Stop Earning Credit With God | Judah Smith

I wake up one morning and I'm brushing my teeth and out of nowhere, this statement comes into my mind. Grace grows the church. Now, if you're not a church person, meaning like you don't work for church, you're like, "Grace grows the church." All right, that kind of sounds like cool.

What does that mean? Well, that's kind of how it hit me at first. I was like, "Grace grows the church." I was a youth pastor at the time, and I was like, "Yeah, I want the church to grow. I want more people to be connected and grace grows the church.

I had no idea that that statement would literally change the rest of my life, my marriage, and ultimately the children that I would raise. It was so impactful and without getting into all the details that that statement so impacted us. We had a daughter and we we named her grace because that message of the unearned unmmerited goodness, gift and favor of God completely started to reorient my thought patterns.

So that will lead me to the bad thought we're going to put on the table tonight. Now, I'll admit that the bad thought I'm about to share with you, which I believe the grace of God can completely transform this line of thinking, this way of processing thought. And so, there is a uh a lot of talk in our mind.

How do we change the conversation we're having with ourselves in our head? I want to talk to you because if you've ever had this kind of selft talk or this kind of thought then I want to dedicate the next two and a half hours to you. I hate you guys.

I'm kidding. I love you. I love you. And here's my thought. I need to get right with God. I need to get right with God. Man, I just I just need to get right with God. If tonight you need to get right with God, I want you to raise your hand.

Some of you are the tone. Some of you raise No, you don't have to raise your hand. Don't do that. I'm going to show you why that thought is wrong. Don't do that. I'm sorry. That was an example. Some like, yeah, it's me, you know. Well, you definitely need this sermon.

All right. Well, here we go. Um, now, for those of you that are new to this experience and new to this environment, that statement is not very loaded. You're like, get right with God. Okay, that kind of sounds positive, whatever. Okay, you need to know there's a whole like like like like history behind that thought, getting right with God.

In fact, here's the truth. There is probably a significant percentage tonight of people in this theater in Beverly Hills who came under the premise, the primary premise. Tonight, I got to get right with God. Now couple of things let's observe that implies of course for whatever particular reason that person is not currently in good standing with God.

That person is not right with God. Now, if you're unfamiliar with that statement or that line of think, it is popularized by guys and gals like me because at the end of our presentations like this, often times we will say to people and they will raise their hands like they did a few seconds ago and that is if you need to get right with God, raise your hand and people will raise their hey.

I need to I just I need to get right with God. Which is to say that we do the writing with God. that we make ourselves, present ourselves, we do the I need to get right with God. This is not like super complicated, but bear with me. It's kind of like getting behind in an assignment in college or high school and your teacher is like, "Hey, look, you got to do makeup work.

Like you you got to you've missed four and a half weeks of school work and you've got to make up." And so getting right with God is kind of like, "I need to kind of make it right. All right. I need to make up the work. I need to kind of fill the void.

I need to, you know, get get cover the gap. I I need to I'm I'm just not And and here's what we mean. We don't say it, but here's what we mean. What we mean is I've been cussing. I've been partying a little bit. I've looked at a few naked people on the internet late at night.

I I I I really I've been lying a little bit. And so getting right with God is essentially what it's become in our environment and kind of the western world is it's like it's this thing that I do to kind of like yo yo yo yo God I just want you to know like I'm super sorry for doing that and I don't want anything in between us so I need to get right.

So, so the preacher says, "You need to get right with God." And everyone kind of goes, "Okay." Yeah. Yeah. I need to Yeah. Will you pray for me cuz I need to get right with God. I want to say something and please bear with me and don't get mad at me.

It might be one of the most counterproductive ways of thinking in all of the sacred community called the church. this idea that getting right with God is what we do. I am here to present to you good news. You can't get right with God by yourself. You can't do it.

But that's good news. We We'll get there. We'll get there. Now, now some of you are smart. You're smart people. You've been in church a long time. Bear with me. And you're like, Judah, but you know what people mean, bro. You're kind of you're kind of splitting the hairs up there tonight. talking about like you know when we say get right with God I mean it's like we want to accept his forgiven you know we mean we say like get right with God you you you know what we mean but that's but hold on that's not how thought patterns work even research and science get the book it's not how it works your brain and your body and your soul when you repeatedly ab absorb and accept the line of thinking that says I need to get right with God.

Your brain and body truly starts to function in a way that you need to fix things with God. You need to work for things with God. You need to earn credit with God. And God becomes a really big bright football coach or teacher and we earn, deserve, warrant and work.

And that of course is what how we define religion. I need to get right with God. Now, one of the reasons we want to get right with God is because we get tired. So, I do want to dedicate the rest of this message to anyone in here who is emotionally, spiritually, and mentally exhausted.

I'm just tired. And so if you're like me, you can get so tired that you're like, "All right." And I know this sounds, "Don't be mad at me." But sometimes God is kind of like, "All right, I tried everything else. I'm going to go to church." And you, your friend's like, "Wait, you going to church, bro?"

Like, "It must be bad." I know. I know. I know. It's been since like 2004, but I'm just saying cuz you going with your grandma. Who you going with? I'm going to go to this thing at the the Swan Theater. And And I'm just I run out of options.

And you know what? I I need to I need to get right with God. Which means I'm going to go to a church and I'm going to tell God I'm really sorry for all the bad things I've done. And what I'm hoping is that he'll take my achy heart away.

Facts are many of us are in this room because we've tried so much and it's left us wanting and empty. And so we're here kind of saying, "God, if you're real, man, I need you to show up." Now, what excites me is that possibly per chance there are people like that here.

But the worst thing I could tell you and for you to absorb, believe, and observe is that you need to get right with God. Do you know the Bible says it's impossible for you to come into a right relationship with God? It's impossible. Let me say it like this.

When the Bible starts to define error, wrong, or sin, it's, you know, all the big bad stuff, right? You know, like don't cheat, don't rob, don't steal. We're all like, "Yeah, yeah, don't do that." But you all know that like Jesus showed up on the scene and he started preaching and he said, "You know, it's been said according to the Torah, it's been said that if you sleep with somebody that's not your spouse, that's sin."

Everybody's like, "Yeah, yeah." He's like, "But I I say what sin is is when you gaze across the room at somebody else's spouse and you fantasize about having sex with them. That's sin." Everybody was like, "Oh, wait. Well, hold on. What? Wait, wait, what? Bro, >> he said he said it's been said that if you murder somebody, that's sin.

Everybody's like, "Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's a fact. That's a fact." But I say Jesus says if you get angry at somebody, you murder them. And everybody's like, "What? Come on, man." Which is to say, brothers and sisters, here's one thing we know. We are all pretty rotten. That's right.

I said it. Now, you're adorable. I think you're cute and God loves you, but we're rotten to our core. We're rotten to our core. How long has it been? Probably not that long, where somebody's demise, somebody's error, somebody's pain, somebody's embarrassment brought you joy. Yeah, I know. Probably in the last 24 hours.

If you're honest, serves them right. You reap what you sow. I told you so. Look at you. We are rotten to our core. Now, now, conversely, God, he's gorgeous to his core. He's beautiful to his core. He's beaming pristine, bright light, pure through and through, true through and through.

And the gap, it's incalculable. It's unimaginable between us and God. He is perfect. And we are not. And yet, we persist in our arrogance and our pride to say, "I'm going to get right with God." Friends, I've been saying I'm going to get my teeth right for 27 years and they still not right.

So, I don't think I'm going to get things right with God if I can't even get things right with my teeth. We got to put this stuff in scale and perspective, man. We talking about we going to find God. You can't even find the coffee bean cuz there's only two left in all of California.

But like, you know what I mean? Like, come on. Who are we fooling talking about? I'mma go to church and tonight I'mma get right with God. What do you do to get right now? You know what you do to get right? You just go, man, and you you tell them you got everything, bro.

That's it. Yeah. Well, no. And then you got to like change stuff, man. You got to like start being right. You got to start like doing stuff right. Wait, so is this like a batting percentage >> or like are we because hold on a second guys to get right with God on our own strength you you got to bat a thousand.

You know that right? Cuz he is a thousand. So you can't righteousness which is right standing with God. It means to see him eye to eye. It means to be on his level. You can't. I can't. We can't. We don't. So God's put on skin and bone in the person and form of Jesus and became a man.

And the scripture says, "He who knew no sin became sin for us so that he would take all of the punishment and judgment in his body for our sin and our heir. And now, not by doing, earning or deserving, but by simply believing, receiving, and accepting, we can be right with God."

And so you can't you can't you can't get right with God. God has to get right with you. And that could change your whole life. I mean, it could change your whole life if you finally started to absorb and observe and allow your thought patterns to follow this pattern.

I can't get right with God. God has to get right with me. And I got good news. He has been getting right with you. The preparations have been made. The work has been completed. It's all available. You, my friend, can become the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus.

You can have a right relationship with God. And you would say, "Well, Judah, why would I want that?" To be honest with you, I got tricked into this and she's gorgeous and she invited me here and she said, "We could go on a date afterwards." So, I'm at the Sabon Theater.

I don't really do church. I don't even know who you are. And you're wearing a wool jacket and a beanie. It's 97 degrees outside. So, I don't know what you're talking about, but like, why am I interested in this? What does it profit a man to gain the whole world but in the process lose his soul?

Am I the only one on earth who feels like the more stuff I get, the leaner my soul gets? I miss being a kid because when you're a kid, you believe someday I'm going to get it and I'm going to be happy. And one of the darkest days of your life is when you get it and you're not happy.

And then all of a sudden there's this deep, dark, sinister space in your soul that goes, "Uhoh." And you go, "Oh." And then but and yet we persist in our culture because I can't believe so and so. Do you hear what they did, bro? They're crazy. They're drugs.

Yeah. It makes sense to me. Makes sense to me. Substances makes sense to me. Crazy. Wild makes I mean it make it makes sense to me because what does it get? you get everything you wanted and then you and then you and then you're and then you're not happy.

So So yeah. So back to why you should listen and maybe for a second dial in for a second because um a right relationship with God, how do I say this? It will give you moments in your soul that nothing else on the earth will give. Here's the deal.

Okay, so like three times today I had euphoric moments with Jesus and I would say they were they lasted like 12 minutes and then they were gone and then I wanted to like be angry and hurt people, you know, whatever. No big deal. But like no, I'm serious.

But I gotta tell you, the scripture says, "Taste and see that the Lord is good." I I texted a friend of mine. He pastors in Tennessee. He tried to call me side stage. I was like, "I'm about to go on stage." He said, "I just want to hear your voice.

I love you. I'm praying for you tonight. It's going to be great." I said, "Man, thank you so much." I said, "I met with Jesus today." And he said, "And there's nothing like it on earth." And I said, "I know." So, I don't know why you think I'm still doing this, but I'm doing this because every once in a while those 12 minutes, oh baby, >> I'm telling it's like it's like for 12 minutes everything makes sense and then it it doesn't in a little bit, but like in that moment, the love, the forgiveness, the alignment I feel seen.

I feel protected. I feel surrounded. I feel his. I feel held. I feel I feel like I matter. I feel like wow. And I'm just telling you, not even a Tesla can do that. Not even a good coffee. Now, now good coffee can go far for your soul.

You know it's true. You ever had like a good cappuccino and you're like, "All right, well, hold up. Maybe I could worship this cuz this is awesome. Like this did something like in my soul." Okay, so listen. I'm not I will I will go there. There are some things like when your team wins like the game they got to win and you needed them to win and they won and they and you're like, "All right, this is pretty much it, you know."

So, I'm not saying there's not. But I'm just saying when you're right with God, basking in the fact that he loves you and he chose you and you're his and you're just in that moment and it's like it's like it's like it's like it's like everything fades and um I feel proud of myself.

I hope that's okay to say. I feel um I feel like I discovered the treasure of the ages and I feel proud of myself and it feels good. I feel like I feel like grateful that I found the thing that's most important in the world. I don't feel arrogant.

I don't feel like if you don't know Jesus and I do that I'm better than you. I actually my heart just aches because I feel like I got someone that if you had him too um you might go through the same stuff in your life but the way you go through it so different so different so um when I say get right with God it's like the most incredible euphoric posture position and experience experience I can ever describe to you when you accept that you are right with God.

I want to take you to arguably one of the most controversial scenes in all of ancient scripture. So much so that if you go on the internet and you go on YouTube, you can watch a lot of people misappropriate this passage. And in fact, the misappropriation of this passage has become increasingly popularized in today's era and culture.

If you're not familiar with the story or you're not familiar with the passage, you're still probably familiar with the story. It is a woman who evidently was caught in the act of having sex with a man she wasn't married to. And if you know the story, this woman probably only covered in a sheet or something of the likes, is brought before Jesus by pastors, religious leaders, and they are telling Jesus, "You need to pulverize her skull with rocks.

She should die by stoning." So says the law of the Torah and scripture. Now, if you know the story, Jesus oddly, almost bizarrely says nothing, falls to his knees or goes to his knees and starts doodling in the dirt. They persist. Hey, what do you say? We think we should kill her.

And this is the part of the story that I have misunderstood and did misunderstand for the majority of my life. And Jesus says, "Whoever um doesn't have any sin, whoever doesn't get happy when other people fail, you throw the first stone." One by one, they drop the stones. up.

You know the story. It says from the oldest to the youngest. Which, by the way, that's how Jesus forgives all your sin. From the oldest sin to the most recent sin, it's completely canceled and all the rocks are dropped. Right? It's pretty awesome. Um, and then and then insert the most misunderstood part of this story.

Jesus. Jesus. Wonderful, gracious Jesus. All the men are gone with their rocks. And Jesus is probably on the ground. And he says to the woman, "Where did everybody go? Where did all your accusers go? Where did they go?" And maybe for the first time, she looks up, moves the hair from her eyes, and she says, "Um, I don't know.

They're all gone." And Jesus says what you'd think he'd say at this scene. This is the part of the scene where you're like, "I love him so much." He says, "I got good news. I don't got any rocks. I don't condemn you." And that's the part where you're like, "I love that."

And then here comes the part that all bibleelving, truthbelieving believers believe is this is good for you. This is like a good teeth cleaning. He says he doesn't get an accent until the latter part of this verse. At first, he's like, "I don't condemn you either." And then he goes, "Now go and sin no more.

I want you to stop sinning. You hear me?" And I'm just teasing. Come on, relax. Some of you are like from North Carolina. You're like, "I'm offended." But um but but so so let me explain this to you. Why is this relevant? Well, because much has been made of this passage, which is to say Jesus is grace and truth.

This is what's been taught. Grace and truth. In fact, people have said he's fully grace and he's fully truth. And yes, that is true. But grace is always in front of truth in all of scripture. Always. Always grace comes before the truth because the ultimate truth is the grace of God.

But here's what's been said. What's been said and I said it and I preached it and I lived it that Jesus forgives the woman. But then he tells her, you got to stop sinning. Insert, I got to get right with God. See that? I got to get right with God.

So imagine preachers like me. Hey church, how are you? So good to see you. Glad you guys are here. Going to go to John 8 tonight. And I want to talk about the truth and I want you to stop sinning. Jesus says to the woman, you're forgiven, but now I want you to stop your lifestyle.

Insert. It's good, pastor. It's good. It's good. I want you to stop it. Now, you're here tonight and you're thinking to yourself, you know, I'm okay. You're not okay. You got to change your life. You got to change your attitude. You got to change your approach. You got to change your thoughts.

You got to change and insert. It's good. It's good. It's good. By the by the way, who who who disagrees with I should stop doing dumb bad stuff? That's hard to disagree with. like, "Yeah, it's probably true." Right? It's like you got yellow teeth and somebody's like, "You should brush them."

And you're like, "That's probably a good point. It's probably a good point. Fair enough." Right? Like, which is why, now think about this. Without knowing it, people like me, in fact, I did this. I made the whole message of Jesus, stop sinning. Which, by the way, I love how we think that like, "Hey, I don't condemn you now.

Stop sinning." The only thing we hear, by the way, when someone's like complimenting us, you ever had one of these moments where they're like, "Hey, honestly, I just think you're a really, really re You're just a confident, good-looking person. Hey, your tone though, it's a little bit disrespectful."

No one goes from those encounters to their friend and go, "Oh my god, I just got the best compliment. They just told me." No, all you hear is the critique. All you hear is, "And so it happened >> in church world." >> All we heard was stop sinning.

All right, everybody. Get right with God. Now, as much as that is logical, as much as that is appealing, here's what we need to admit. It's appealing. You better hear me. It's appealing. Because if I can do it, if I can earn it, if I can work it, if I can make it happen, that's going to make me feel awesome. and I'm going to feel better than other people.

And that feels better than other people. So, what we got to admit is that we actually enjoy feeling that we're better than others. And so, little caveat, we're prone to want to make this about stop sinning. We're pre-programmed that way. We just are. We want to be like, "Okay, I'm going to I'm going to I'm going to get right with God."

And yet, that is arguably one of the most destructive thought patterns and selft talk you can ever have in your entire spiritual journey because it's a farce. It's an illusion and it's not true and it's a dead end and it's tradition and it's religion and it makes the story of Jesus not effective, average and ordinary.

So if you're like me, you're thinking, well then what does go in sin no more mean? If it just doesn't mean go stop sinning, what does he mean? I am so excited to share this with you. I must admit because this changed my life and is changing my life as we speak.

And I get giddy. I'm going to be honest with you. I get really really giddy and I have a lot a lot of stories that I'm just filtering through for sake of time, okay? But I have so many stories where it's like we we still think it's about stop sinning.

Stop sinning. Stop sinning. Stop sinning. And many of us spend more time thinking about our sin than Jesus, >> for instance. Like, for real, we really do. We We spend more time thinking about things we're going to stop rather than the person we love. >> I don't blame you because that's how we're pre-wired.

We're pre-programmed for that. That's we're do good, get good. We behavior modification. This is our culture. This is our society. This is how it works. It is just how it works, friends. It is just how it works except with God. >> That's why this will do more for your soul than anything you can ever acquire or accomplish in your whole journey.

When you can accept and revel in the gifted right relationship you can have with God, it can change everything. So, let's have some fun for a few minutes. Okay? Hopefully, we've been having fun. But riddle me this. You mean to tell me they bring a woman barely covered, caught in the act of having sex with a man she's not married to, and rightfully so, according to the Torah, says she should be stoned.

And they say to Jesus, "What do you think?" He awkwardly, oddly, almost bizarrely kneels and doodles. We're not told what he doodles. If anyone tells you they know what he doodled, they're messing with you. They don't know. We don't know. He just is in the dirt. They press him.

Hey, he gets up. Whoever has no sin, throw the first stone. Goes back down. It's true story. They all drop their rocks. Insert tender music. What a moment. Camera zooms in. particles of dust. Her face, tears smeared on her cheek that's now the dust is connected to and she's she's she's on the street and her face looks up and she wipes her sweaty brow and the hair across her eyes so she can see Jesus and he's down there and the camera zooms in and you can see the little particles of dust and you can see they're breathing a lot of that dust and Jesus says to her, "I don't condemn you either.

And then you mean to tell me that what he says after that is now get it together. Yeah, I know. Good cop, bad cop. It's Hey, hey, how about how about do something with your life? I know. I know. Weird timing. I know. But this isn't working. You You got to You got to put out more effort.

I need you to stop sinning. I love this part because if in fact that's what he means. I can just imagine sarcastically of course all of us going, "Oh, there it is. Oh man, I never thought of that. Shoot. That's it." Jesus God put on skin and bone came down to earth.

Born of a virgin. Guys, that was complicated. Born in a barn, born in a feeding trough. wise men came and gave really expensive jewelry and stuff when he was like a toddler and two years old. Weird, wild, bizarre stuff. By the time this scene happens, he's 30, 31.

It's a lot of effort, a lot of work, a lot of energy. And he comes and his climactic zenith message to the centerpiece of his creation, mankind, is stop it. >> Hey, stop it. I stop. Stop. Wait. Did you say don't do it anymore? That's what I said.

That's it. Guys, he's here. Guess what his message is? What? Stop it. Stop it. So, here's my favorite part. Christians who can't figure out why people around the world are like, "I'm not that interested." And we're like, "What, bro? What do you mean you're not interested? You need Jesus."

Why? Cuz he's going to forgive you. And then what? Well, then you then you commit to work for him for the rest of your life and make good on his investment in you. Yeah, I'm I mean I'm good. What? Bro, you're Are you kid What? And we have deduced the greatest story ever told into working off the debt.

All right. Now, church, now here's things I used to preach. Salvation's free. Sanctification, it's a lot of hard work. Salvation, not a problem. Gifted righteousness, free practical righteousness, it's going to take a lot of hard work. And we came up with these terms to tell people, stop sinning.

Here is the best news I could tell you tonight. Do you know go and sin no more does not mean what you and I hear in the English at all. Look it up. I know you got chat GPT now. You can check every word study I've ever done faster than I can check it.

I know what you got. So do it tonight. Look up the word go. Look up its origins. Look up its background. Find out what it means. Now, oh, there's no screen. I was going to put the Bible up there. Okay, let's put it up over here, which is an absolute pointless exercise whatsoever because none of you can see it, but I can.

So, let's put Matthew or or John 8. Thank you. Um, can you go to verse three? Let's go through the whole context because I'm going to read the story to you and then and then I'm going to explain what go and send the religion scholars and Pharisees led in a woman who had been caught in act of adultery.

They stood her in plain sight of everyone and said, "Teacher, this woman was caught right-handed in the act of deliver adultery." Moses and the law gives orders to stone such a a person. What do you say? They were trying to trap him into saying something incriminating so they could bring charges against him.

Jesus bent down wrote with his finger in the dirt. They kept at him badgering him. He straightened up and said, "The sinless one among you, go first. Throw the stone." Bending down again, he wrote some more in the dirt. Hearing that, they walked away one after another, beginning with the oldest.

The woman was left alone. Jesus stood up and spoke to the woman. Woman, where are they? Does no one condemn you? No one, master. Neither do I. Jesus said, "Now go on your way from now on. Don't sin." Now, I love Eugene Peterson and I love his paraphrase of the Bible, but I want to explain to you this will help.

Look at verse 12. You're not going to believe it. Look at verse 12. I know it changes stories, but look, Jesus once again addressed them. I'm the light. I'm the world's light. No one who follows me stumbles around in the darkness. I provide plenty of light to live in.

There is a reason that verse is right after 11. Scripture interpret scripture. Please hear me. Okay. Now, let's try to make sense of go and sin no more. Because if Jesus really means stop sinning, then actually the thought of getting right with God is accurate, right? And you should spend the rest of your life putting forth effort, energy in trying in your own strength and your own ability and your own merit and your own moral muscle to get right with God.

But if in fact go in sin no more means something completely different then maybe perhaps we have stumbled upon the greatest truth in the history of the world and it can bring you lots of 12 minutes of euphoria. It's amazing. Okay, here's a If Jesus meant go and sin no more, that is sadistic.

It's sadistic. Literally, it's sadistic. Go and sin no more. Well, that's impossible, Jesus. And you know that. You know, I can't move from this life. Furthermore, let's let's dissect this woman who is maybe, let's just say maybe. She's a a woman of the night. Perhaps she is a professional prostitute.

How do you think she got into that line of work? How do you think she got into that lifestyle? What do you think brought her to the point, if even if she's not a professional prostitute, that brought her to the point to be sleeping with another woman's man?

What's her trauma? What's her drama? What's her pain? What's her journey? What has she been through? So now all of a sudden, just because of one encounter with the most incredible person in human history, she is just supposed to stop everything, all the drama, all the trauma, all the backstory, everything she's been through all of her life.

And perhaps if she's a professional prostitute, she might have an entire economy that she's built her life upon. and she might have a condo and a rental and whatever and like this might be a ch. And then Jesus just says now go change everything. Everything. Change your whole life.

Change everything. Change your economy. Change your friends. Change who you run with. Change what you do uh dayto-day. Just go just stop it all. Change it all. Do it all. Okay. See you soon. So the whole gospel well that can't be true. This is how you understand scripture.

That that can't be what he's saying. So if you look it up in the original language, first of all, this word go, one of its original root words, go means to be directed to a very specific destination. Jesus is not saying go, go, go where? Just go anywhere.

Everywhere anywhere go. He's not He's not like just just go. He's saying to her, "Okay, now you're the rest of your life, you have a destination." Okay, let's put this together. I'm getting ahead of myself. Jesus says, "Neither do I condemn you. Now go and sin no more."

So, the first thing that he wants her to understand, and and when I say original language, what I mean is here's the challenge. What we hear and what she heard were two different things. And that's the point I'm trying to make. When this woman heard, "Go and sin no more," she did not hear, "Stop sinning."

That's not what she heard. She heard literally, "You're free. You're forgiven. Everything that has caused you pain and shame, I have forgiven." Now, by the way, you better you better be Jesus talking like this. Okay? You better be Jesus talking like this. But now you are fully free.

Now go live your life fully free. >> But there's an underlying thought here and that is consistent in all the teachings of Jesus is this one thought. Please hear me. Jesus is constantly trying to bring us to the end of ourselves. Insert one of the more significant parts of this night that I need to stop right here and make a caveat and tell somebody the truth.

There are people here tonight under the sound of my voice. You have come to your wits end. Please hear me. You have come to a place emotionally, mentally, spiritually, internally that you've not actually said to many people, but you are literally out of options. You are fatigued from trying and thinking and considering every possible scenario.

You are at your wits end. and you have thought to yourself that you are in a weak place and that you are in a broken place. In fact, you have looked longingly at other people in spots and places and spaces and restaurants and movie theaters that you've gone and you've looked at other people thinking to yourself, what must it be like to have a sense of being full and content and happy because you think of yourself as so empty and so weary and so broken. broen and so weak.

Boy, do I have a message for you. Jesus says to the woman, "I don't condemn you. Go and sin no more." Make no mistake, he's doing what he does in all of his teachings. Remember the one I quoted several minutes ago? It says you can't murder. And everyone's like, "That's right."

He says, "I say if you get angry with somebody, you murdered them." And everyone's like, "Oh, I don't like this preacher. This is not fun at all. What? No. Do Do you see what he's doing? >> He's trying to get his audience not to go out and try.

He's trying to get his audience to give up. >> Did you know Jesus was doing that? He wanted people to go, "What, bro? >> What planet are you on? If I get angry, you know how many people I murdered this morning? You know how many affairs I've had this weekend? >> Like what are you?

He meant it. Some will say preachers say he didn't mean it. No, no, he meant it. He meant it. But what he's looking for is So one observation we can make from Jesus is he's saying to the woman, "Go and sin no more." And she's supposed to say, "I'm sorry.

What? How could I do that? What is it that you speak of? I can't. You expect me to?" And baked into the language, the original language is that Jesus is saying, "Hey, listen. You have been completely absorbed and forgiven. Now move from here and find out who and why and where you were forgiven.

Um one one one uh scholar says I think most aptly put is what Jesus means is you have been fully forgiven. Now go find out why you are fully forgiven. Like live the rest of your life going, "How did this happen?" The word go there means a specific destination.

And here is the whole point of my whole message. You can't get right with God. God can only get right with you. And the essence of my whole message is that um Jesus is the destination. So when it says go, it's it's it's it's by him, it's through him, and it's to him.

How do I say this? So, the best thing you can do if you have an addiction right now, please hear me. I'm going to try to make I'm going to make sense of this a little more. If you are an addict right now of anything, and everything about my makeup is I can easily be an I can be an addict of anything.

I'm currently an addict of yogurt amongst many other things. It's true. It's just my personality. I got I told you one of not this therapist, but I have another therapist. Um I really do. and and she said, "Promise me you'll never do cocaine because you'll love it." And I was like, "All right, now it's all I can think about."

But, you know, like she really did that. There's no word of a lie. I was like, "That really is problematic. Why did you do that to me?" You know, I really never considered cocaine until right now, but um I'm fine. I haven't done any. I swear. So, like if you if you if you're an addictive person or you're currently addicted to something, listen, therapy, work, all that.

I just wrote a book with my therapist. You think I got a problem with therapy? Don't give me I listen, I go to a dentist. I go to a chiropractor. Okay. I go, do I believe God can heal my body and my teeth? Yes. But I still there's practitioners who have a skill set that God's given them a gift and they can help with things.

My hope is ultimately in Jesus and him working through a number of different means to make me a buoyant soul. So I believe in therapy, but I don't worship therapy. I worship Jesus. >> The magic in my life is not my therapist. It's Jesus. And the thing about magic is he can just do stuff nobody else can do.

He could just change stuff nobody else can change. >> So with my addictions, do you know what I do? Here's the cool thing about Jesus. You don't have to hide anymore. And so you can tell them everything. And what I when it says when I say Jesus is the destination, the addiction has not kept me from arriving in life.

Please hear me. God help me. explain this. There are people in this room you think your addiction, your sin in your air is keeping you from arriving wherever that is. Somebody better hear me. I promise you I'm going somewhere. Please hear me. Please hear me. We have this thing in our culture where it's like, I'm going to be enlightened eventually.

What I'm telling you is I believe the ultimate enlightenment in all of life is having a right relationship with God who has revealed himself in the person of Jesus who is that almost fell off who is done that before who is alive and so so so I have well and truly I feel like I've arrived don't take that the wrong way um so like accomplish complishments ment they're they're dwarfed because he's I'm I've arrived.

I'm at the destination. So now my addictions, my shortcomings, my weaknesses, I work from arrival, not for arrival. So I don't see my shortcomings as keeping me from having arrived. I've already arrived. >> I can't lose. >> Does that make sense? Like it's like I've already won all the championships.

And so it's it's not like I'm trying to get in shape to win. I've already won. And from that place of having won, I'm like, "All right, all right. Let's get it together. God, help me." And what I say is I say, "This is on you." And I want you to hold God to this.

Listen to me. This is not about mind over matter. You need to tell God, if your life is riddled with bad thoughts, you need to tell the destination. You going to help me? Are you going to show up? Are you going to meet me because I can't do this?

You are no match for what's out there in these streets. You're not a match for that friend. You're adorable. I think you're cute. You think you're a match for what has crippled generations of men and women? You we do. We suddenly think we're the one generation that greed and lust and hate and pride and division is going to be overcome because we have enough therapy.

We we pride ourselves that by enlightenment. No, no, no, no. I need a savior >> who can step into my soul. And even if life doesn't make sense all the time, somebody, it's got to make sense some of the time. >> And all I'm telling you is in that moment in the dirt, everything made sense for that woman.

And Jesus said 
((music playing))
 he's inviting her to come with him. Okay, that's why verse 12, he says, look what verse 12 says. If you could put it up there, John 8, I'm the world's light. No one who follows me stumbles around in darkness. I provide plenty of light to live in.

Plenty of light to live in. Plenty of light to live in. If we believed we were right with God, we'd be more open about our sin. We'd live in light and not in the shadows. We'd tell people the truth. That's why I want to tell you everything I struggle with.

But there's a thing called discretion. And I can't do that all the time. But I feel inclined to do that as a preacher now. I feel like I want to tell you like I got anger problem and I got a lust problem and I got a cigar problem and I got all kinds of problem but I live in the light and I keep going back to the destination and I tell him, "Hey, this is on you.

You got to change me." And all I can tell you is is he keeps he keeps changing me. I'll end with this verse. Matthew 11. You've heard this verse before, but it's the same word, by the way. The word come and go. Go and sin no more and come to me.

It's all the same. Are you tired, worn out, burned out on religion? Come to me. Get away with me. You'll recover your life. I'll show you how to take a real rest. Preached a message one time called Walk with me. Work with me. Watch how I do it.

Walk with me. Work with me. Watch how I do it. Learn the unforced rhythms of grace. I won't lay anything heavy or ill-fitting on you. Keep company with me and you'll learn to live freely and lightly. Um, here's the best news. You can't get right with God, but he can get right with you, and he has.

So, as I sit up here tonight, 46 years old, staring 47 in the face next month. Here we go. There's things in this life I still want. I'll be honest. Places I still want to go. Some golf scores I still want to shoot. Some dreams I still have.

But I got to tell you, those 12 minutes, baby, sometimes they're eight, sometimes they're 20. They're never like two or three hours. Some people tell me I was with God for three hours and I'm like, how do you do that? It's it's just little bursts for me. It's like he gives me these little bursts, you know?

I'm I'm not this is not hyperbole. This is not cliche. I'm telling you the greatest truth I've ever known, I've ever encountered, I've ever experienced, is that when I think about him, not myself. When I revel in the fact that I've been gifted, I've been grafted in. He just handed me this.

I'm his. I'm accepted. I'm loved. I get these moments. I get these moments. I get these moments and my marriage makes sense and all my kids make sense and my friendship and the pain and the and and and the and the and it just I'm like, okay. And my dad used to say this.

He said, "Life is like you're on a walk and suddenly, unexpectedly, the fog lifts." And for a few moments, it's like you see him You see the beauty and the wonder and the depth and the texture and the aesthetic of his glory and his plan for your life and a purpose and all that you're going to do and all that you've been and everything he's done and you're like and then the fog settles back in.

I wish it wasn't like that. I remember being like 12 years old hearing my dad preach and I'd be like that sucks. I don't want a foggy life. And then you realize like I don't know feels a lot like life. But I got to tell you when the fog lifts I will give anything for that.

I'll give anything cuz I've seen him and I've experienced him and he is what I have been looking for my whole life man. My whole life. my whole life. You don't have to get right with God because you can't. But he's going to get right with you. So tonight, I invite you to simply acknowledge and accept that he who knew no sin became sin so that you and I by simply believing and receiving can become the righteousness of God through Jesus Christ.

What does that mean? I have an unbroken, unbroken, immovable, unshakable connection to God forever. And he loves me and he's proud of me and he he has a sense of humor and we have a good time. Great theologian Carl Bar said, "Laughter is the closest thing to the grace of God."

I think some of you need to laugh more. Some of you haven't laughed in a long time. Life has become so serious. Why are Christians the most serious people in this country? That's weird to me. It's weird. I'm serious. And I don't think it's a result of Jesus.

I think it's a result of tradition. We taking ourselves so serious down here, guys. Everybody relax. This is going to be over before you know it. Sweetie, you need to brush your teeth, get some sleep, and enjoy a good cappuccino. Like, come on. Come on. What is all this for anyways?

But connection, I love you. I really do. I think everybody in this room, I think what you've accomplished is amazing. And I think it's incredible. But I think at best, in light of everything, it's cute. But what holds the weight is him in connection to him. So, this is one of those sermons that like um I hope makes more sense as you think about it.

But I'm going to pray this week cuz I'll say this. I'll say this. I have had more acute concentrated moments with Jesus before this Wednesday in the last three days than I can remember in my entire career of preaching. That's true. It was wild. I had a friend call me today and I picked up the phone.

I was ugly crying when my friend called. Like ugly cry. I just was like I told my friend my body's another friend my body is buzzing like I'm shaking. I can't I feel goodness in my bones. I feel his beauty on my body. Like this is bizarre. I'm not making this up.

It's happened a few times on the stage where it's like it's just an overwhelming sense of goodness. Like he's good. It's all going to be good. He's always good. Everything he does is good. It's going to work out good. It's going to work in my favor. He's going to turn it for good.

What was meant for not good, he's going to make good and this thing's just going to work out and he's in control and I can trust him and I can take my hands off the wheel and I can sit back, relax, and and immediately Christians don't like that.

Oh, you need to stop s You can't do stop it. Stop it. Stop. Stop sinning. Stop it. Stop. Stop sinning. You can't do that. Let's just trust him. I love you and I believe in you. And that might sound like a weird thing to say, but I'm I'm I'm done.

I'm done. And I'm holding off tears cuz you're like, Judah, if you don't cry, that would be like the first time in like 6 years you haven't cried. All right, relax. But um at some point this afternoon, I was praying and I started to think about not any specific person, but a bunch of people, if that makes any sense.

And it dawned on me that some of you haven't heard these words in a long time. I love you. I think you're incredible. I'm proud of you. You're amazing. I love who you are. You are something else. Man, you're talented. There is nobody like you. I love being your friend.

I'm so grateful I get to know you. It dawned on me that um some of you haven't heard that in a long time. And then it dawned on me that some of you haven't heard that from people that you need to hear it from. And I'm sorry for that.

But that's my gift to you from God tonight. I love you. I'm proud of you. I really think you're amazing. I love watching you do what you do. Man, you can light up a room. Wow, your eyes are beautiful. I love your personality. I think you're hilarious. Hanging out with you is so much fun, man.

I'm so glad we get to be friends. I hope you can take that to heart. I hope that can affect your thoughts because I do think that's how God thinks about you. Whether you like it or not, whether you want him to be that hard football coach or not, he's not.

He's a softy and he loves you and he's proud of you. So God, thank you um for making us right with you and saving us from trying from us trying to make ourselves right. Truth is, we're we're we're um we are worn out and we are weary and we are overwhelmed and we are undone and we're at the end of ourselves and we need you.

But this is what you do. You meet us here and you meet us now. And I thank you for that. I thank you for that. I love you, oh great God. There is nobody like you. We love you.