Greater Than Your Heart | Judah Smith

1 John chapter 3, look at verse um verse 19. We'll put verse 19 up on the screen. And we've titled this series friend of Jesus, but I want to again take a break. I'm going to call this a bonus sermon. And I may preach a different sermon at 10:30, but we'll call this a bonus sermon.

I want to talk uh about your heart and the relationship that you have with your heart or or with your soul. Again, John writes, "One of the best friends of Jesus in his three and a half year earthly ministry, has this extraordinary experience with the Lord Jesus Christ."

Again, now he's an old man, Grandpa John. He's living in ancient Ephesus. And he writes this. He says, "By this we shall know that we're of the truth, and we will reassure our heart before him. Bring assurance to our heart before God." And this is one of the most profound scriptures to me that John ever wrote.

He says, 'Now whenever our heart condemns us, whenever our heart condemns us, and it will and it has, God is greater than our heart, comma, and he knows everything. God is greater than our heart. That's essentially the one phrase I just want us to think around. I want us to kind of come around and put our thoughts together and ask the Holy Spirit to speak to us and maybe reference some other scriptures.

God is greater than our heart. Would you join me in prayer in the brief moments before we begin? God, thank you. We we dedicate these minutes now thinking on your word, thinking on this profound statement written by John, inspired by you. We ask that you would meet us and encounter us.

Lord, we are all collectively yet individually willing to admit that we need help. We need you. We cannot navigate this life on our own. So meet with us, experience us, encounter us, and show us your love and your grace and your goodness. And thank you for a big big win today uh against the orange helmets in Jesus name.

And everyone said, >> "Amen." >> Can can you remember your least favorite job that you've ever had? If you're on staff here at the church, shut up. Um, but can you [clears throat] I remember one time my dad asked people who needed a raise if they would stand and several uh of our pastors stood and uh boy that got awkward.

My dad's like, "Let's pray." Except for these guys right here. Um but uh yeah, what was your least favorite job? Um, I I've only had two jobs thanks to my mom and her strength in leading my destiny and um directing my destiny. But right before I got hired here at church, um I was uh just out of high school and I took a job at a golf course.

In fact, with my cousin John, who is now the director of our intern experience and a pastor and executive leader in church. We we worked together at a golf course. John, were you I think you were full-time. Were were you full-time? No, we were both part-time. It also gave us free golf and and I love it.

That that was not my least favorite job. That was one of my favorite jobs. It's also a job where John saved my life one morning when I was driving. I should never drive. Can I be honest? I'm a horrible driver. I hate driving and I get distracted because I don't want to drive.

I want to talk and I want to hang out and the road just gets in the way of a great conversation. So, it's not good. So, worked at a golf course and I'm 19 years old. My mom comes just you you need to quit your job at the golf course.

We have an opening as a custodian here at the church. I want you to be a custodian while you're an intern. It'll be good for you. Okay. So, my life's really uncomplicated. I'm doing what I'm doing because I just did what my mom told me to do. Okay.

That's kind of summarizes my you think I'm joking. So, anyways, someone laughing, that's a good joke. It wasn't supposed to be funny. So, um I took the job. Of course, mom said, "Look, you're going to be a custodian. It's going to be great and you'll volunteer with the youth department with Pastor Jude and you'll be an intern.

You'll love it. It'll be awesome. So, I'm like, great. One of the shifts he gave me was the Sunday night shift here in this building. Okay. We had just recently purchased this facility and it was uh it was it was in construction and remodeling and and and that sort of thing.

And whether you know this or not, this building here at our Kirkland location is 133,000 square feet. Am I correct? We I think we have an A-wing, a B-wing, and a C-wing. Is this correct? We have an A, a B, and a C-wing. Okay. And um at the time, our church was a couple thousand people.

I'm 19 years old. And I got the Sunday night shift. Now, the Sunday night shift, if you can if you can imagine, was after all of you left. I was alone with two other custodians. I think there was three of us who were assigned to clean 133,000 square ft.

Okay. And and and and and uh how do I say this? You guys are messy. So come on. But um I remember the experience and I that's back I would listen to so many sermons and we would we would turn it into a game and a competition and I was not the best custodian, but I had the most fun.

I can guarantee you that. Okay. And we we'd flip coins for who had to clean the women's bathrooms and stuff like that. Um, but something odd started happening when Sunday would roll around after being a custodian with the Sunday night shift. I would kind of um I would kind of begrudge pe so many people in the building.

I would see so many people coming in and I'd be like, "Oh, this is going to be a nightmare, right?" like the lineup of women at the bathroom and I'm like there's a line. Oh no. Right. And I'm thinking this is going to take forever. Right. I mean I don't know.

We would start at like 7:30 or 8:00 p.m. and work into the the wee hours of the morning trying to clean 133,000 square feet. Only in less than a week later it would be trashed all over again. Okay. And maybe you feel this way as a parent. Picking up your house, especially if you have small children like us, picking up your house is for 30 minutes of sanity and then you've got to start all over again, right?

Like it's it's it's it's life. Now, I started thinking about this because I was looking at this scripture and I thought, boy, this scripture of course speaks so much of what to do when you feel like giving up. What's going to be the antidote or the agent when you feel like giving up?

My job as a custodian here in this building at this church is a pretty solid metaphor for our spiritual journey. And what I mean by that, have you ever intended to say, you know what, I'm really going to follow Jesus. I'm really going to make a commitment to be the spiritual person that I want to be, that I know God wants me to be.

I'm really going to become disciplined and focused and godly and holy and moral and pure. I'm really going to put my mind to this. I'm going to lean into this space. I'm going to start attending church. I'm going to underline verses in my Bible. Right? Like, I'm going to clean up my life, as they say.

Maybe it feels like after all the hard work you put in, you finally cleaned 133,000 square feet of your soul and your heart and your spirit. And you're like, "Oh my word, I'm doing it. I'm making progress. Look at this. This is amazing. I am becoming the person I've always wanted to be.

This is incredible." And then in one day or one weekend in Vegas or one bad decision, 133,000 square feet is trashed again. I'll never forget the feeling on Sunday nights, church would dismiss and everyone would go home and happy and jolly and and the building would be quiet and trashed and you'd stand there out in that lobby with three of us.

We look like the Ghostbusters with the backpack vacuums and we're standing in the lobby and we're like, "Oh, dear God." Right? Like Lord, transport us now. Right? I mean, just you want Cinderella magic. Where are the mouses? Can they help? Is it mouses or mice? But can they help?

Like don't judge me. And it's that overwhelming feeling like I don't again I can't clean it again. It's too much. And if I do clean it again, it'll just get messy again. Have you ever felt that about your life? Like I'm going to make all this effort. I'm going to try so hard.

And eventually you COME TO THE ALL-WISE conclusion that it's it's pointless. It's useless. I can't keep living like this. I can't keep attempting to be spiritual and attempting to be godly and attempting to be holy only to see myself take two steps forward but consistently three steps back.

Do you know there are people this morning who considered coming to the coming to church and the reason they are not here this morning is because their mind and their heart and their soul is telling them it's pointless. It's useless. It doesn't work on you. It works for others, but it doesn't work for you.

You you you are not that person. You could never be as spiritual as him or her. Stay in bed. Relax. It's Christmas season anyways. Why would you go to church? This is a season where we're celebrating the birth of Jesus. Sleep in. Have you ever Have you ever felt like giving up?

If you haven't, you are either a clone or a drone. But for the rest of us, we're humans, aren't we? And this morning, I'm not talking about um necessarily, you know, giving up at your job or giving up at your workouts or your routines. I'm talking about spiritually giving up.

Or maybe some of you have gone even to the length of seriously considering giving up your life on earth. I'm I'm I'm I'm I'm done. It's an interesting time of year because it is an emotional time of year. It just is. Christmas is an emotional time of year.

And I was on my way to Los Angeles on Wednesday, as I do, and preparing another portion of scripture. And I just felt again reading this verse that we need to talk about what it feels like when you're so way behind spiritually, when you're way too far gone, way too late for you, you might as well give up.

It's pointless. It's useless. You want to keep living like this like a hypocrite. You want to attend that church. You want to get involved with the community. You want to do this outreach. Why? Because you feel bad about the real life that you live. And if people only knew what you did last night and here you are on Sunday morning, who do you think you are?

This is this is ridiculous. This is a facade. You're a fake. This you need to get out of here. If you haven't experienced that, you will. How encouraging is that? Merry Christmas. God bless. You will. All of us will. I was talking to some guys last night and I said, and I don't know how you can put a a percentage to this, but I would say probably 35% of the time, 35% of the time, I do not feel like standing on this stage.

Not because I don't love preaching. I just I feel completely disqualified and completely tired and exhausted with my own shortcomings, weaknesses, and inconsistencies. I just want to I want to walk in and just I don't know, have someone spiritual like Leon speak and just, you know, I just don't feel like speaking.

You ever just felt like I I'm done being me. I'm done trying so hard. It's pointless. I keep having these challenges or these struggles or these difficulties. And you feel like you're flat on your back or you feel like you're flat on your face and you feel like, I don't know if I can get up this time.

Can I ask you an important question? Why will you get up next time? Or maybe you're down right now. What will cause you to get up again? And I don't I don't understand a lot about life and I consider myself still to be reasonably young, 37 years old, married 16 years and three kids.

But I I I have witnessed something on earth and that is that generally people who do well on this planet are people for whatever reason who just know how to get up. >> They just get up. >> The people who because we're all going to fall in one way or another.

And the people who generally do okay on this planet are people who know how to get up even when there are some people around them who hope they stay down. Are you going to be the kind of person that gets up? And the question is if you say I am, why why are you going to be the kind of person that that can get up, that can make a comeback, that can rise again, that can take another step and have another go? though the 133,000 square ft that you're responsible for is trashed all over again.

You are going to put on your Ghostbuster backpack vacuum and you're going to clean it up again and you're going to trust God again and you're going to put one foot in front of the other and you're going to take it a day at a time and believe that you can do all things through Christ who strengthens you.

Why are you going to get up? Of course, this is what John is talking about. Remember the context. He's talking about this extraordinary, extensive life of love that we're called to live that looks like Jesus. And of course, this verse comes to our aid because we all understand that when we venture, when we even begin to say, "Okay, I'm going to live a selfless life of unconditional love for people who are not so lovely and don't deserve my love or possibly per chance have hurt me."

You are going to fail at this venture. You are going to have days where you do not love well. And if you don't love well, you don't live well. You're going to have these days where your heart is going to tell you that you're a fake, that you're a crook, you're not real, and you're not a Jesus person, you're not a Jesus guy, you're not a Jesus gal, and your heart is going to condemn you, and you're going to feel down.

Notice what John says. Whenever our heart condemns us, that about sums it up. How many know your heart can condemn you whenever >> and for whatever? >> All of a sudden, out of nowhere, you have really been clicking on all cylinders, crossing every tea and dotting every eye.

And then here comes your heart to preach you a mini little sermon inside your soul and starts talking to you. You know what's crazy about the heart? It's the nearest, dearest, closest voice in your being. Certainly the most familiar. The truth is, you know, people like, "Does that person talk to themselves?"

Yeah. Yeah. Welcome to the party. We all do. We all have conversations sometimes subconsciously with ourselves. You start faltering or you start missing some of the things that you have committed to do spiritually. And then here whenever here comes the heart. And boy, if you'll podcast your heart, it will preach to you consistently.

It'll just start telling you stuff about who you really are. Whenever our heart condemns us, John says God is greater than our heart. >> Now, that's interesting statement to me. God is greater than our heart. It's as if we actually needed to know that. Like no verse says God's greater than your hands.

Because I've never wondered if my hands are greater than God. No scripture says God is greater than your career. No scripture says God is greater than your feet or your hair or your No. It's interesting. John feels inspired by the Holy Spirit to delineate clearly in scripture that God is greater than your heart.

Why? You know why? Because oftentimes your heart feels like the most powerful force in the universe. And your heart would love to tell you that nothing and no one is greater than me. I'm your heart. You better listen to me. I'm telling you the truth. What's your heart?

It's tough to define and scholars would agree that thousands of years has been discrepancy. The heart, the soul, you know, the center of your being. What is it? But for sake of conversation and for sake of I should say for sake of monologue not dialogue but that you're like this is a when do I start talking but for for sake of what where we're here and what we're talking about let's call it the mind the will and the emotions your heart the mind the will and the emotions your mind wants you to think that it is the most powerful ful force in your being.

It's your thoughts. What's more powerful than your thoughts? And your thoughts want you to think on HOW POWERFUL YOUR THOUGHTS ARE. And so when your thoughts START WHEN JUST YOU EVER HAD those random thoughts, all of a sudden just pop in your mind. You're like, I am so glad I don't have a reader board on my forehead because IF I DID, WOO, I'D BE embarrassed right now.

But like, where did that thought come from? And all of a sudden that thought leads you to the other thought that maybe the thought about God and Jesus is not real or at least not real to you because of the thoughts that you're having. And all of a sudden your heart starts to condemn you and tell you that you are not legitimate.

Your mind your will your heart is it's your will. It's the seat of decisions. Have you ever thought to yourself, there's no way I am a true Jesus follower based on my succession of decisions? My decisions are truth. My decisions are reality. They are what they are. I did this.

I went there. I made this decision. I made this move. I made this this error. And this it's a it's it's real. It's fact. It's my decision. And your heart says, "That's right. It's real. It's more real than anything in that book. It's more real than anything you've heard at church.

It's more real than anything you believed about Jesus. Your decision is your decision. It defines who you are and where you're going to go and your destiny and your future. And you need to face it and accept it and realize it. And if you don't, you are a fake and you're lying to yourself.

Oh, that's true. Yeah, it's true. And let's take it a step further. Your emotions. What I mean, come on. Do we not live in 2015? What is more real than how I feel? There's nothing MORE LIKE HIGHER THAN the truth of feelings in today's world. IT'S 2015. WHO'S GOD?

MY FEELINGS. And so I am not I'm going to keep it real. I'm going to keep it real, man. I don't feel it. Had an hour and a half conversation recently with a friend who basically their their whole issue with God is I never feel him. I don't feel it.

I don't feel it. And it reminded me of my cousins, right? My my three little cousins, Jerry, Jesse, and Jake McKenna. Okay. My mom's sister, Pastor Tammy, the City Church, San Diego. I think they're like 11, eight, and six. She says, "Today, you're going to feel God, boys."

Okay, my aunt. She's amazing. Okay, so she lines up her only three boys. Okay, she lines up. She goes, "Okay, you're going to close your eyes. I'm going to pray for you, and you're going to feel God. You're going to experience Jesus right here in your mom's house. you're going to experience Jesus.

So Jerry's like 11 years old, little Jerry. He closes his eyes, right? He's a firstborn. He's a pleaser. Tears start streaming down his eyes, right? He goes, "Mom, I see Jesus. I feel him. He's got his arms around me." She goes, "That's it. That's Jesus." Down to the youngest one, Wendle Jake, named after my dad, right?

He's the darling of the family. He's a superstar, right? He's a bit of an actor. And so he closes his eyes and tears start coming down. HE GOES, "MOM, I FEEL JESUS. He's out. I mean, I'm I'm I'm CLIMBING IN HIS LAP. I'M I'M SITTING IN HIS LAP.

I SEE JESUS." She goes, "It's that's Jesus, the middle boy." Ironically, somewhat named after me in the middle, Jesse. I call him Rooster. He's like 8 years old. He's standing there. Finally crosses his arms. She goes, "Jesse." He opens his eyes and goes, "I DON'T FEEL NOTHING. I DON'T FEEL NOTHING, MOM."

And that would be the rest of us. Okay? We we don't feel nothing a lot of the time. And whatever WE FEEL OR DON'T feel is what? Well, that's that's truth. That's truth. AND TO DENY MY FEELINGS WOULD BE to deny who I am at my core. And of course, if I have feelings consistently in a particular direction or way, that proves that is who I am and that is my identity.

And for me to alter my feelings or question my feelings or or suppress my feelings, I would be completely incomplete and inconsistent and disingenuine. And I won't do that because my feelings are truth. Whoa. The problem with someone like me, if feelings become God, I will follow the most fickle God in human history.

I am fundamentally emotionally unstable. My wife finds it somewhat attractive and it makes for good romantic moments. But I mean, well, wasn't it the the revolutionary Martin Luther who said one of my dad's favorite quotes because my dad was emotional just like me. Feelings come and feelings go.

Feelings are deceiving. My warrant is the word of God. None else is worth believing. God is greater than how you feel. >> WHOA. >> YOU YOU KNOW, WE WE LIVE IN A FUNNY CULTURE because have you ever heard this? Follow your heart. That might be the worst ADVICE AMERICA HAS EVER GIVEN TO THE WORLD.

FOLLOW YOUR HEART. I don't we DON'T EVEN KNOW [screaming] WHAT THAT MEANS, RIGHT? BUT TRANSLATION, what it means is follow your feelings. That is the worst blueprint for an existence on this earth. Follow your feelings. Follow your heart. CAN I GO ON RECORD TO SAY I DON'T even know my heart.

THE OLD PROPHET JEREMIAH, JEREMIAH 17:9, says the heart is wicked. The heart lies all the time. And furthermore, who even knows their heart? We don't. I don't even know myself. Have you ever been surprised by yourself? You're like, "Oh, I didn't know that was in there." I don't think anyone saw.

We're good. All right. Praise God. Right? Like we what a mystery. WHAT A CONUNDRUM WE ARE AS HUMAN BEINGS. Wasn't it Paul in Romans 7? WHO'S WHO DESCRIBED this conundrum? who described this mystery of our being and our heart. He says, "I'm in this weird place. What I don't want to do, I end up doing.

AND WHAT I WHAT I WANT TO DO, I DON'T DO I WHAT I AM SO CONFUSED." PAUL SAYS, "WHO CAN DELIVER ME FROM THIS BEING OF SIN? I don't even I'm not even doing what I want to do. I feel like a slave to my own emotions and impulses and willpower and brain power.

I I I what is wrong with me down here? So John wants to set the record straight. God's greater than your heart. Oh, thank God. He's greater than my foolish thoughts. He's greater than my dumb decisions. HE'S GREATER THAN MY EMBARRASSING IMPULSES. He's greater. He's transcendent. He's bigger.

He's beyond. He's before my my heart. Man, that gets exciting. You mean God's God's thoughts about me are more powerful than my thoughts about me. That's right. >> That's right. The Psalmist said, "God, your thoughts towards me are more numerous than the sand on the seashore." That's a poetic way of saying that God thinks about you more than you think about you.

And his thoughts about you are flawless and perfect. And I would suggest um using his transcendent thoughts about you to trump your fickle thoughts about you. No one ever told me growing up and say, "Read your Bible." But I'm starting to understand what it is. What it is is you need to read God's thoughts about you because God's thoughts about you could transform you and you could end up being the person you've always wanted to be.

And so if you can get those thoughts on these finite thoughts, these infinite thoughts, these eternal thoughts, these flawless thoughts, these infallible thoughts, you can get them on your fractured thoughts and your broken thoughts. And you will be renewed by the transformation of how you think because God thoughts have become permanent and pre prevalent on your thoughts.

AND YOU BECOME A DIFFERENT PERSON. YOU become transformed. >> Reading your Bible's got nothing to do with just, you know, it's good, you know, principle of living. No, it's because my thoughts are haunting me >> and they're telling me stuff that is not true. So, I go to this book, Thoughts from God, and boy, they if nothing else, they just they calm my ridiculous fractured thoughts that lead me to a life of air.

While God's decisions are greater than my decisions for my life, if I simply will trust and accept what Jesus has done, and that may very well be a decision, but it is more than anything, it's an acceptance and a receiving. The decision that Jesus made 2,000 years to go to the cross trumps any dumb decision I've ever made.

God is greater than my than my heart. Wow. Do you believe that God is greater than your heart? To me, this is why I'm going to get up again. >> When I'm down and my heart wants me to stay down, I'm going to rem I'm going to remind myself that God is greater than my heart.

I love that comma because Eugene Peterson translates, "He knows everything as he knows you better than you know yourself." Isn't that amazing? It's like you can get up again. Why? Because God's greater than your heart. And by the way, don't don't take yourself so seriously. You don't even know yourself.

But God does. You can get back up again. What's that old proverb? Proverb 24 16. Though a righteous man falls seven times, he will rise again. You know why I think that wise sage used the number seven in that though a righteous man falls seven times. Seven. The number seven is very significant in biblical narrative.

It means it's a number of completion. A number of perfection. You know what I think is being said here? Though a righteous person falls completely completely. I mean you fell bad. I don't mean you stubbed your toe or you have a spiritual hangail. I mean you have a fracture.

You have a spiritual fracture. You have completely fallen. He will rise >> again. The key word here I believe is righteous. Though a righteous, though the righteous completely fall, they will rise again. that word righteous now because what Jesus has done in the free gift of Jesus Christ now because of what he accomplished for us on the cross of Calvary that word righteous now speaks to the big idea of the gift we have received in Jesus again we're simply talking about why will you get back up and if nothing else I want to tell you why I think you should get back up why God thinks you should get back up and certainly this is how I'm going to get back up though the righteous word righteous speaks of the free gift that we have in Jesus. 2 Corinthians 5:21, probably a verse I almost say every single Sunday when we gather because it is so imperative that we accept, receive, and believe all that Jesus has done.

For he who knew no sin became sin so that we might become the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus. The gospel is simple. It's became and become. It's that simple. Became and become. He became sin so that we become righteous. And now he took our rightful place of judgment and death and separation and isolation from God so that we might draw near as friends of God.

And now we are made right with God and we are accepted and we are loved and we are approved. And there is a permanent smile on the face of God towards us. His face is shining upon us and he's permanently pleased with us because my life is now hidden into the perfection of Jesus Christ and the finished work of the cross.

Jesus did not say there is yet more to do and die. He ((music playing)) said, "It is finished." And he breathed his last and he died on that cross. I am righteous. I am righteous. Not based on my resume or my performance, but on his resume and his performance. I was not made right with God by my deeds.

I cannot be made unright with God by my deeds. It is simply a sheer gift that I accept according to faith. Though the righteous completely fall, they will rise again. Why? BECAUSE I STILL HAVE TWO LEGS to stand on. How? Because I have been made righteous. NOT by a weekend, not by an evening, not by a dumb decision or a good decision.

I WAS MADE RIGHTEOUS BECAUSE 2,000 YEARS AGO, THE PERFECT FLAWLESS GOD MAN JESUS CHRIST WHO CAME INTO THE EARTH IN BETHLEHEM IN A MANGER. THIS SUPERNATURAL PHENOMENON, WE CELEBRATE CHRISTMAS NOT BECAUSE THERE WAS A BABY IN A MANGER, BUT BECAUSE THAT BABY BECAME A MAN AND THAT MAN NEVER SINNED, NOT ONCE.

AND HE TOOK THE SIN. HE TOOK THE FALL AND THE SIN OF HUMANITY SO THAT ALL WHO WILL BELIEVE IN THAT BOY THAT BECAME A MAN AND DIED ON A CROSS CAN BE MADE WHOLE AND RIGHTEOUS BEFORE THEIR CREATOR GOD. So I'm going to get up again BECAUSE I'M STILL RIGHTEOUS.

EVERYONE ACCORDING TO THE GOSPEL OF JESUS CHRIST. NOW, IF YOU'LL ONLY ACCEPT THIS GIFT, YOU WILL HAVE PERMANENT PERMISSION TO GET UP AGAIN, no matter what you've DONE. NOW, ABOUT THIS TIME IN A TALK LIKE THIS, everybody starts singing, I like this sermon. This is one of my favorites.

This is a good one. But I want to remind you that when I say you can rise again, I also mean the person who hurt you can rise again. ((music playing)) >> Now, I'm going to be honest with you. Church is famous. We are famous that WHEN PEOPLE FALL, WE LIKE to gather around them and inspect their fallen state.

We don't want to gather around them to lift them up. We want to gather around them. In fact, if they try to get up too fast, we say, "You better stay down. You better learn something." Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. Don't go. Don't get you get up too quick, you get a little arrogant.

You better stay down. Wait, did you see so and so? They They are back serving in the church. What? I What? That is inappropriate. This message is great when you apply it personally, but I'd like you for a moment to apply it to the person across town or across the row who you hope kind of stays down.

And if they walk with a limp for the rest of their life, you're like, "Uh-huh, you better. It's a reminder what you did to me." No. No. What if we were the kind of community, not like the men with rocks around the woman caught in adultery, which is indicative of so many believers.

We gather around ((music playing)) while someone's down to say, "That's right." But what if we gathered around ((music playing)) and said, "Come on, but I just did it. I know you're going to you're going to you're going to get up. Let's go. ((music playing)) Here we go. God loves you. I love you. We're going to take another step.

We're going to move forward. And don't ((music playing)) you give up. What if we were that kind of community? I'm telling you, it's going to get messy. I'm telling you, your mind, your will, and your emotions will start playing tricks on you, ((music playing)) and you say, "Man, this is getting crazy up in City Church, man.

We're letting anybody get back up. We're telling everybody they're righteous." And we we we're like applying the gospel to everybody. And I just think that's kind of scary. I'll end with this verse, I promise. And then I'll be done. And and then you go home. I was going to say a pot roast, but this isn't 1988.

But um you have pot roast. I miss pot roast. Mom, we should do one of those. I could make one. But no, mom's here. Check out this verse in John John chapter 10. Same guy, ((music playing)) right? The apostle of love. Look what he says. Actually, he quotes Jesus. He quotes Jesus's saying, and I promise I'll end right here.

John chapter 10 verse 21 ((music playing)) 29. He says, "My father," quoting Jesus now in red, "my father who has ((music playing)) given them to me." That is all of you. Those who simply believe, you have ((music playing)) been given as a gift to the father, comma, he is greater than all my father.

Boy, that sounds just like 1 John 3:20. God is greater than your heart. Let's take it a step further. Jesus says, GOD IS GREATER THAN ALL. And no one is able to snatch them out of my father's hands. ((music playing)) >> No one. Which tells me that this imputed righteousness, just like history records that Jewish men, fathers particularly, would lay their hands upon their children and they would bless them in the name of the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob and they would invoke the blessing that came that was from God and he would they would bless their children.

Many Jewish fathers do it. I do it every night. and I I lay hands on my babies and I bless them and I remind that they are blessed because of the imputed righteousness of Jesus Christ. It seems to be alluding to this when Jesus says when God commands the righteousness of Jesus Christ on your life by simply believing you are saved.

It's as if his hand of blessing just like a father his hand of blessing comes on your life. And when God has blessed, no man can curse. And his hand of blessing comes on your life. And it becomes abundantly clear to me that when his hand comes on your life, it never leaves.

God's hand of blessing and favor and approval. Whether you are aware of it or not, WHETHER YOU DON'T FEEL NOTHING OR NOT, God's approval, God's righteousness is greater than your feelings and your heart and your fickle emotions. His hand is on your life. Did you know that? By simply believing in Jesus, the hand of blessing from creator God, your father, comes upon your life and it does not leave.

It's it's it's on your life. I'm blessed. I'm blessed. I'm favored. And he says, "And no one in the Greek there, no one or anything or any circumstance or any situation can remove his hand from your life." So, I want to go on record to say first of all, as the pastor of this community, I'm biblically bound to the book.

You know that, right? I'm I'm I'm I don't know if that works biblically bound, but I'm but because I'm I have to do what the book says. So, I can give you permission to quit and to give up on God as soon as he lets ((music playing)) go of you.

That's what I'm bound to. That's the criteria by which I can allow you to stay down and give up. If God will let go of you, then you can give up. If you can prove to me in this room today that God has given up on you because you had a bad weekend.

So the host of heaven now stands in heaven and linear finite time and space and A COUPLE OF DAYS IN VEGAS NOW HAVE JUST UNRAVELED THE HEAVENLIES. THIS ONE MAN WENT TO VEGAS AND NOW THE FINISHED WORK OF JESUS CHRIST IS UNDONE AND NOW IT WON'T WORK. WHAT HAVE WE DONE?

BOB, [screaming] WHY VEGAS? BOY, we think we're big deals, don't we? Woo. We think our decisions and our emotions and our feelings and our thoughts, we think that they shake the doctrine and ethos of heaven, don't we? Heaven's ((music playing)) changed today. Why? Because I made a bad decision. I love you, ((music playing)) but you don't quite have that much pull.

It's finished. You're righteous, and ((music playing)) his hand is upon your life if you've simply believed in Jesus. and he won't let go. Sometimes you wish he would. I know. I know. ((music playing)) It's called the holy haunting of God. God, would you let me just have fun one night? No, I'm just going to be here.

You can do it, but you're not going to be very good at it, and you're not going to be a good sinner. And but you know, I'm still here. Boy, we get we get down and I need to remind you that you ((music playing)) have license to get up legally before heaven.

You have license to get back up. ((music playing)) Not just because I like you and believe in you and love you. No, no, no, no, no. This is way more powerful. This is legal, documented in heaven. This ((music playing)) is legitimate. You have license to rise again. No matter what anybody tells you, you are righteous ((music playing)) and you are in his hands and he will not let go.

All right, God. I'm going to try this again. Okay, son, let's ((music playing)) go. We're going to rise again. What if we could be the kind of church ((music playing)) where people just know in the community, in the city, that's a place you can go and you can get up again. That's a place of second chance.

That's a house. That's a home. That's a space where people come and man, I hadn't seen anybody get back up on their feet faster than in that space and around those people. That's a place where anybody can make a comeback. I think that is ((music playing)) near and dear to the heart of Jesus.

Would you close your eyes? God, I thank you for these moments we share as a community. And Lord, we're so funny. I find myself thinking that my heart is greater than you. What foolishness. You You are great and you are greater than all. And we thank you for the gift of righteousness that we ((music playing)) have in Jesus by simply believing and receiving.

If you're here this ((music playing)) morning, you say, "Judah, I uh I want to receive this free gift." You're talking about it, but as I'm sitting here, I'm realizing that I have never accepted this gift of Jesus Christ. I've I've never accepted this free gift of forgiveness and acceptance, and I I want to do it.

Well, I I'm going to give you an opportunity right now to make that decision. For the Bible says, "Whosoever whosoever believes in him will not perish, but have everlasting life." If you'd like to simply express your faith in Jesus and receive his forgiveness and his righteousness forever, you can do so right now in this moment.

On the count of three, ((music playing)) I'm going to ask if you want to make this decision and accept this free will gift of righteousness. I'm going to I'm going to ask that you lift up your hand and you put it right back down. And I just believe that when you lift your hand, you respond externally to ((music playing)) what's happening internally, it seems to solidify it in your heart and your soul and it makes it all the more real.

So if that's you, on the count of three, I want you to lift your hand and you put it right back down. You know who you are. One, God loves you so much. Two, you will never be the same. ((music playing)) Three, if that's you, would you shoot your hand up all over the room say, "Man, I'd like to make that decision to accept this free gift of righteousness before God forever and ever."

God, I thank you for all the hands raised in this ((music playing)) building. I thank you, Father, you're doing it again. It's a miracle. It's astounding. It's remarkable. It's overwhelming to see, God, you rescue and save and forgive the human soul. There is no one like you. And we celebrate you today, God.

And we love you. If you're here today and you say, "Judah, I'm down. I'm down. I I feel like I'm flat on my back or flat on my face, and I came in today discouraged and my heart was condemning me." And I just want to leave you today committed to declare that God is greater than my heart.

You know what? I felt like giving up, but I'm not going to give up. If that's you and I'm talking to you and you know this brief message was for you, would you shoot your hand up all over the auditorium and say, "Man, that's me. I know God is talking to me."

Lord, may we be the kind of space, may we be the kind of people and the kind of community where anyone can MAKE A COMEBACK. WHERE GOD, WE can rise again because of who you are and what you've done. We thank you that YOU ARE THE GOD OF SECOND CHANCES.

YOU ARE THE GOD WHO APPROVES and loves us in spite of our air and our wrong. And we celebrate you, God. And we love you today in Jesus name. If you believe that, would you say amen?