, Florida, the University of Florida, all kinds of weather.

We all stick together. It was a rough one, guys. They're like, what did you study? I mean, do they even teach religious things? At the University of Florida, I'm like, I don't know. I studied finance. And they all sort of laughed like you laughed, and they all kind of looked at me, like their heads cocked.

And what it was was, I know they believed that money and faith informed one another and affected one another. but like for just a split second, their reaction was, I don't get it, there's like a disconnect. And we can feel that sometimes, can't we? We can feel like, what does this have to do with this? What does my faith?

What does Jesus have to do with how I spend my money on Thursday? But Jesus, when he talks about money, the way he talks about money, is not so much about tips and tricks and practicalities. what he's really getting at is our hearts. We'll say it over and over again today. Where your treasure is, there your heart is also. And so God cares so deeply about us.

He cares so deeply about your heart and about my heart that he's so good that he wouldn't leave a thing. Think about culturally. What is bigger than money in our culture right now? What is it that would grab your attention? Right? I mean, if somebody messes up your payroll, your blood pressure just goes up, doesn't it?

Even mention it and you start, like, twitching a little bit. And it's because our heart and our money are so intertwined with one another and what God cares about is drawing our heart to himself. And so we're going to ask the question, what does faith look like when it comes to our heart? finances. So you've had enough time to find 1,115. Let's jump in. James chapter 5 verse 1.

Come now. So he's going to, James going to jump in. And if you remember, if you were here last week or watch last week's message, in James 413, he starts that section by saying come now. And so this is almost like a subsection of that. It's like an application of what he was talking about kind of in general of not wasting our lives. Come now, you rich, weep and howl for the miseries that are coming upon you. He says, you rich. Now, I know in a church like ours is big and spread out all over the place, there's some of us that have more than others, and there's some of us that have less than

others. there's some of us that legitimately need God to provide our daily bread right now. And then there's others of us we don't want or need for anything. And so what I feel like is most of us, if you were to ask us, we wouldn't say we even feel rich. But by James's definition, most of us would qualify and fit in that. Now when the Bible talks about months. and about wealth, it's not so much concerned about whether you're rich or not rich.

It's not like a Marxist thing that's going on. It's concerned about whether you are godly or ungodly. Because the Bible is full of examples of really godly, wealthy people. See Lydia in the New Testament? Lydia lived today. She'd have an apartment on the top of some high rise in Manhattan and she would be a fashion designer.

And what Lydia did, as she sold purple cloth and made a bunch of money as she opened up her home and let a church be birthed out of her home. She's a godly woman and wealthy. There's also lots of examples of really ungodly wealthy people. Matthew, the tax collector, before he starts following Jesus, really wealthy, really ungodly. He's trying to cheat all of his countrymen out of their money.

You can also go find really poor people that are incredibly godly. Case number one, see Jesus. He who was rich became poor. That's what scripture tells us. He had no place to lay his head. There's others in there that are poor and they're ungodly.

And so the issue is not wealth or no wealth. The issue is godly or ungodly. And so as we look at this passage, even though James is going to address it to those who are rich, what he's really talking about is our heart when it comes to money and every single one of us our heart is bent when we start talking about money and thinking about money and so it applies to every single one of us so the question is why weep and howl for miseries when it comes to wealth

I mean I don't know I think about weeping and howling over money and I think most of us if we've upset over money, it's because we lost some, right? You made an investment, the market turned, you bought a house, it went under, something like that, and you got really upset about your money, but that's not what James is talking about here. When James says weep and how, what he's talking about is weep like repentance, like rend your heart. So when was the last time you wept, like in repentance over finances and wealth and possessions. So James, what he's going to do is he's going to give us three legitimate, biblical, gospel-centered reasons that we should weep, repent, and mourn in our wealth.

So buckle up. This one's a doozy. We're not only talking about money. We're going to talk about last days and end times and social. slaughter and a bunch of other things. So aren't you glad you came to church this morning? So first reason, here's what he says. Why weep and mourn?

Verse two, your riches have rotted and your garments are moth eaten. Your gold and silver have corroded and their corrosion will be evidence against you and will eat your flesh like fire. Hello. You have laid up treasure in the last days. So what James is saying is he's pointing out, he's going, you have these possessions or you have wealth, riches, and they're rotting.

Like presently, they're rotting. Or you have clothes, garments, and they're getting moth eaten. Somehow, as you're wearing them, they're disintegrating and falling apart. Or gold and silver, they've corroded. And the words actually rusted. The interesting thing is, gold doesn't rust. and what he's saying is you've got these temporary things and you've invested so much of your heart

and so much of your life in these things as if they matter so much and everything right now matters on this little thing. Now what he's not saying is that wealth is evil. Money is not the root of all evil. It's not what the Bible says. Money is not the root of all kinds of evil. That's not what the Bible says.

The love of money is not the root of all evil. That's not what scripture says. It says the love of money is the root of all kinds of evil. And so he's not categorically saying wealth is evil. What he's just saying is you're looking at it from such a short-sighted perspective. And when he talks like this, he sounds a lot like Jesus. Jesus in Matthew 6, starting in verse 19, says this,

do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth. Where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal. But lay up for yourselves, there's treasures in heaven. We're neither moth nor rust destroy. And where thieves do not break in and steal. Do you hear how much James sounds like his half-brother? Where Jesus says it this way in Luke 1233. Sell your possessions.

Give to the needy. Provide yourselves with money bags that do not grow old with a treasure in the heavens that does not fail where no thief approaches and no moth destroys. He's saying view your wealth, your life, not just in terms of these relatively few short years, but in light of all of eternity. Like don't spend all you have right.

now thinking all you have is right now. Let me say that again. Don't spend all you have right now, thinking that right now is all you've got. There's an eternity that's out there. He says it, right? Laid up treasures in these last days. It's literally like Eschaton, the end of times.

And so when he says this, he's saying, listen, we live in the end times, okay? We're living in the last days right now, and we have been for the last 2,000 years. Since Jesus was, died on the cross, resurrected, and ascended, he stood on the Mount of Olives, and he ascended, and he goes, I will be right back. Hold on.

Now, I know we think, okay, that's nice, because Jesus also said it's going to happen in a blink of an eye. You aren't going to know. It's not for you to try to figure out and read the tea leaves. and all that kind of stuff about when I'm coming back. I'm coming right back. But most of us live like, okay, it's been 2,000 years.

Doesn't seem like you're coming right back, Jesus. Except for a day is like a thousand years to the Lord. And so the Lord has been like gone for about 48 hours. He took off and he's like, I'll be back in by the end of the weekend. Okay? So he's coming back and we have to see things in light of that eternity. Remember last week in the sermon when Pastor Joey brought that rope out here, that 50-foot-long rope that represented eternity, and then showed us the little, just the little tail end of it, right? I mean, just the little, the little end of it. And we talked about how, man, we're born, we live, we work, we save, which are all fine, which are all great things. Scripture teaches some of that stuff. But we do it thinking that that is going to save us. That's gonna make our life.

And all I've got is that little end. And we don't often consider everything we're doing in light of that other 50 feet that represents eternity. We've lived in our house now for 20 years, raised our kids in the same house, got one that's gonna be a senior in college, our daughter's a senior in high school right now. And the deal that Kristen and I have

is that when our kids are out of the house, we're selling in nine months, we're selling that house and we're getting a little closer to the beach because I feel like, I just want to ride my bike and have my coffee and I don't feel like that's too much to ask, is it? I mean, I get the irony in a money sermon

that we're talking about wanting to move closer to the beach, so it's fine. It's not missed on me. But it would have been one thing for us to move into our house 20 years ago and gut it and do all that sort of stuff, and redo it. How silly would it be right now, just nine months away from moving out of our house if we went in and just did a complete gut job on our house and reconstructed the entire thing from

the ground up? You'd be like, that's so foolish. I mean, do the little repairs, fix the toilet, you know, the door that sticks, do those sorts of things so you can sell it. But gut it? You're only going to be here for a second. And so what? I mean, James really gives us this shocking, honestly, shocking prophetic warning. He says this stuff will, this kind of point of view will be evidence against you and it will eat your flesh like fire. I don't even know what that means. It just sounds like hell to me. And what's saying is, when we act so short-sighted in our life,

that's mounting evidence. It's like a courtroom language that's in here. It's this mounting evidence and are rotted in our, our corroded things will be evidence against us. And there will come a day where we will answer for those things. So why does he get so severe about this? And I think it's because when Jesus says where your treasure is there, your heart will be also. When we act like this, what we're revealing in our heart

is that we don't really believe there's an eternity. I mean, we may say it, we may give lip service to it, but we don't actually functionally believe that there is an eternity. And do you know who dwells in eternity? Who is eternal? God. So when we live in such a short-sided way, whether we know it or not, what we're saying is none of that exists.

And God, you don't really exist and you're not really a factor in my life. And the other part of it is it's evidence that we don't actually functionally believe the gospel that only Jesus can fully and finally satisfy. When we live in such a short-sighted way, what we're saying is all this stuff, the stuff is really my savior. The stuff is going to make me feel better. The stuff is going to kind of be salved to my soul.

And the warning is to see the temporary in light of the eternal. And so we should weep and we should mourn and we should repent when we take our eyes off the eternal and get so short-sighted as if everything right now is all that matters. Now, I don't just hear this severe warning that's in there. When I read this, I also hear a real prophetic, missional call for us.

When I read this, what I hear echoing in the back of my brain is in Acts chapter 10, it says those who call on the name of the Lord will be saved. And then Paul starts to write, I mean, as Luke starts to write, he says, okay, so if you are saved by calling, how are you going to call? And he says, well, you have to hear, to hear the gospel.

How are you going to hear? Somebody's got to tell you. How are they going to tell you? Somebody's got to go. And so what I hear in this is a call to go. the stakes are really high. There are people. The only way to be with Jesus forever in eternity

is to receive Jesus as your Lord and Savior and call on him. Do you know there are 8 billion people-ish on the planet right now? 8 billion. Out of those 8 billion, about 40% of them, about 3.2 billion people.

show you this map, have never heard the name of Jesus. They have no access to the gospel, that area in red up there. Jesus has neither been named or known. There's no access to the gospel in those areas of red. 3.2 billion people will live, be born, live, work, die, and never hear the name of Jesus and never have the opportunity to receive him as Lord and Savior. That's not to say, I mean, there's people all over the green and yellow who don't believe in Jesus. It's just saying there's 3.2 billion people who have never heard of Jesus. It's urgent. Our son who's in college a couple years ago, he was talking to us, tells us this story.

His roommate came in to their room and sitting on his desk, this is a little bit of a dad brag, sitting on his desk is Gavin's Bible is open. He's reading his Bible. See the dad flex. So honestly, that's pretty awesome. But it's not the point. Gavin said his roommate walks in and points at his Bible and he's like, what's that? Gavin's like, well, I mean, it's my Bible.

And he's like, I mean, I've seen one like in a drawer in a hotel, but I've never actually seen the inside of a Bible. They go to school an hour and a half down the road. I'm telling, guys, this is urgent. This is urgent. This is real. This is 3.2 billion people all across the world who don't have access to the gospel and it's kids right down the street from us who have never actually seen the inside of it.

How are they supposed to believe? How are they supposed to know? How are they supposed to call on the name of Jesus? I mean, this is why in our 10-10 life initiative over the two years, this discipleship journey that we're on. A piece of it is called the eternal life, and it's why we are planting churches all 200 churches over this two years.

It's why we're sending missionaries all over the globe. It's why hundreds of you have gone on short-term mission trips. It's because time is short and eternity is long. I remember I did a funeral a couple months ago, about three months ago, four months ago,

for my great aunt. She was a couple months shy of a hundred years old. Think about that, Ms. Williams, a hundred years old. She had seen like the model T and the Tesla T, right? Like had family that fought in the Civil War and saw self-driving cars. How about that for a lot? And most of us are like, 100 years, wow, that's such a long time. Now, as we walked out into the graveyard out in Manor Cemetery,

it's where a bunch of our family has plots and all that sort of stuff. Hopefully one day I'll get buried in there under an oak tree. And I walked out and I was looking at all of the gravestones, headstones, plaques, and on every single one of them, there's a birthday and there's a death date. And what's in between those two? A dash. That's our life, that dash. Some of us get a hundred year dash,

some of us get a shorter dash. But in light of all of eternity, it's still just a dash. It's a mist, it's a vapor, and then it's gone. And what James is calling us to say is don't get so short-sighted. Weep, mourn, repent, when all you think about is now matters.

What would it look like if we, We viewed the temporary in light of the eternity. So number two, he goes on. Verse four, behold, the wages of the laborers who mowed your fields, which you kept back by fraud, are crying out against you

and the cries of the harvester have reached the ears of the Lord, the Lord of hosts. So in James' day, what would happen is a farmer would have a big field, he would contract with workers to come in and work that field, and it wasn't like he would pay him on the first and the 15th of every month. What they would do is they would work all season,

and then when the harvest was brought in, they would sell the harvest, and then the owner of the field would pay everybody for their whole season's worth of work. So they would go months and months and months and months and months, under the assumption that at the end of the season, they're going to get paid for all of those months, months worth of work. And what he's talking about is the guy that owns the field goes and sells

at the end of the season and then he doesn't pay the workers back. He's defrauding them, holding back their wages. You know, I know that sounds like something that happens a long, long time ago, but you can actually go look up right down in the southern part of St. John's County about 10 years ago, some farmers got in real trouble because they were doing the exact same thing. And what James is talking about here is that we're not just, we should weep and mourn and repent, not just when we're short-sighted, but when we steal. He's just talking about straight up stealing, defrauding somebody of what is rightfully theirs and keeping it or taking it.

That's just stealing. And we should confess and we should weep and we should mourn and we should repent. Not only when we don't see sort of the vertical, eternal, but we don't see the impact that we have on other people around us, the horizontal. Now, I know what you're thinking. I mean, you're like, Adam, I don't steal. Really? Maybe you ever called in sick when you weren't really sick, but the waves were really good? Who would do that? If you ever logged into somebody's, I mean, Netflix is making it a little harder, but you ever logged into somebody's Netflix or Amazon Prime or Hulu account to just catch up on that one show. You ever not paid a bill that you owe on time

because you just didn't want to do it? Didn't think it was worth it. You ever take that office supply, that little pack of paper, some paper clips, nobody will miss it. It's a big company. You ever taking credit for something that you didn't do? You ever been in a meeting with somebody that you manage and you didn't tell them the whole story? like you just sort of told a part of the story, but you withheld some information that they really needed to know so that you could get your way to kind of maneuver things

so that in the long run it would work out for you. You ever done a deal, written a contract, made a sale, and maybe you divulged all the information, you just kind of buried it way down in the fine print, try to slip one right past them? So the question's, what's the problem with stealing? Like, what's the big deal? I mean, aside from the Eighth Commandment, like don't steal.

That's a big one. We could just stop right there, right? Don't do it, God said. Okay. But what else is going on? Have you ever, have you ever been robbed? Has anybody ever stolen anything from you? It's scary, isn't it?

You feel vulnerable. If they take enough, you don't just feel like somebody broke in, but you're wondering, okay, how am I going to, how's this going to work out in my life? There's a lack of trust. there's paranoia, whatever that thing is in your life. And when we steal, we inflict that on somebody else. When we steal, here's what we're saying. I'm more important than you.

You don't matter. You are a means to my end. In essence, what we're doing is we're looking at an image bearer of God and we commodify them. We use them for our benefit at their expense. That's what stealing does. That's why it's such a big deal. In John 1010, we've been, again, looking at it.

We will for two years. It begins by saying the thief comes only to do three things. What are they? Steal. There's number one. Steal, kill, and destroy. You know what the big deal about stealing is? You just signed up to act like Satan.

You just signed up to get on his team. And in essence, what we do when we steal is we look at Satan, and go, could I please help you accomplish 33% of your mission in the world in a revolt against God? Please? That's why it's a big deal. It's a big deal because we're not actually trusting God to provide for his unique plan for our lives.

And then James says in 4B, look what he says in here at the end of verse 4. He says, acting this way, it is crying out against you and the cries of the harvester have reached the ears of the Lord of hosts. That's literally Lord of Angel armies. That when we steal from others, in essence, what's happening is God sit up there

as the Lord of all of his angel armies, all the angels, and his ears perk up, and he goes, okay, time to activate the troops. I don't know about you. I don't want that. I don't want hosts of angel armies against me. It's a big deal. And again, I just don't hear this sort of command against the negative.

What I hear is a call towards the positive in there too. Like what would it look like if I could do the best by those who work for me? What would it look like if I could do the best for those I do business with? what would it look like if I could be as generous as I possibly could be? Like that young guy or that young girls working in the restaurant and the meal's okay and the service is okay, but what would it look like if I just decided to tip as much as I could tip instead of tipping as little as I could tip so that I could bless them

so they could pay their rent, get the groceries they need. Now it goes on, he gives you the third one. Why weep and mourn? why howl, why repent. Verse five, you have lived on earth in luxury and self-indulgence. You have fattened your hearts in a day of slaughter. Now what he doesn't say the problem is you lived on earth in luxury, period. Because luxury is relative, right?

There's some of us in this room. I would walk into your home or see what you drive or where you go on vacation or wherever. and I would look and I would go, that is so luxurious. And then there's some of you that would look at the way I live, or take my friend, Pastor Emmanuel Mukisa, that lives in Masaka, Uganda. He comes over to my house and he would be like, what the, what? You have a room to store food in? You've got a machine in your sink that grinds up food you don't want to eat.

How luxurious are you? Right, it's a relative thing. what he says is you lived in luxury and self-indulgence. Luxury's about stuff. It's about experiences. It's outside. Self-indulgence is about our heart. It's what's going on inside of us that we think everything we have is for me.

I'm the end of the cul-de-sac. It should all flow and all stop and all terminate on me for my benefit. And he says when that happens, we should weep and howl and repent for being short-sided, for stealing, and then for just being plain old selfish, self-indulgent. And then he mentions the heart, right? You've fattened your hearts. And again, it sounds a lot like Jesus. Where your treasure is, in Matthew 6.21, where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

So our money, our possessions are a lot like two things. They're like a thermostat and a thermometer. A thermometer reads the temperature, right? It doesn't do anything. It just tells you what's going on. You take your temperature, it tells you what's going on inside of you. Our money is like that. Our money will give us a reading on our hearts.

If you want to know where your heart is, this is dangerous. I double dog dare you to do it today. go look actually look at your bank account not just the end number but look at the line items on where you've spent and go look at your credit card might even be more revealing than your bank account and ask yourself who is this really about the other thing is it's not just a thermometer it's an actual thermostat Jesus says where your treasure is there your heart will be also a thermostat controls the temperature and so where our money goes our heart will get trained up behind it

and this is actually why Jesus talks so much about our money because he's after our heart and he knows that if he can train our money in a certain direction our heart will follow after it it'll be like a thermostat that gets us there so we weep and we howl and we repent when we act like everything we have is all for us and we spend it all on us and because living self-indulgently, it's deadly. It's deadly. It is deadly to our souls. He says you fattened your hearts in a day of slaughter. We're like a pig with the ring just kind of being drug in to the slaughterhouse and we don't even realize it. Paul writes in 1st Timothy 5, 6, she who is self-indulgent is dead, even while she lives.

When we live like this, when we live self-indulgently and selfishly, in essence, we're walking dead. We're already, the wages of sin is death. That's what he's talking about. Now you get to the end of verse five. And all of you, I can see it in your face, you're just like, what a beat down. Yeah, it is.

It's not just a beat down, but okay Adam so I'm dead I'm walking dead I can't fix my I could fix with tips and tricks some mechanics of spending my money but if you're really after my heart and the way I'm living has caused my heart to go dead I mean I can't fix it I can't a dead person can't fix a dead heart so not only is it a beat down I just feel stuck good news is he doesn't stop in verse five he goes on to verse six so in verse six he said you have condemned and murdered the righteous person. Now at first glance you're like,

that doesn't really sound like good news. Okay, there's two ways to read this. One way you can read this is that the you is some ungodly person out there. And the righteous person is you, me. And so somebody out there has done these things to us and for some of us, you're in that situation. You've been in that situation, and you're in it right now.

Somebody else has acted ungodly towards you, specifically in the area of finances, probably in other ways too if they've done it. And you have been hurt and betrayed, and you have been, you're probably broke because of it. I don't know all the ways that it's happened to you, but you feel like the you has condemned and murdered and hurt you in this situation.

The good news is this. If that's you, God is the Lord of hosts. He is your God of angel armies. He says, vengeance is mine. You don't have to get it. He's got your back. He's got you. And he is the just judge.

He will bring evidence and justice on those who have violated and hurt you. He'll do it. And he is the king of kings and he's the Lord of Lords. This isn't prosperity gospel, all right? Prosperity gospel is a lie from the pit of hell. It says that God loves you when you have more money. This is not about that at all.

Right? If it was, Jesus wouldn't have been loved by God. But he does own a thousand cattle on a hill and he sits enthroned in glory. and he is, if you call on him, if you receive him and trust him, he becomes your heavenly father. That when you receive Jesus as your Lord and Savior, you are adopted into the family of God. Do you realize it would be enough if our sins were just forgiven? But that's not the end of the road.

The reason our sins get forgiven is so that we can be brought into the household of God and adopted into the family, which means if you've received Jesus, You have a heavenly father who loves you and is good and gracious and merciful and is the king of kings and Lord of Lords. And so you may not get it on this side, but I'm telling you, you get to live forever as an heir and a co-air to all the things of the Lord. Now there's another way to read this. The you is not some ungodly out there and the righteous as me.

You can flip this one around. and you go, okay, well, the you is you and me. And the one who's been condemned and murdered, literally the righteous one, is Jesus. It's the exact same language. When he calls him the righteous person, it's literally the righteous one. It's the exact same language that Peter uses in Acts chapter 3, verse 14,

when he preaches the very first sermon. and he says, you killed the righteous one. Scripture tells us in Psalms and Romans, no one is righteous, no, not one. So I read this and I go, I'm not the righteous one. I'm not perfect, I'm not righteous. You know who I'm more like? I'm more like the one, the you in this thing,

who has been short-sided and stolen and been self-indulgent and all of that. And those sins, they condemned and they murdered Jesus. And the good news is this. Jesus is the perfect righteousness for you and me. He is the righteous one. In every respect, his all eternity and his life on earth, he handled money and wealth and possessions perfectly.

He never sinned in any regard against all of them. him, which means if you would come to Jesus and receive him as your Lord and Savior, no matter what you have done, stolen, self-indulgence, short-sighted, his righteousness gets credited to your account. It counts for you. His perfection counts for our sinful imperfection. And he is the perfect sacrifice paying the full penalty for the debt of our sin. He is our righteousness, and he is the one who paid fully for our sins. Because he never sinned in this regard. He should never have died.

He wasn't walking dead. He was fully alive. And he went to the cross, and on the cross, he took our sin on himself. He who knew no sin became sin. And he died. condemned, murdered, on our behalf, so that our penalty would be paid in full. And then it ends like this.

You've condemned and murdered the righteous person. Now hear this last little line, he does not resist you. When I read that, I mean, it just stopped me in my tracks. Because if you read the righteous one as Jesus, Jesus does not resist you. Let that just sink deep into your soul for a minute. Jesus does not resist you.

If you've been hurt and betrayed and taken advantage of, and if you need God to be your Lord of hosts and your defense, then run to him for protection. He doesn't resist you. if you need God to be your just judge and bring righteous justice for you, plead your case to him. He doesn't resist you. If you need God to be your king of kings and your lord of your lords, ask him to be the provider of all that you need. He doesn't resist you.

If you need God to be your good father to adopt you and give you a future, you pull up close to him. He doesn't resist you. I think most of us live lives as if God is resisting and pushing back against us. And he says, if you will seek me, I will be found. If you will draw near to me, I will draw near to you. The good news of the gospel is that he doesn't resist you. He actually did everything he could do to make the move towards you in Jesus Christ. Listen, if you have sinned in the way you've handled wealth and you need Jesus to be your righteousness,

where you have been unrighteous, hide yourself in him. Pull up underneath him and let his righteousness cover you. If you've lived like all that matters is today, short-sighted, if you've gained wealth

at the expense of others stealing, if you've lived like all you have is for you in selfishness, and you need Jesus to be the one to take your place, like you can't fix that, you can't reach back and undo it, and you can't fix the sin against a holy, almighty God. Let Jesus be the one to take your place,

to be the one condemned on the cross where you and I deserve to be. And let him pay your debt, that's why the Bible uses that financial language, debt, let him pay your sin debt in full, past, present, and forever. He doesn't resist you. And the good news is the one who died on that cross got up out of the grave,

which means you can trust everything he said. When he said, I will forgive you, I will die for your sins, I will be your righteousness. I will be your cover, your defender, your just judge. I will be that and I will never resist you. You can believe it because not only, did he die, but he was raised to life. So here's what we're going to do as we close the service. Maybe, maybe you have never received Jesus as your Lord and Savior. And you need God to be your king of kings, your Lord of Lords, host of angel armies. You need them to be your good

father. And I would say, call out to him. Place your trust in Jesus. He'd doesn't resist you. Do it today. And if you've sinned and you need somebody to cover that sin for you, don't hold back. He doesn't resist you. Give your life to Jesus. Receive him as Lord and Savior. And then what we're going to do is we're going to give an opportunity. We're going to sing. And maybe you need to come down here and you need to literally weep and mourn and repent. or how you've approached this in your life. He doesn't resist you. Come down here, get down on your knees.

All of a Christian's life is one of repentance. All of it start to end. It's a turning from the things of the world and a turning to Jesus. And then we're going to sing this song. It's Lord, I need you, and here's how the chorus goes. Lord, I need you. Oh, I need you.

Every hour I need you. you. And as we sing this song, I don't, I don't want you to just think like some far off ethereal situation like, Lord, I need you right now in what we've been talking about. My heart is bent towards selfishness. And God, I need you. Like every hour right now, I need you. And then it says, my one defense, my righteousness. And when you sing that one defense, if you need God to be your defender, you sing it out like you've never sung that thing out. And if you need them to be your righteousness where you have sinned, you sing that out as a plea and a call to God. Lord, I need you. Oh, I need you. Every hour I need you, my one defense, my righteousness. Oh, God, how I need you.

Would you pray with me? By your heads. If you have never received Jesus as your Lord, and Savior. And you want to hide yourself in his righteousness. If you want his death on the cross to count for you, would you raise your hand right now? He doesn't resist you. Raise him up high. Come on. He doesn't resist you. Heavenly Father, we love you. Thank you. Thank you that you are perfect righteousness in every respect. God, thank you that you care so deeply about our heart. that you wouldn't avoid talking about some of the hardest things that draw our heart from you. Thank you for loving us so deeply, so fully and so finally. God, we'd need you.

Badly, we need you. Like right now, our heart wants to push back against needing you. And we need you in that, God. And we need you when we walk out of here and we need you. when Instagram tells us that all that matters is the stuff we could get and is advertised to us. God, we need you. Come be our one defense and our righteousness. We love you.

We pray to Jesus' name. Amen. Did you stand? Let's sing. Let's bring. Let's worship. Let's come down. Let's repent.

Let's call on God to be our defender. our righteousness.