Aloha, and welcome to Eamon Podcast.
I'm Lukilani, your host, and I'm here with my husband Alex, who's
going to walk us through Matthew 28 verses 11 through 15.
The religious leaders just heard the news.
Jesus is risen, and instead of falling to their knees, they
pull out their wallets. They bribe the guards, spread a
lie, and use every bit of political leverage they have to
try to stop what God already did.
And here's the thing, none of it worked.
And if it could work because you cannot move an immovable God, no
bribe, no lie, no human power can shift His purposes.
So today Alex will walk us through three P ways people try
to stop the resurrection and why every single one of them failed.
This is the episode God is immovable and we're so glad
you're here for it. Let's read.
We're in the ESP version today starting at verse 11.
While they were going, behold, some of the guard went into the
city and told the chief priests all that had taken place.
And when they had assembled with the elders, and taking counsel,
they gave a sufficient sum of money to the soldiers, and said,
Tell people his disciples came by night and stole him away
while we were asleep. And if this comes to the
governor's ears we will satisfy him and keep you out of trouble.
So they took the money and did as they were directed.
And this story has been spread among the Jews to this day.
Amen. We're almost to the end of the
Gospel of Matthew. We've been in it a while.
If you've caught up on all these episodes and you've listened to
everyone, God bless you and that is amazing.
But we do know that's actually like characteristic of you guys,
of our followers that you like to listen to every episode and
and stay up to date with it. And so thank you for following
along. And it's been fun teaching
through this and we're excited to see what we're going to jump
into next, most likely a letter, you know, take a break from the
Gospels, but we love the Gospels.
We'll always come back to the gospels at some point because in
the gospel, we hear the gospel and that's a part of every
episode. Part of that good news is that
God is immovable. God is immovable.
The empty tomb, the resurrection, the cross, all of
it shows us that you can't move God.
And what I mean by that is like you can't.
There's no God is impassable. So he doesn't experience emotion
or suffering in or anything or person like even personality the
same that we the same way that we do.
And so he's not Moody, he doesn't have bad days, He's not
fluctuated upon with his emotions.
And so when we look at him not being and him being immovable,
that means there doesn't matter what happens on this earth, it
cannot change God's plans. No matter how many culprits or
how many plans his enemies come up with, you cannot change the
plans and the purposes of God that he's already set in place
before the foundation of the earth.
There is nothing new or surprising that God is going to
come across and not be ready for.
So there's three areas that the wicked today try to cover up God
or move God or, or, or, or take God out of the picture.
And I want you to see if they're, I want you to see how
they're characteristic of what's going on in the church today and
also in our culture today. Because I believe it'll really
help you grasp for just what kind of world we live in.
But it'll also help you be encouraged to know that if God
is immovable, then in every circumstance, we shall not be
moved. And we'll tie that all together
at the end with the gospel. But just to frame this all, I
want you to have a picture of what leverage is.
If we're talking about God being immovable, there's no amount of
leverage that humans can get to try to move him.
And if that's true about God, it's also true about us because
we are he is for us. Even though we are wicked and we
we do accept bribery, we do involve ourselves in dishonesty
and, and get too caught up in politics and all that.
Ultimately, God takes the the what we meant for evil and turn
it for good. And ultimately our salvation
shall not be moved. We'll be with him for eternity.
So picture there's a giant rock and it's on top of a trap door.
And in that trap door is treasure.
And all you have is no humans to help you.
All you have is a very strong plank of wood and then another
smaller rock and then a bunch of bags, 100 bags of 50 LB sand.
What would you do to move that giant rock off the trap door?
You would wedge that plank underneath the bottom of that
big rock. You would put the plank on top
of the smaller rock and then you just pile on 50 LB bags of of
sand until the rock started to move.
And that's what the wicked tries to do.
When there's this immovable object in front of like this
truth of the resurrection, this truth of who God is, we try to
do whatever we can to move it. And the wicked is definitely
trying to do that in the past and is still doing it today.
We cannot dispute the resurrection.
It's too heavy of a truth to roll away and eventually, let's
say there is some truth that you do get to roll away like some
lie you try to cover up and use leverage or money or power or
whatever to cover it up. Eventually everyone comes across
a truth that they cannot leverage to roll away.
So let's look at verses 11 through 12 first and we'll see
how bribery cannot move God. So it says while they were
going, behold, some of the guard went to into the city and told
the chief priests all that had taken place.
So the guard who was at the tomb, they see the Angel, they
see the empty tomb, and now they go back and they go to the city
of Jerusalem to tell the chief priests and the Sanhedrin guys
what had happened. In verse 12 it says, and when
they assembled with the elders and taken counsel, they gave a
sufficient sum of money to the soldiers.
So it would have taken a lot of money to get the soldiers to
lie. So they're bribing the soldiers.
In so doing, it's showing us that bribery is the leverage of
the wicked, the those who are apart from Christ, humans,
wicked people. What we do is we try to bribe.
It's how we operate. We, we try to do whatever we can
to get what we want by using bribery of some sort, usually
money, but it could be bribery of other ways.
I'll do this. I'll scratch your back if you
scratch mine. This is the way we operate.
We're so depraved that we choose to find whatever we can to
leverage what we want now. God makes his decisions and
stands by him, by them, and he cannot be bought.
We can't put God in our debt. We can't make God do what we
want him to do. And the gates of hell will not
prevail against what God has set in motion.
There is no amount of plans or schemes of man or power of hell
that can make God change his mind.
So. So how does God save us?
So how does God come up with anything?
How does God respond to us? Through worship, through our
life? He does so already knowing what
He shall do, already knowing the decision that He'd made, already
having His purposes set out before the foundation of the
earth. And Isaiah 4610, it tells us
that my purpose will stand. I will do all that I please.
This is what God says. His purposes shall stand.
So where do you see bribery? In your own heart or in the
world, wherever you live, where do you see it?
Where are you trying to maybe put God in your debt, or where
have you bribed someone? That's a part of the
characteristic of just being wicked and being depraved in our
hearts. But the good news is we have a
God who cannot be bribed, who cannot be pressured.
Now, if bribery is the leverage of the wicked, dishonesty is the
way of life for the wicked. Dishonesty can't move God.
There's no amount of dishonesty that you could do that can
ultimately make God not love you.
There's no amount of dishonesty in the world that could
ultimately over shadow who God is.
So look at verse 13. It says and the people's and
they said tell people his disciples came by night and
stole away while we were asleep. So they give a lot of money to
the soldiers to lie about what happened to the body.
This is the way of life for the wicked.
Dishonesty, lying, trying to cover up the truth with lies.
But the way that this works is first, John 15 tells us that God
is light, and in him there is no darkness at all.
Meaning there is no amount of shadows or darkness that could
cover up the brightness of who God is.
Truth is too heavy for any lie to move.
It always comes out. You cannot push away light with
darkness. Where do you see dishonesty?
In your church or in your culture or in your own heart.
There is the story in veggie Tales and we don't really like
let our kids watch veggie tales too much.
Like we pick and choose the episodes because some of the
theology in in veggie tales is not great.
But there's one episode that is a good illustration.
It's called the fib from outer space.
You might have seen this episode.
It's a Larry Boy episode. And in it, this alien comes from
outer space, meets Junior Asparagus and befriends him and
and and Junior starts to lie through the temptation of this
alien. And the more Junior lies, the
bigger this fib. This alien gets to the point
where Larry Boy has to step in and help defeat this fib.
And that is a great picture because the the life of the
wicked is characterized by dishonesty.
It's one lie after another. It's caught up in a web of lies.
It's lies that just get bigger and bigger and bigger and
bigger. And it's the characteristic of
it's characteristic of dishonesty.
It just gets bigger and bigger and bigger until it becomes too
much for you to handle. The good news is that there's no
amount of dishonesty that God cannot handle.
There's no amount of darkness that God can't shine his light
into and ultimately extinguish. So we know that bribery cannot
move God. Dishonesty cannot move God.
But lastly, policy cannot move God.
And I'll tell you what I mean by policy before we read the next
couple of verses. Policy is when a bunch of
politicians, presidents, leaders, governors get together
and come up with rules to abide by for our countries, for our
states. They are policies that we will
follow. Politics is all about getting a
bunch of people on your side and saying these people are with me,
so I don't care about what this other team has to say.
I have all my people with me. It's policy.
Politics is looking for who is on my side.
And we are constantly caught up in this, whether it's in actual
politics with Republicans and Democratic and the other
parties, or just in our own lives.
We're constantly trying to look for who is with me, who is on my
side, who are my people. And this can be very detrimental
because the Bible says that a man of many companions comes to
ruin. Now look at Matthew 28 through
14 to see this policy that is unable to move God.
And if this comes to the governor's ears, we will satisfy
him and keep you out of trouble. So the religious leaders say if
the governor hears back what happened, that you guys lied and
that the body is stolen on your watch, we will bribe him too and
we'll keep you out of trouble. Verse 15.
So they took the money. The Romans took the money and
did as they were directed. And this story has been spread
among the Jews to this day. So I want you to see both sides
and put at play here. There's the Romans, the pagans,
the Gentiles who are accepting the money, who are lying.
There is the religious leaders, the Jews, the spiritual ones who
are telling them to lie, who are giving them the money, who's
making the bribe. So you see how both sides are
examples of wickedness. And that's meant by Matthew to
show you that whether you grew up religious or you grew up
spiritual, or you're Catholic or Buddhist or whatever you are,
you are not off the hook. If you are a Pagan person, you
grew up without God. You know, if you, which is
really all of us, you grew up separated from God.
That's all of us. If you grew up with no spiritual
background or the not not the right spiritual background, it
doesn't matter. You're not off the hook.
We are all wicked in God's eyes. All have fallen short of the
glory of God, for all have sinned.
And that Greek word all means all.
So policy is the love language of the wicked.
They leverage power to get what they want to protect themselves.
And this is what we do. We come up with policy.
I'm going to live this way. I'm going to like this, I'm
going to not like this. I'm going to support this.
I'm not going to support this. And what we're doing is we're
just trying to see and gather who is on our side.
And humans are swayed by humans. That's why we act this way.
However, God is not swayed by humans.
So there's there's this phenomenon happening in our
culture today called exhibitionism.
Exhibitionism. And it's the idea that we are
obsessed with desire. We're obsessed with needing to
be seen, needing to be desired. And this has been largely
inflated by social media likes, comments, story, views, views,
whatever it is, it makes it gives us a huge dopamine hit and
it makes us feel like we're going to be OK.
It makes us feel safe knowing that all these people are
watching our exposition, that we're making ourselves an
exhibit. And as long as people are paying
attention to us, then they're on our side and they love us.
And if that is true, then maybe, just maybe, God will give us
extra favor too. Because surely if people like
us, then God has to like us, right?
It's not how this works. And it's actually seeped off of
online to on land. So now people are immodest in
public. Men and women practice
immodesty. Why?
Because we're they're putting themselves on exhibit.
It's exposition, exhibitionism. Who likes me, who desires me,
who wants me, who finds me attractive, who accepts me.
And we become, even in public, it's a dopamine hit when we get
that second look, when someone pays attention to us, whether
it's wearing not enough clothes or wearing odd clothes or weird
clothes or clothes that gather a lot of attention, whether it's
due the amount of money that the clothes cost you or the amount
of weird graphics on the shirt. We're just constantly trying to
put ourselves on exhibit and display so that people pay
attention to us. Now, Barbara Fredrickson points
out that for women specifically, women often internalize an
observer's perspective of them. So how observers see them, women
often internalize that meaning. When someone calls you a woman
pretty, when someone double takes out a woman, when someone
likes or comments you're so beautiful.
We and women internalize that. Men definitely do this too, but
specifically women internalize it and they see that as their
worth. It confirms I'm valuable.
I am worthy because this observer and their perspective
of me says so. That is unhealthy because now
your value, your worth is in the hands of strangers.
And the Bible says beauty is fleeting.
It's fleeting. So from not just from year to
year, a decade to decade, from day-to-day, that can change.
You can go to bed right now and wake up with a pimple the size
of 1/4 on your face and then all of a sudden beauty is that
fleeting. You see what I'm saying?
It's as fleeting as the steam coming off the top of your cup
of coffee. It's here in one moment and it's
gone another, and it flies by. And so we shouldn't put our
worth and our value in that, ladies.
But also for men, this exhibitionism works its way out
in a different way. So sociologist Catherine Hakim
says that men use physical attraction as social currency.
And so they see if I am ripped my, if I'm buff, if I dress
well, if I'm on exhibit and I'm getting enough attention from
people, whether it's on land or online, then I can use that as
social currency. I can use that to leverage
power. All of it is policy.
All of it is you politicking. All is, all of it is you looking
for who's going to vote for you, who's going to keep you in mind
when stuff hits the fan. And all of it is about
acceptance. God is not swayed by politics.
He's not swayed by policy. He's not swayed by what humans
have to say. He makes his decisions and
stands by them regardless of who is in power.
You might be thinking, well, Alex, what about the example of
Saul? Didn't the people of Israel ask
for a king? And so the God gave them the
first king of Israel, Saul. That's not how it pans out.
While God did give them a king and chose Saul, God was giving
them a king to show them that they did not need a king.
And every single one of the king of Israel's, king of Israel
failed except Jesus. Every single one.
Yet a lot of really good ones, and a lot of terrible ones.
The point is they all failed and that was God's point in even
giving them a king in the 1st place.
It wasn't that they were saying please God, please we want this
and God was swayed by that and said fine OK I'll give it.
I'll go against my better judgement and just give you what
you want. That's not how God works.
When God does anything, God had already decided to do it before
anybody asked for it. With that said, when we choose
policy, when we choose exhibitionism, we're choosing
what the Bible calls vain glory with the church fathers called
vain glory. We're trying to take glory from
God and attribute it to ourselves, glory that only
belongs to God. We're trying to keep it for
ourselves and that is no way to live.
An example of this from our culture, and we'll get into the
application next is from Mean Girls.
You know, I don't know if you've ever seen this movie.
You don't really need to see it. It's a it's a cult film, but
I'll, I'll explain it to you. There's a New Girl at the
school. She grew up in Africa and it's a
classic high school where it's hierarchy, cheerleaders,
football players, popular kids, nerds, unpopular kids sections
in the cafeteria that you cannot sit in if you are not a part of
that crew. And she comes right in the
middle of it, knowing none of this like she grew up in Africa
in the plains. And so when she gets to the
cafeteria, this one group of popular girls thinks that thinks
that she's pretty and they invite her into her group.
Well, she much more identifies with this nerdy group.
And so the whole movie, she's constantly jumping back and
forth between this popular group and this unpopular group.
And it's she's pulled from side to side and she's very anxious
and unhappy because of it. And she spends the whole time
politicking, finding the policy. Who likes me?
Who doesn't like me? I'm this person.
When I'm with them like this,
when I'm like this, when I'm with them, I'm like that.
And this is how most of us live, accepting dishonesty and bribery
and policy into our lives, just trying to find a place to be
happy. What Christ shows us is that you
don't have to live that way to be happy.
What Christ shows us is that if there's an alternative, there's
a power in him that we tap into to truly be satisfied with God
and God alone, because Christ is the King who never took a bribe.
Christ is the King who never lied.
He's the King that never was swayed by political pressure.
People couldn't make him do what they wanted him to do.
But what about salvation? He came and saved us because we
needed it, so he must have been swayed by us.
God came to save us because that was God's plan.
Jesus came and obedience to the Father's will to to save us and
thus so doing first and foremost glorifying the Father.
The plan was that God would get the glory so that all would see
that God is beautiful and and and perfect and worthy of our
worship and praise. That's the first reason why he
died for us on the cross. And also with that he loved you,
but he set his gaze and his love on you before you were even
born, before the stars were even made.
And so he wasn't swayed by what you would do or or what bad you
had done or what good you had done.
He made the decision to come and save you way before you were
even born, way before anything even ever existed.
So in Christ, what this all means is God is immovable,
bribery, dishonesty, policy can't move him.
And if this is true, that in if Christ is the only one to not
take a bribe, to not be swayed by political pressure, to not be
dishonest, then that means if we are in Christ, we are made new.
We leave the we leave the leverage of bribery behind.
We leave the lifestyle of dishonesty behind.
We we leave the love language of policy behind to exist in Christ
as new creations. And that means at least three
things. Number one, we are free in
Christ. We are free in Christ.
That means bribes lose their power against us because in
Christ we have everything. We have infinite value in Christ
because of who loves us. There's a song out there that
says you're nobody until Somebody Loves You.
And a better way of saying it, a more honest way is you are
nobody until you realize how much God loves you.
That is infinite value. Infinite value.
And if that is true, what amount of bribery could you give a
Christian to get him to choose dishonesty, to choose people
over God? There is no amount.
Eventually it will always go back to God because the gates of
hell will not prevail against God's children.
Also, in Christ we are fully known.
Fully known. So lies don't stick or tempt the
Christian. Whether it's lies told to you or
lies told about you, they don't work against the Christian.
Why? Because God fully knows you.
And if I'm fully known in God, it makes no difference what
people think they know about me or what people do know about me,
because I'm fully known by God. Even if the people are right
about the things that are said about you, you are fully known
by God. And if God knew you and all your
dirt and all your sin and still chose to save you and love you
and to pour out and lavish His love upon you, then what could
you pause? What, what possible new things
could God discover about you that would make him change His
mind about you? Nothing.
The last thing is, in Christ we are fully understood by God.
We don't have to live for acceptance, because acceptance
all it is policy. Looking for who's on your side,
who table, which table to sit at, what do I got to do?
Who sees me, who desires me? All of that is basically you
just trying to be understood because you think if people
understand you, then they'll accept you and they'll be with
you forever and they'll protect you and they'll and, and maybe
God will like you because they like you.
No, we don't live for acceptance because we're already understood
by God. Understand that God literally
walked in your shoes in Christ. He was tempted in every way, yet
without sin, which means he experienced A temptation you can
only dream about. He he experienced A temptation
you can only imagine, but he didn't give into it.
So the full force of temptation, he experienced it, yet not
giving in to sin. So he knows exactly what it's
like to be you. More than anyone, He understands
you. I'm going to close with this
Psalms 121 three, which says He will not let your foot be moved.
He who keeps you will not slumber.
God is not like you and I. He doesn't need sleep and so He
is awake all the time, keeping you, taking care of you.
And He in Psalms 121 verse 3 says He will not let your foot
be moved. If God is immovable and we are
in Christ, that means in Christ you shall not be moved.
So whatever you feel like is moving you, whether it is fear,
finances, lies, dishonesty, bribery, politics, whatever is
unsettling you ultimately will not move you.
It cannot work because you are in Christ and God himself shall
not be moved. And if God shall not be moved,
what He is doing is He's in the process of making you like
Himself. Even if you slip, even if you
make mistakes, even if you fall, even if you give in, ultimately
your status and who he is cannot be moved.
So that's the good news in all this.
If the cross, the resurrection, show us that not even death can
move God, and that means in Christ you shall not be moved.
You are with him and he gets the final say, not bribery, not
dishonesty, not policy, not sin, not destruction.
On any of that. He gets the final say.
Amen. Let's pray.
Father, we thank you for this opportunity to just open up your
word and to be blessed by it and to be encouraged by it.
And we take courage, we take faith and knowing, and we take
hope and knowing that you are immovable.
And with you, we shall not be moved.
Thank you for this reminder. And you're going to pray.
Amen. Amen.
This is the part of the episode called After the Amen where we
ask you a question to help you apply this message to your life.
Our question for you today is how is it encouraging to know
you won't be moved? How is it encouraging to know
you won't be moved? I'll answer 1st and then you can
take it away from me, I think. Yeah, it just is summed up in
all of the different examples I think that you shared, I guess
with those last three, like I've shared this countless times, but
the desire to be understood. And I think even since I've like
shared that on the podcast, that struggle, like God has worked so
much in my life to help me not to worry so much about that.
And this is just like that on the top sermon.
And I think it's just, it's so freeing to be able to just rest
in the truth that we are fully understood by God, whether it's
that's the good things that he has produced in US or even the
sinful things that we've done that he's ready to forgive.
We are fully understood and known by him.
And we don't have to prove ourselves to others or make
people understand why we believe what we believe or why we did
what we did or why we choose to live in a certain way.
And I think that's so encouraging.
I think I don't really struggle with that with non believers
because it's like, well, they're blind.
I can't make them understand. It's literally not up to me to
make them understand. It's my job to just continue to
show them Christ's love. And that brings me into some
thoughts about like some of your points today too.
Is is our responsibility as Christians to unbelievers like
how we display ourselves kind of like what you're talking about
with the exhibitionism. But just to finish this point
about not needing to make people feel understood, Yeah, like even
other Christians of like why we choose to have as many kids as
we have or why we choose to talk about the thought theology that
we believe in. Or I don't need to make them
understand. I just need to stand on the
truth and graciously and gently live that way or speak in a way
that displays that. And I found this so encouraging,
like because it's like, I think with the we don't need to make
people understand people go, what about that verse where it's
like always be ready to give an answer.
But it's not saying like, oh, you have to defend every part of
your life. It's saying be able to give a
defense for the hope inside of you.
And that if we are living in a way that is God honoring, then
we should be able to describe why I choose to live with them.
I choose to have a lot of kids because I believe they're
blessings from the Lord. And I believe that's how he
wants to sanctify me. And it makes me love it like
grows my love for others. You know, the more children I
have, the more I love others because we're bringing all these
different personality types into our home.
And it helps me love people outside of my home better and
understand them. There's so many different
things, but those are just a few of you know the reasons why and
I have this with so encouraging and first Peter.
I just wanted to read it. 313 and it's suffering for
righteousness sake. And it says now who is there to
harm you If you are zealous for what is good.
But even if you should suffer for righteousness sake, you will
be blessed. Have No Fear of them, nor be
troubled, but in your hearts honor Christ as Lord, Christ the
Lord as holy. Always being prepared to make a
defense to anyone who asks for a reason, for the hope that is in
you. Yet do it with gentleness and
respect, having a good conscience, so that when you are
slandered, those who revile your good behavior in Christ may be
put to shame. For it is better to suffer for
for doing good, if that should be God's will, than for doing
evil. And I love that.
It's like, don't have fear. You can make a defense for the
hope inside of you. You don't have to make a defense
for every single little point in your life or make them
understand how just why you have that hope.
Do it with gentleness and respect.
It doesn't have to be a debate, you know, And that like
ultimately, Christ well has your back.
You know, he'll take care of it all.
And it. Yeah, it's just so encouraging
to me. And I also like the part in
verse 16 where it says when you are slandered, those who revile
your good behavior in Christ may be put to shame.
And so I think that kind of like ties into this exhibitionism
stuff because it's like if we are slandered, yet we are living
in a way and that isn't choosing right.
This is saying like suffering for righteousness sake, not just
suffering as a Christian, like suffering for a living a life of
godliness, a living a life of repentance.
And we're not always going to do it perfect.
But if we are in Christ, like he has revealed things that to us
that we need to change or that we need to trust him with.
And yeah, I was just thinking how about the how this
exhibitionist stuff, like it's kind of like all of these
points. It's dishonest because you're,
you're telling the world, especially those who are lost
and even those within Christianity, but like those who
are lost, that like my value doesn't come from Christ.
It comes from what you guys think about me or what other
people think of me or what I can offer the world.
And it's dishonest. And in a way, like people, I
think people like to like be like, OK, well, we can't be so
like Amish, you know, like we can't like live so set apart
that like we're not relatable. So that's why I think it's OK to
like live this way or to dress like more immodest or whatever.
You know, it's a way to meet people where they're at, but
it's lying to them. And then you're also trying to
bribe them into thinking like, oh, because I'm this way, like
anyone can be in Christ. So like, this is how you come to
Christ. And it's like, no, you, you
don't need to like become like them to do that.
You need to show them a different way through love and
even in those verses with gentleness and respect, like not
arguing with people and like politics brings that out of
people. It just totally draws a wedge
between Christians in the world because of how we handle our
politics. We're not saying don't stand on
righteousness, like don't stand on the truth, but how are you
going about it? You know, and I think that's
just in our culture today that exhibitionism like this is how
all of these things are on such display.
And but like applying those like last three points of being fully
known, fully understand, understood by Christ because
he's a movable, like we don't have to give into that.
We can just live freely, live lovingly.
And I'll help the Lord to work through that instead.
And so that's so encouraging to me.
And it you truly will be free when you like, accept that, when
you understand that and you accept that and just tell
yourself, I don't have to live in a way to please others, but
through gentleness and respect, I can live the life that God has
called me to. And that's it.
And don't get arrogant though, that ruins it all.
Yeah, like it doesn't get worse or versus because he's saying
that we shouldn't live by fear to give a response or an answer
to what we believe. Because what's going to happen
if people don't like it? They might kill you, they might
slander you, they might make fun of you more.
But how is how is any of that more powerful than what Christ
offers us in the cross? You know, like if they kill us
and we go to be with him, if they don't accept us, we're
already accepted. So he's saying there should not
be fear in our hearts that people won't like us for the
answer that we give, but also like you're saying, we should do
it gently and with respect because we didn't come across
the truth because we found it. We came across the truth because
he revealed it to us. That we see that in Matthew
chapter 16 when Peter's confession that Jesus is the
Messiah, the Son of God, Jesus says, Simon Barjona, you did not
learn this on your own, that God revealed it to you.
And if it's true about Peter, that's true about all of us,
right? That we don't get to the
knowledge of who God is without the Holy Spirit revealing it to
us according to God's sovereign predestination and election and
chose and choosing to reveal it to us.
And so how can we get arrogant and unrespecting and ungentle
with anybody talking about the Gospel?
And we didn't come to know it on our own.
And so he's saying you shouldn't have fear because you're fully
accepted and and loved by God, but you shouldn't have
disrespect and you shouldn't be rude because of your own
depravity in God choosing you. You're not choosing him.
And so, yeah, it's all like, really encouraging.
And really it is saying like, if people don't like it and you're
gentle and you're respectful and people don't like it and they
don't want to hear it, really the gospel says, who cares?
You know you're going to be OK. But they those who do like it,
they will hear you. That's the promise too, because
God is so irresistible that those whom God has put you in
their lives to share the gospel with them, they will hear you.
They will join your community. They will be forever changed.
And there is that promise. And so go, don't sit on it.
Like talk about it and, you know, because God is immovable
and he's irresistible. So that's all the more reason to
share. That doesn't mean like, well, I
should sit back and do nothing, right?
They will come, those whom God is drawing, yes.
And so we certainly should go. That's so good, yeah.
And that just like, yeah, reminds me of that like NBA
player who was like, I'm not going to like, well, I don't
know the full story. It was like Pride month or
something like that. Like I'm not going to
participate in part Pride month. Yeah.
And just how his I think back to your exhibition some point like
his social currency is not necessarily looks maybe in the
situation, but like his abilities.
And if he put his hope and that he would be like, OK, like I'll
just, I'm not going to like make a video and say I support pride,
but I'll just wear the stuff and just keep on going.
But like his hope was not in basketball or his capabilities,
like, but it was in Christ. And I think the good, like we're
just seeing all the good that has come from that as well.
And his life, like you were sharing that like all of his
jerseys sold out the next day that they fired him or whatever.
And like, it's just a beautiful example of like when you do
choose to say like, OK, I'm not going to give into this.
Like God will take care of you. It's not always going to be huge
like that where you might get wealthy because someone bought
all your merch. But like he will take care of
you and there will be good that comes from it.
And it'll be a much more freeing and enjoyable life.
I'm sure he loves basketball, wishes he was maybe still part
of the NBA right now. But like, it seems like he has a
lot of joy doing what whatever he's doing right now, like
sharing the gospel and all that. And that's just let that be an
encouragement If you're really struggling with letting go of
some of the things that you think gives you value outside of
Christ. I think we all need it in big or
small ways. Yeah.
And there's nothing that you can do that can get the world on
your side. You know, like he, he did that.
He said those things. But everybody to to the Gentile,
the gospel is foolishness. And so all the Gentiles and all
those are apart from Christ. They see that and they say, oh,
he's just trying to go viral. He's trying to have his moment.
He's just saying that because he, he wants to get views.
He wants to get likes. That's why he's talking about
the gospel and Jesus and pride month and stuff like that.
So it doesn't matter what you do, they're just not going to be
down with it. They're not There are there is
some people who see it and be like, wow, he would sacrifice
his career to talk about his God.
Like I want to learn more about this God.
There's that. But there's people who are like,
he's just trying to go viral and then the jerseys sell out and we
think, oh, that'll be a. That'll be a They're going to be
put to shame right there because, like, God is
vindicating him. Yeah.
But then there's a lot of people who are like the people who
bought those jerseys just are collecting memorabilia so that
when this is a historical. They can resell.
And ten years later, they can get those notorious jerseys of
this one outspoken, outspoken basketball player so that the
people who aren't in Christ seeing the jerseys sell out,
they're just saying, well, they're just money involved in
that, right? When the Christians or the
people who are being drawn by God, they would say, wow, if
that would happen and they would say that.
And then people would buy the jerseys.
And maybe like, maybe God is like showing us that this guy
actually does have something to say.
And maybe I should look into this.
Why do people buy these jerseys? So you see what I'm saying?
There's no use in trying to try to get the people on your side.
You know, we might as well join God and being immovable because
God is not swayed by people. And we don't have to continue to
be swayed by people. We can just say our piece, live
for God, enjoy the life that we've God has given us, enjoy
the community, enjoy the freedom, enjoy the purpose like
that's that basketball player is certainly enjoying his purpose
and not just being a basketball player, but being a basketball
player that glorifies God. And if that means losing it all,
he's in his purpose and that is satisfying to him.
There's nothing more satisfying, you know, than that glorifying
God. So Amen.
God bless you, aimandpodcast.com.
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