Good morning, everyone. Hey, you're loud.
I like it. Well, my name is Nate.
I am one of the teaching pastors here at RES, and I also serve as
the creative director. And happy Father's Day to the
dads out there. I'm a, yeah, been a dad for
almost five years. And this morning I was given a
beautiful Father's Day gift. My son got into our bed last
night and he, you know, to, to snuggle, you know, But it was
11:00 PM. So I was gifted with a barrage
of tiny kicks to my lower back for the duration of the evening.
And so the first, first service I started, I forgot to say my
name. I was just so tired.
I'm like, what's up? I'm Nate or something.
And so happy Father's Day. I'm full of energy now and I'm
ready to go. And we just finished up a series
called Sound Mind, and I really enjoyed that.
Did you guys like that? Mental health?
It was really cool, really good. I'm hoping to do it again, but
we're starting a new series today.
We're jumping back in the book of John, and our sermon series
is called. But now I see.
And I want to kick this off with a fun story about Nate when he
was about 1819 years old and I had gotten involved in a youth
group, specifically young adults.
You know, when you graduate from youth group, they're like, well,
I guess you're a leader now because, you know, you're too
old, but they want you to stay. I don't know.
So I became a leader and we did this thing called a drama tour
and it was basically a bunch of us youngsters.
We would get in a caravan and go up and down the West Coast and
we would go to churches and high schools.
And sometimes we just like set up out in public.
And we would do these presentations, which were a
combination of we did worship music and there was some some
preaching and we did something called human videos.
Do you guys know what human videos are?
Literally no one has heard us. You know what?
I figured it out. I come from Assemblies of God
background, which is more like charismatic, and I think that's
why you guys don't know what this is.
Let me explain it to you. It's really cool, trust me.
It's basically you pick a song, like a Christian song and all of
us act out. All of us humans act out the
song and create a human video. It's really cool.
So we did a bunch of human videos, and one of those human
videos was a court. It was based on a song called
The Courtroom. This is going to be a big fat no
as well by an artist known as Carmen.
Do you guys know who? Oh, this is a Carmen audience.
That handsome devil right there, that's Carmen.
So if you don't know who Carmen is, it's this person.
And he did like kind of, it was like kids music, right?
It was like kids music, but it was like cool.
At least our parents thought so. And he would do these really
elaborate, actually really well done music videos.
You're nodding your head. You've been changed by Carmen.
And so his song was called the courtroom.
Now, the courtroom was, you know, it's a courtroom and you
need to cast the part of God, the judge or the person who has
brought forth in the courtroom, the Sinner and the part of the
prosecution lawyer, which was Satan.
So when it was time to cast that, no joke, you guys already
know where this is going. The pastor, youth pastor was
like, all right, who should be Satan?
And no joke, all of them turned around to me sitting back in the
22nd row wearing all black, you know, like, and they're like,
Nate should be Satan. Nate would be the perfect Satan
to their defense. I did have I used to wear
eyeliner. I had black fingernail Polish,
all the things I had blue hair at that time.
And so it's very, you know, Satan like I guess so it's Satan
wears evidently. So I I got the part and I
graciously accepted, yes, I'll be Satan.
And I wore a red blazer and I took it.
I'm a method actor. So I took it very seriously.
And one of the performances was in the Bay Area.
It was at a high school and it was in the gym full of high
schoolers and gym floors. If you've ever been on one,
sometimes they can be a little slick.
And there's a part in my amazing performance where I would jump
up onto a folding table with all like the papers, you know, like
the evidence and then throw them and then like jump off the table
and be like whatever. And so I'm, I'm getting ready to
do this signature move and I jump up on the table and as I go
to jump, the table slips and it flips up on its side.
And at the same time I go and I go up on my bat like a Creed
music video. I'm like, it's taking me higher
and I'm like parallel to the ground.
And I just literally fall right on the edge of the table on my
back, dude. And that's the sound they made.
And that's this other sound they made.
So I fall down and and I get and I'm the song's just going, you
know, people are still. So I get up and I'm like, you're
going to hell. Still kind of walk it off.
Make sure you know, I'm not paralyzed, OK?
Feels good. And no joke, I still have a like
a knot in my lower back to this day from that.
It's pretty crazy. And ironically, during that
human video about the courtroom, that gym had become a courtroom
because I was being judged so hard in that moment, I was so
embarrassed just being out on display.
Has anyone felt like that before?
Like everyone knows your business and you're just out
there and you're like, OK, it's me.
Well, that's exactly where the woman in today's story finds
herself. She is dragged into the centre
of a crowd, She's exposed and she's being judged.
But the difference is, although she didn't know it at the time,
she had a defender. And so do you.
And in our text today, the religious leaders, they dragged
this woman caught in the act of adultery into a very public
courtroom, throw her before Jesus.
And what happens next is an absolute scandal.
So if you have your Bible or you got a phone, we're going to be
in John chapter 8, verses one through 11, John eight, one
through 11. Let's read that together.
But Jesus went to the Mount of Olives early in the morning.
He came again to the temple. All the people came to him and
he sat down and taught them. The scribes and the Pharisees
brought a woman who had been caught in adultery, and placing
her in the midst, they said to him, Teacher, this woman has
been caught in the act of adultery.
Now in the law, Moses commanded us to stone such women.
So what do you say? This they said to test him, that
they might have some charge to bring against Him.
But Jesus bent down, and he wrote with his finger on the
ground. And as they continued to ask
him, he stood up and said to them, Let him who is without sin
among you be the first to throw a stone at her.
And once again he bent down, and he wrote on the ground.
But when they heard it, they went away 1 by 1, beginning with
the older ones. And Jesus was left alone with
the woman staying before him. And Jesus stood up and said to
our woman, Where are they? Has no one condemned you?
She said no one, Lord, and Jesus said neither do I condemn you.
Go. And from now on, sin no more.
So what do we do when our life becomes a courtroom?
Well, sometimes in that courtroom, you're the woman
caught in adultery. You're the person caught in sin.
You're exposed. What do you do?
You trust your defender. You have a defender and he is a
defender you can trust. But other times you're one of
the Pharisees and you have the rock and you're ready to go and
you you're ready to judge this person.
What can you do in this opportunity?
What can you do in this situation?
Well, in these situations, you have the opportunity to become a
defence attorney for someone else.
And in both of these instances, both, both of these people need
to go before the judge. Now, the story starts off in
verse one with Jesus teaching. And if you combine the Greek
word for teacher and the Aramaic rabbi, Jesus is referred to as a
teacher approximately 59 times in the New Testament.
And although we talk a lot about his miracles, Jesus is primarily
known as a teacher. I mean, do you ever wonder why
we get up here and do this? Like when you get up early and
you get the free coffee and you sit there and then some guy
talks about Carmen and he's like, yeah.
And he's. Do you ever wonder why we
actually do that? I mean, simple explanation is
because that's what Jesus did, he taught.
I mean, all these things we do are the props, the sometimes we
bring a backpack or a quilt. One time I brought a a pot with
macaroni, if you remember that. But why do we do all that?
It's just all an attempt to get you to walk away with more
knowledge, more experience, and more spiritual maturity in the
teachings of Jesus. And the older I get, the more I
realize that spiritual maturity happens mostly in the mundane,
not the miracles maturity. It happens every day.
It's in the consistent things, the consistent time in prayer,
the consistent time in the teachings of Jesus.
And that's where the Pharisees and scribes found him this day.
And he was doing what he did the most, He was teaching.
Verse 3 picks it up and it says the scribes and Pharisees
brought a woman who had been caught in adultery, placing her
in the midst. They said to him, Teacher, this
woman has been caught in the act of adultery.
Now in the law, Moses commanded us to stone such women.
So what do you say? And this they said to test him,
that they might have some charge to bring against him.
So First off, if you're newer to church and you don't know what a
scribe or a Pharisee is really quick.
The scribes, we're the legal experts.
They were scholars in the law of Moses.
So they were most likely lawyers.
The Pharisees, they were the religious, they were the cold,
they were the rigid, but they were deeply committed to
upholding God's commands. And now they've drugged this
woman out in front of the crowd, the crowd that Jesus was
teaching. She was probably not completely
dressed because it says that they caught her in the act.
So she's ashamed and they throw her down before Jesus and court
was now in session. Before we go any further, I do
have a few questions about this scenario.
Like, if you actually think about this, one of my questions
is how did you guys catch her? How did you know where she would
be? Typically, these things are done
in secrecy, so how did you know where she would be?
I mean, were you guys all there? That's weird.
That's fishy. I have another question.
It's a big question. Where's the dude?
Yeah, right. Who cares?
Where's the dude? The law says.
Well, the Pharisees say, hey, it's it's we need to stone such
women. But what the law actually says
is you're supposed to stone the man and the woman.
Two people. So where's the man?
These things usually take two people.
OK, biology or whatever. So what is the simplest
explanation here? You ever heard the term Occam's
Razor before? Yeah, it's cool.
I like to use Occam's Razor a lot in situations.
But basically, if you don't know, Occam's Razor is a
principle often attributed to 14th century Friar William of
Occam that says if you have two competing ideas to explain the
same phenomenon, you should prefer the simpler 1.
The simplest explanation is often the correct 1.
So what is Nate's razor? Well, I think, and don't add
this to your Bible, which is just what I think.
I think they set her up with one of the Pharisees.
That's what I think. That's why they didn't bring the
man because he was one of them. And that's how they knew where
to find her because he was one of them.
And I would not be surprised if they compromised their moral
code just to trap Jesus. And Jesus threatened, if you
think about it, he threatened their religious system, which
ultimately means he threatened their power.
People don't like that. Perhaps in this situation, in
their minds, the means would justify the end.
And it really reveals their ulterior motive because if they
actually wanted justice, like they said, they would have
brought both of them. But they did it.
It just brought the woman. They did this simply to use her
as bait in a trap set for Jesus. So what's the trap?
Jesus is sort of stuck between a rock and a hard place here.
Did you? Yeah.
Sorry. It's a dad joke.
It's Father's Day, I'm going to do all the dad jokes.
Jesus was in a tough position here.
If he said, all right, guys, let's rock, let's stone her, it
would do three things. Number 1, he would contradict
his own teachings about mercy, forgiveness, and compassion.
OK #2 he would appear harsh and unloving to the people who saw
him as merciful. If he was like, let's stone
this, this lady and #3 he would also run afoul of Roman law
because Roman, the Romans had restricted Jewish authority from
carrying out capital punishment. OK, now if he says, well, hold
up, let's just show some grace here.
Let's how about we don't stone her?
That would have done a few things.
Number 1, he would now appear to contradict or dismiss the law of
Moses, which clearly commanded death for adultery #2 the
Pharisees could accuse him of being a false teacher who
undermines God's law. They love that.
And #3 they could claim he was leading people away from
obedience to scripture. So what the heck does Jesus do?
What he doesn't do is he doesn't engage in their catch 22
situation and he doesn't get caught up in their religious
rhetoric. He simply takes action.
See, the Pharisees made a huge mistake here.
They expected Jesus to be her prosecutor, but he was actually
her defender. And if you find yourself maybe
today, maybe in your life currently, you are the person
caught in sin, I want to tell you that you can trust your
defender. You have a defender.
He's a defender you can trust. Let me show you why.
He goes on to say that Jesus bent down and wrote with his
finger on the ground and as they continued to ask him, he stood
up and said to them, let him who is without sin among you be the
first to throw a stone at her and then once more he bent down
and he wrote on the ground. You can trust Jesus as your
defender because he gets his hands dirty.
When my car, the beautiful silver Corolla is there's
something wrong with it never happens, by the way.
But if something were to happen wrong with it and I went to a
mechanic or I asked the guy, Hey, do you know anything about
cars? Can you help me?
He's like, sure, I could help you.
I'm great with cars and he's got beautiful, clean, dainty hands.
No, that's like me, like I don't know.
But if I go to the guy and say, Hey, my car needs fixed, do you
know anything about cars? He's like, of course I do.
And his hands are disgusting. And he's got the kind of, you
know, like the dirt that just it doesn't you can't get it out.
It's just there forever and you're and his hands are all
rough. That's the guy I want working on
my car because I know that guy gets his hands dirty.
He means what he says. That's why you can trust Jesus.
He doesn't condemn her. He goes right into action and
comes to her defense. Have you, have you ever
experienced that in your life where I mean, you messed up
really bad, you got yourself into some trouble and you went
to a person and they could probably say, hey, you're an
idiot man, and they could condemn you and they can do all
that stuff. But they didn't, and they lead
with love. Have you ever experienced that
in your life? I have.
When I was in my early 20s, I had a decently paying job and I
was single, which means I was really dumb with my money and I
had no savings. And I I had, I had a lot of
money, but not in the bank. I just had a lot of cool stuff
in my apartment and my roommate one time wrote me a bad check.
So when I, I went and, you know, cashed the check and went on
with my life and I got like these notifications that I was
severely overdrawn. And because of that, there was a
overdraft fee. And because of the overdraft
fee, there was a another fee, you know, and then because of
that, there's a three fee effect that comes in when you have
three fees. They had another fee.
And so I had all these fees, said the word fee a lot there.
But the point is I had like negative like $1000 or
something. It was crazy.
And So what do I do? So I called my dad and it's
like, dad, I got myself some trouble, wasn't super smart with
my money. And now I'm like in the hole,
what do I do? And he could have been like,
Nate, you're an idiot. I taught you better than that.
But he didn't. He's like, well, we both were at
the same bank. He's like, you know what?
I know a guy. Oh, OK.
Do you ever you know a guy who like knows a guy?
I love those guys. They know guys.
Like my dad was AI know a guy guy.
Everywhere we went, we could be in a different city hours away
from we lived, and there'd be a guy at the bus station like, is
that Bill Parrish? What's up?
And we're at Disneyland one time and some random person is like
Bill Parish, what's up? And he's like, and I was like,
how do you know that guy's like, oh, he's a guy.
We I know a guy I don't know. And so he knew a guy at the bank
and he went to the bank and then he called me the next day and
said, all right, Nate took care of it.
You're good. What does that mean?
And he's like, I went and talked to my friend at the bank, told
him your situation and said, Hey, can you help my son out?
You know, he's kind of dumb and you help them out.
And they said, yeah, sure, we'll reverse all the fees and put
them back at 0. Awesome.
This is why you can trust Jesus as your defender, because he
doesn't defend you from a distance.
My dad went to the bank. You know, he didn't just call
them. He got in the car.
He drove down there. He walked in, He sat across from
his friend. He put his reputation on the
line for me. And that's exactly, exactly what
Jesus does for you. He doesn't defend from heaven's
throne. He came down, he put on human
flesh and he got his hands dirty with our mess.
So in this story, he, you know, they're, they're bringing all
these accusations. You know, it's funny because he
doesn't even address their accusations.
I just imagined them talking, you know, they're just yapping
at Jesus and he doesn't even address our accusation.
He just gets to doodling, OK, and just starts, just starts
writing. Now, we don't know what he
wrote. No one knows what he wrote.
Doesn't say. Of course I got to have a theory
here. I have a theory.
OK, Nate's racer, I think, I think it was something like
this. He starts writing and then you
have the two Pharisees. You have Pharisee Carl and
Pharisee Steve or whatever. Sorry, Pastor Steve is not
personal, but so Carl's like, what are you going to do?
Jesus, You're going to stone her.
We're not going to stone her. What are you going to do with is
he writing in the what is he doing?
What's he writing there? Steve, can you see it?
It says Cynthia. What the heck is Cynthia?
And, and Steve's like starting to sweat.
Don't you know a girl named Cynthia?
I mean, she's not your wife, but she like, and then Carl's like,
you know what, turns out I'm late for like a Pharisee thing.
So you guys decide you're going to Stoner or whatever and just,
I think Jesus started writing the commandments that they had
broken in the dirt. Now we don't know.
It's actually not important what he wrote.
What's important is who wrote it?
The text says that he wrote with his finger.
Now Jesus was God in human flesh.
That makes this finger the finger of God.
Why is this significant? Well, in Exodus 31 there's a
story about Moses getting the 10 commandments right.
The 10 commandments are the stone tablets.
The the laws were written on the stone tablets with the finger of
God. So the same hands that wrote the
law on the stone tablets are now riding in the dirt, showing
mercy to lawbreakers just like us.
And Jesus did this a lot in his earthly ministry.
He, he got his hands dirty a lot.
We read about him washing the disciples feet.
That's not just like, oh, take your shoes and socks off and
I'll wash your feet. This is like gross.
They all wore, you know, flip flops or whatever.
They're walking everywhere, dirt, you know, think of all the
other gross stuff that they're walking in and Jesus washes
their feet. Should be the other way around
because the servant is the one that washes the feet.
But Jesus is a king who comes and serves us and he gets his
hands dirty. He washes their feet.
He also worked as a Carpenter. So you know the guy I was
talking about with like the rough hands that knows what he's
doing, That was also Jesus. So Jesus is not unfamiliar with
hard work in the plight of the blue collar worker.
He also healed through touch. He healed the leper with his
hands. Now, I don't know if you know
about leprosy, but it's not something that you want to put
your hands on, OK? It was actually considered
unclean and if you touched them, you were defiled.
But Jesus touched him anyways. There's also a story where
there's a blind man and he's asking for healing, so Jesus
heals him. And he could have just been
like, you're not blind and he's healed what he does and says.
He gets dirt, spits in it, makes mud and puts it on the dude's
eyes. And it's like, go wash that off
and you'll be able to see kind of weird, kind of weird.
But it's just another example of Jesus getting his hands dirty.
He doesn't defend us from a distance.
He gets in our mess. Now, whatever Jesus actually
wrote, whether it was Cynthia or whatever, one by one they they
all start. I'm sorry if there's anyone
named Cynthia in here. I, it was like the only name
that popped into my brain right now.
I didn't use a name for services.
Like I don't want to be offensive, but I'm sorry.
One by one they start leaving, starting with the oldest.
I think the oldest left first because they've just lived
longer and they've done more bad stuff.
So they end up all walking away. It says in verse 9.
But when they heard it, they went away 1 by 1 beginning with
the older ones. And Jesus was left alone with
the woman standing before him. And Jesus stood up and said to
her woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?
She said no one Lord. And Jesus said neither do I
neither do I condemn you. Go.
And from now on sin no more. Some of you currently right now
sitting in this room, you're the woman caught.
You're the man caught. Just being direct.
Stop hiding. Stop hiding.
Practically speaking, I'm talking.
You need to tell someone. You need to talk to someone.
Ask God to show you a person in your mind you need to talk to.
Maybe you already know that person.
I'm giving you permission right now to text in church.
I'm not even going to get you in trouble and text that person,
say, hey, I really messed up, can we talk?
Can you get coffee? If you want to talk to me, I'll
be at Smitten tomorrow at 7:00 AM.
OK? If you know me, you know where
to find me. OK?
Talk to someone. You don't need to hide.
You can enter that courtroom of confession because your defender
is already there. Go before the judge.
Talk to someone and go before the judge.
God pray, ask for forgiveness. You can do that because Jesus
made a way. You don't need to hide.
He already paid the price for your forgiveness.
Sin has a way of compounding interest when you leave it
unchecked, when you don't show up for your court date, as it
were, you start getting those fees right.
There's a time when me and Rachel, we were had just been
married not very long and we were super poor and we would
take these trips to the Bay Area and the carpool lane in the Bay
Area is 3 or more people here. It's two right the heck.
So I got in there to to to do it and there's like, oh, it says 3
and I got out and it would took like the cop was like waiting
and he like pulled me over. You know, you were in the car
and I know, dude, I'm not from here.
And so he gave me the ticket, but it wasn't like the real
ticket. He was they were going to mail
me the real ticket. So months went by and I sort of
forgot and I was like, I guess he just let me go.
I guess I just charmed him. So am I say he let me go?
How nice of him. Instead though, I got another
letter in the mail and I was like, this is official looking
and it said that I owed like, I want to say I don't remember.
I want to say it was like between 700 and $1000 or
something crazy like that because evidently I had missed a
court date. What?
And so I thought, legitimately thought it was a scam, like this
is a scam. It's not real because that cop
wouldn't do that to me. So I called the number and said,
hey, hey, I'm just calling about the scam.
Yeah, you guys got me. Ha ha, ha, ha.
It's not real, right? She's like, oh, it's real.
It's very real, Mr. Parrish, Like, well, what happened?
Like, well, we sent you a ticket.
We sent it to your address. I was like, that's not my
address and I live there. She's like, oh, yeah, sorry.
Any who you missed the court date.
So now you owe this much money or you're going to be in
trouble. And so I we had like, we didn't
have this much money, you know, we had like this much money.
So I had to do something really difficult.
My dad had passed away maybe a year before that and he left me
a bunch of jewellery and this didn't occur to me until last
night but so I was going to wear his ring today.
This is all I have left but I'm not a ring guy.
I'm not sure how I feel about it.
What do you guys think? Going to punch someone in the
face with it? It's stuck so it doesn't matter,
but I wanted to wear this ring. And then it occurred to me as
like my dad, even even from beyond is still saving my butt
because I took his jewelry and I and I, I had to sell his jewelry
in the pawn guy. The pawn store guy was like, why
is this dude crying? What the heck?
And so but I kept this and a few other little things.
But the point is, and I missed my court date.
But the longer you stay in sin, it just compounds interest.
So if you have a court date and let's just say today's your
court date, we're going to call it today your court date, go
before the judge. Don't let that sin.
Emulate because it has ripple. Effects It affects more than
just you. The longer you stay and sin the.
Bigger the consequence now. Some of you might be thinking.
In this story. Well, that's awesome.
This whole story is very convenient, right?
The woman caught in adultery and she she broke the law, Nate.
Yeah, she did. She she was doing it.
She was sinning. She she did break the law.
OK, But she just gets to walk away.
Where's the justice? And that's.
Honestly, a fair. Question.
That's a fair question. But here's what I learned.
Is that Jesus didn't eliminate consequences.
He eliminated condemnation. There's a difference.
Sin has real effects. Your choices, positive or
negative, are going to have effects.
But she didn't have. To face the ultimate
consequence, which was separation from God.
That's what Jesus took on himself.
And I really appreciate that. I really appreciate that The
grace Jesus gives to us is not cheap.
It's not a throwaway thing. He paid a big price for that.
He paid his life for that. And now as a Christian.
Myself, I've been a Christian for a while.
Maybe you're in here. You've been a Christian for a
while. It's, it's, it's a little easier
for us seasoned Saints to become Pharisees, you know, because the
longer you're like, well, I start to, you know, I don't sin
that much anymore. And I do this.
And, and then you see someone else who's like really messed
up, like, oh, stone them, you know, let's stone them.
Believe it or not, that's that's pretty easy to do.
But if you if you, it happens when you forget the grace you
were given. Because that grace you were
given? Gives you the opportunity to
become a defence attorney for someone else now if you're
finding. Yourself.
And in the position of the Pharisee, maybe you're not the
woman caught, but you're the Pharisee.
You have an opportunity because of this grace to become a
defence attorney for someone else.
So what? Does that look like well?
Simply put, if you look at the order of Jesus's confrontation
in this story, it's significant. Jesus leads with compassion, and
then he. Leaves.
Us with with truth he leads with compassion and leaves us with
truth in that order and that's important and that's intentional
when I. Was getting into.
Church again in in my early 20s and there was a friend of mine
who is a youth pastor and, you know, I'm like this tattooed guy
where I play guitar and it's kind of a mess and he's like,
well, how about you join the worship team and you know, we
can, we can help you, OK And join the worship.
I had no business being in this worship team, you know, And I
remember there was a night where I had this, I was in this really
unhealthy relationship and I knew it was wrong, but I just
couldn't like get out of. It or didn't want to get.
I wasn't. I wasn't brave.
Enough. To get out of it, right.
And so after practice one night, I felt like I just got to talk
to Kenny about this. His name's Kenny.
What's up, Kenny? Thanks, buddy.
So yeah, he's like, how's it going, Nate?
I'm like, it's good, except for super bad.
This is going on. And he's like, oh, and I
remember this visually because it, it stuck out to me, but
it's, it makes sense now as I'm sitting in my car and Kenny,
like, kneels down like, so we're like level.
I was like, whoa. I was like Jesus, I was like,
what happened, you know, And I just started talking to him and
he was very loving and very compassionate.
He didn't judge me. He wasn't like you did that
under my. Leadership.
Stone. Him.
Let's Stone, Nate. He didn't do that.
He's like, tell me. About it.
And as I'm talking, you know, I'm, I'm more comfortable
because I'm like this guy. I could trust him, right?
He's getting his hands dirty with me.
I can trust this guy and I spill my guts.
And then after that, you know, he just, he looks for, he waits
for the opportunity and he's like, well, sounds like you need
to end this relationship, mate. I'm like, yeah, totally.
He's like, well, how are we going to do it?
And so he's like helping me through it.
Perfect example of a person who leads with compassion and leaves
us with truth. And that's what Jesus did.
And that's what you could do instead of being a Pharisee,
That's what I could do. I tend to be more of probably
more of a Pharisee in this situation.
That's what we can do. We can become a defence attorney
for someone else. So when someone confides in you
with their sin, you ask, how can I help?
How can I get my hands dirty in this situation?
And then where can I speak truth?
Because at some point we will all be one of these two people
sometimes. We're both and.
That's really complicated, but you will find yourself in one of
these two places at some point in your life.
And here's the thing, both the adulterer and the Pharisee find
forgiveness in the same place. Because don't you know, don't
let this slip here. The Pharisee's in the wrong too.
Those guys were in the wrong just like she was.
They both find forgiveness in the same place.
Before the judge, you got to go. Before the judge now.
I've started this message off with a really cool story about
me being in a human video. Now you guys all know what human
videos are. You're welcome.
And years later, I actually got to meet Carmen.
I think you have a fabulous picture I can show you.
Boom. Now look at the joy on my.
Face, it's just I. Mean that is a.
Sincere smile. Beautiful.
So that was 20/17/2018 ish. And the radio station, my buddy
Matt Pelischek, he gave me tickets.
He's like, hey, do you and your wife you want 2 tickets to see
Carmen? I was like, yes.
And we saw Carmen. I was just.
Like sitting there like yeah, do do the one about the courtroom
or whatever. And afterwards we got to meet
Carmen. And it's funny because you know
Danny that plays bass up here. You know Danny, he all know.
Give it up for Danny. So I didn't know Danny at the.
Time but he was doing security right and he was the one that
was like guarding Carmen and so when I got into the front of the
line he goes hey Carmen, that guy plays in Cutlass and I'm not
joking. Carmen goes what?
I love Cutlass. And so.
We we talked for like right, a long time, actually got in
trouble because they're like, what are you guys doing?
We were just like talking about music and like comparing tattoos
and he he had just gotten tattoos, you know, so he's like,
I don't show people, but check it out, you know, and it was so
dude, it was so cool. And so just kind of casually, I
bring up like, man, thank you for doing what you did.
Like he, you know, he was doing his thing in the in the 80s and
he was filling stadiums and doing all that.
And I was like, thank you for doing that.
Because, you know, without guys like you, you know, Cutlass
wouldn't, we wouldn't be where we're at.
And he like starts crying. I know he starts crying.
I was like. And.
It was the most beautiful thing. And he's like, no one's ever
said that to me. I was like, well, people are
stupid, Carmen. And we should stone them.
I was like, well, let me. Be the first.
As a dude that plays in Cutlass, thank you for paving the way,
dude. And it was like this beautiful
thing. And then the someone came over
and they're like, what are you guys doing?
The line is like 1000 years long and you're talking and, and
Carmen's like chill. This is my friend Nate.
And it was great. And he and sadly he passed away
a few years after that. And so I was super stoked.
Yeah. Just going to look at this for a
while. It was really cool.
And when I was putting this message together, that courtroom
song that he did popped into my head.
I don't know why. I mean, it makes sense now, but
that's what popped into my head as I was preparing the sermon.
So I went back. I was like, I should probably
listen to the song. And I haven't listened to it in
like 20 years. And it is a, it's a pretty
cheesy song, I'm not going to lie, you know, but I, I read the
lyrics to this song and wow, they're like, it's like a very
powerful presentation of the gospel in like a creative way,
you know, this courtroom scenario.
So I'm going to actually read you some of these lyrics.
I'm not going to like sing it or do it like Carmen.
I mean, I'll do it a little bit, but not really.
But basically this summarize the first part of the song is you're
in the courtroom of heaven, OK? And you walk in and God the
judges before you, and Satan gets up, jumps up on a table,
doesn't fall, and he does his whole thing.
He lays out his whole case. He talks about all the sins
you've done, all the things you've done.
And God's like, Yep, Yep, Yep, OK, Yep.
And this is where the song picks up.
It says now if it's true. You are standing there in the
courtroom of eternity with God to your front and Satan Nate,
the prosecutor to your left. There's one remaining remaining
eternal truth, one that's crucial to remember, one you
should never, ever, ever forget. Then on the other side of the
courtroom, Dun, Dun, I said, on the other side of the courtroom,
Dun Dun, you ain't hearing me tonight.
I said on the other side of the courtroom, yes, is the one and
only Son of God revealed in time and space, and he's your defense
attorney who has never lost a case.
It's not Buddha, Muhammad or Krishna.
Or any others who succumbed to death.
Ladies and gentlemen, on the other side of the courtroom is
Jesus Christ of Nazareth. Then Jesus jumps up and says
Now. Wait a minute, Judge, I got
something to say. May I remind you that on a cross
2000 years ago, I washed his sins away.
I was crucified. I died.
They put me in a tomb. About the midnight hour, the
power of God hit me and I walked out of that grave alive and well
with resurrection power. Then the devil says it's in the
book, it's written in the book, check the book.
God said, OK, He takes the book out, lays it open.
He says, now we'll see what this book has to say.
Turns to the first page, the second, the third.
By the 4th, the devil seems shook.
God closes it and says the blood of Jesus must have worked
because there's nothing in this book.
And the devil says, wait a minute.
Check that book again. All his sins are written.
They're all right there. God says, devil, Maybe you're
mistaken altogether. Maybe it's this other book down
here and the devil cries. No, not that book, not that one.
I actually remember doing that. So God said, devil, why are you
so uptight? God sets the book down.
The dust flies the cover. It says the Lamb's book of life
that goes on and says your name in that book.
If you've been forgiven and your name is written, then raise your
hands, praise the Lord and the song ends with this court is
adjourned. It's pretty cool, man.
I expect to get like emotional reading that, but it's pretty
cool. Good old Carmen.
But maybe you're here today and you know, you actually don't
know where you're standing is in the courtroom of heaven before
God. I want to.
Tell you that no matter what, you've.
Done. No matter what you're doing, you
can be forgiven because you have a defender.
Your defender is Jesus, and although he lived a sinless
life, he took your sins away, was crucified on the cross,
paying the debt we owed for God, paying the debt we owed to God
for breaking his laws. He rose again.
Three days. Later, for all justification,
you have a defender he gets his hands dirty in.
Fact. He gets his hands bloody.
For us, if you're here today and you don't know Jesus as your
Lord and Savior, you need forgiveness of your sins and you
want to follow Jesus today I'm going to lead us in a prayer.
So if you do me a favour, would everyone bow your heads, close
your eyes? I'm.
Going to say this prayer. And you can repeat after me out
loud if you want. You can repeat quietly to
yourself. But if this is you, I want you
to repeat this prayer after me, Jesus.
I know I am a Sinner who? Cannot save myself.
I want you to save me and adopt me into your family.
Forgive me of my sins. I surrender everything to you.
I receive your promise of forgiveness, adoption, and
eternal life. Jesus will you today.
Be my Lord. If you said that prayer.
With no one else looking around just for me, would you do me a
favor and raise your hands just so I could see it?
Thank you. Amen.
OK, guys can look up if you. Just committed your life to
Jesus. For the very first time, welcome
to the family of God. Just a moment, we're going to
continue on. We're.
Actually going to take communion, we're going to sing
another song together, and we're going to have prayer up front.
As always, there will be people up here that want to pray with
you. So if you need prayer, please,
please, please come up. And if you did raise your hand
or said that prayer, please go to the back.
We have these tables that say I raised my hand.
We want to meet you, pray with you, give you a gift, whatever,
whatever you need. We want to be there for you and
help you on your next steps in your journey.
But hey man, I want to say man, happy Father's Day to all the
dads out there. And if your dad is here, send
him a text, call him, give him a hug and give him a steak because
we like. That.
Hey man, love you guys.