Acts - Included, but Ignorant

Sozo Church is based in Spokane, Washington. You're listening to the Sozo Podcast. All of the stuff that we believe because of our broken experiences need to be admitted and abandoned and come in alignment with the truth of what he declares. The truth of what he has accomplished. Please enjoy this week's message. God is by His very nature Father, Son, and Spirit. The Father sends the Son. The Son does His work and allows the Holy Spirit to finish it. They partner with one another.

By his nature, he is a partner in God, and so he partners with us. So what we're going to do is we're going to do the same thing biblically that we did last week. We're going to turn in the scriptures to Acts 4, verse 12. We're going to read one verse, but don't worry, we're going to read a bunch of verses.

Let's stand to our feet for the reading of the Scriptures. We love the Scriptures. Amen? Love them because they show us Jesus. They tune our ears to the frequency of His voice. so that we can love and worship the Word who is Jesus. Amen? All right, I'm going to read a bunch of verses. I'm not going to talk about them as much as I did last week, which is maybe true. Maybe less than true.

But we're going to just look at these just so we get them in our hearing so that when I'm talking about stuff, we kind of have a shared understanding of what the heck we're talking about. This is Genesis 3, verse 14. It says, allusionment to my creation, to Adam and Eve, to our first parents, because you've done this. Cursed are you above all livestock and above all the beasts of the field. On your belly you shall go, and dust you shall eat.

all the days of your life. I will put enmity between you and the woman and between your offspring and her offspring. He shall bruise your head and you shall bruise his heel. It will be important to us here in a little bit. John 1, 1 through 5 says, In the beginning was the Word. Who's the Word? Jesus. In the beginning was the Word. The Word was with God, and the Word was God.

So again, I know where I'm at. I know how careful I have to be in saying this. The Bible is not the word of God. Jesus is the word of God. The Bible is the word of God. Jesus is the word of God. Can you hear my capitals? Okay. We just wanted to see. I say that because when you read in the scriptures, what the word does, I don't want you to think religiously that reading your Bible does that.

And rob from Christ the glory that only belongs to him. He does all the things that the word says that are done in our lives. Amen? So in the beginning it was the word, and the word was with God, and the word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things. How many things? All things were made through him. Without him was not anything made that was made. In him was life.

We're going to see in a minute that hasn't changed. In him was life and the life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness and the darkness has not overcome it.

Greek there could just as easily be translated cannot overwhelm it. Cannot comprehend it. It's beyond its capacity. It's from another dimension. John 1.14 says this. The word, that is who? Jesus became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen His glory. Glory as the only begotten Son from the Father, full of grace and truth. We go on to John 3.16. For God so... For God so... For God so... For God so... Hated, despised, abhorred. Loved. For God so loved the world that He...

gave his only begotten son that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. Everybody say eternal life. For God did not send his son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. Why did the father send the son? To save the world. Do we think Jesus went back to heaven victorious or defeated?

What the heck is eternal life? I'm glad you asked. John answers that. John 17.3 says, and this is eternal life, that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.

So it's not about a quantity of days, it's about a quality of days. 1 John 2 says this, He is the propitiation for our sins and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the... Whole world. Jesus is the savior of the world. Propitiation, complicated Greek word, simplified, simplest way we can define it is this. It's the way God deals with our sin.

1 Peter 2.24 says this, He Himself bore our sins in His body on the tree that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By His wounds you have been healed. Healed. Again, I want to stress this when we talk, read this verse because it's important to me. Do we believe as a church that God still physically heals people's physical bodies? That is not, yes, you're right. Sorry, sorry. A plus.

Awesome job. I'm moving too quick. Yes, yes, yes. Amen, amen. Good job. Two gold stars. That has nothing to do with what this verse is talking about. This verse... is not speaking of our physical healing. Rather, it is saying that the appropriate way for us to perceive our salvation is not our legal paperwork got dealt with, but rather our souls got healed.

Romans chapter five, verse seven says, for one will scarcely die for a righteous person, though perhaps for a good person, one might dare even to die. But God shows his love for us that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. For if while we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his son, much more now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life. Last verse before we get to Acts says this, he saved us.

That ought to be enough fuel for you to worship for at least the next 10 minutes. Come on, somebody. He saved us. Not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit. Come on, is God good or is God good? Those are your two options this morning. Multiple choice test. Is God good or is God good? God is always and God is only and forever good. He can't be anything other than good.

Acts chapter 4 verse 12 says this, And there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given amongst men by which we must be saved. Where does salvation come from? Jesus. Let's pray together and ask Holy Spirit to continue to speak to us. Holy Spirit, we thank you for the voice in the Scriptures heard by your people. Jesus, we thank you that your sheep, come on, hear your voice. And we won't listen to anyone else.

God, we're not interested in the ramblings of a preacher. We're not interested in human opinion. We're not interested in cunningly devised schemes made up for us by manipulative people. We want to hear you speak. align our lives with the truth of who you are because you only say who you are. You are not a man that you should lie.

There is not a shadow of turning within you. There is no shifting or hiddenness. There's nothing. God, as your angels dance around you in the throne room, all they see is goodness. You are good, God. God, I thank you that you do not sleep nor slumber, therefore you can't get up on the wrong side of the bed. You never have a bad day. You never are off.

God, you always and only do good. You are a God who by your very nature, by the core of your being, at the very level of your is-ness, you are love. And we rejoice in that love toward us made known through Jesus in the Holy Spirit for our good and your glory. Let us receive your word, receive your love, respond to your word, respond to your love, and be true.

transformed, God, being doers like you, Jesus. In Jesus' name, everybody said? Come on, everybody said? Amen. Amen. I want to talk to you this morning. You sit down. I want to talk to you this morning. Included?

and ignorant. Included and ignorant, my goal this morning is to thrust us into an encounter with the God who winks. If that confuses you, buckle up. It's going to be a fun Sunday. Let's make sure we're all together in this. Let's make sure we're all... on the same page. Again, I did this last week. This is the only part that I'm going to kind of revisit just because it's really important to me. It's really important to me as the...

as the one entrusted with the primary weight of teaching this house, it's important to me that we have a shared vocabulary. There are no... Talk to me. There are no classes that teach Christianese, yet the church seems to be fluent in it. I won't talk about anybody behind their back, but I had an encounter with a gentleman this week that spoke such fluent Christianese that it genuinely almost caused a physical gag reflex to go off in me.

We use all these terms, we use all these words, and we learn how to use the words even though we don't always know what they mean. And so I want to get together and I want to define some terms. I'm going to go quicker than I did last week, which again, probably isn't true. We say gospel. What do we mean by gospel? You group around the church, well, gospel is good news. Yes, but the problem with hearing that over and over and over again is it starts to lose its meaning.

We start to forget what that actually means. So I'm trying to awaken the language here a little bit. It's not just good news. It's the scandalous message, come on, of God's grace. Have you ever stopped for a moment and realized that the gospel really is truly, at its core, a scandalous message? It's not just good news. It's crazy good news. It's ridiculously good news. It's the shocking declaration, come on, that God is good. And that God is the only true source of life, love, and light.

Do we believe that? Here's how you know if you believe that or not. If someone's alive, where'd that life come from? It's the powerful proclamation that by means of the incarnation of Jesus, God has made good on His promise to crush the serpent and free us from our darkness.

We rejected God and rebelled against Him and He rejected our rejection. Athanasius puts it this way, when men... rejected God and began to lapse into non-being, our response to His goodness, being a rejection of Him, caused in Him the great and eternal echo of the shout of no. We said, God, I don't want you. And God said, too bad. It's the declaration, come on, that when we rebelled, God still showed up.

We choose to say, God, we believe the lie of the serpent that says you've hidden good in what you say is bad, that you are not actually good, that you are deceiving, that you withhold good from us. We're going to choose to. That's what the whole story of Adam and Eve. Biting an apple or a pear or peeling a banana, whatever fruit you want to choose. I think we like making it an apple because it required no peeling. I just fell into sin. It just happened.

The whole point of this account is to show us that our first parents set a precedent that we've all followed in rejecting God as always and only good. And so we choose to go looking for good in places he says are bad. And from that we reap death in our life according to the scriptures. And when we did that, when we embarked on this journey, we painted the face of God to be a God of anger and wrath and judgment toward us. We're going to understand judgment here in a minute. Just track with me.

But the reality is this. The first response that God has to sinful people is to ask where we are. The implication in the story is this, that God and Adam had a walk every day. They took a walk together every day and that God showed up for this walk. It seems to be at the same time in the same place every day and he would walk with Adam.

And after the fall, God still showed up for the walk. And Adam's not there. And he's like, hey, Adam, where are you? And he's like, I'm hiding because I'm naked. And he's like, who told you you are naked? Right? He uncovers the reality of this. And at that very moment, he promises to deliver us from our darkness, sown into us by the serpent, by crushing the serpent and freeing us from our darkness. Darkness is deception, delusion, depravity, and death.

Go back last week. I unpacked that even more. Don't have time. I mentioned incarnation, that all this happens because of the incarnation. What do we mean by incarnation? The incarnation is the reality that God the Son, Jesus, has become one with us by becoming one of us. This is the good news that we seem to have forgotten outside of the Orthodox Church. That the incarnation, hear me, cannot be overstated.

The importance, the centrality of the incarnation cannot be overstated. The incarnation encompasses. When we say incarnation, when I use that term around here, I want you to think that about everything that encompasses. and was accomplished through Jesus' humanity, through his life, through his death, through his burial, and his resurrection. All of those things. Jesus lived as a human. Jesus died as a human.

Jesus was buried as a human. Jesus was resurrected as a human. This is where Christians start to go like, is this a trick question? He ate and drank after he was raised. He also walked through walls. So we seem to be limited in our humanity, but he's not in his. He was resurrected, come on, in his humanity. Amen? Here's where it gets real hard. He ascended in his humanity.

Which means right now, seated at the right hand of the Father, face to face, in perfect union with the Father, in the Holy Spirit, is a human man. A human being. We in Him were included into all that He experiences and knows and loves in His Father. Incarnation.

Next, we see this. Salvation. What the heck do we mean by salvation? This is important to us because it's literally our name. Sozo is the Greek word for salvation. It is the healing. Did you hear me? Healing. The restoration, reconciliation. and redemption accomplished by Jesus for us. Who accomplishes the salvation? Who is the salvation for? Okay.

That is the work of God for us that brings us fully, freely, and forever out of our darkness. What's darkness? Deception, delusion, depravity, and death. Out of all of that and into, come on, come on, into his marvelous light. Last one, repentance or repent. Again, I want to say this every time we're defining this word. Repentance has nothing to do with penance. Penance is about you doing something to show how sorry you are or to earn merit or achieve your own soul's experience of forgiveness.

Anybody else have experience in religions that call you to confess your sins to somebody and for them to give you a penance to do so you feel better about your sin? Repentance sounds like it's related to that, but the words have no ontological relationship. So don't think repentance is repentance. Repentance or to repent is to have a change of mind or more clearly a transformation of thought. It's to think differently. It's to admit and abandon false beliefs, concepts, and ideas.

to agree and align with the truth about God, about humanity, about myself, and about all of creation. Listen, that means all of us have room to repent. Again, I know, gentlemen, it's hard for us, but we can say it. I was wrong. I can admit that, I guess, if I have to. Right? It's not easy, come on, to always admit this, but... ultimately, what we're admitting, I don't want to oversimplify this, it ought to be easy for us because we're admitting that we're wrong. Because we're wrong.

We're not admitting that we're wrong because we want to make somebody think that we're willing to admit that we're wrong even though we don't think we're wrong. Repentance is about when we come face to face with the truth, we just stop wrestling with it and admit that it's true and we're wrong.

And it brings about liberation and life and fullness and joy in our lives, nothing else. So we defined all these words, right? We defined gospel, we defined incarnation, we defined salvation, and we defined repentance. So now I can say this, and we can all understand. And you're going to amen really good. And you're going to be excited about this statement. And you're going to all be in line with it. We preach the gospel.

By declaring and demonstrating the reality of the incarnation as the salvation of humanity, calling all people everywhere to repentance. That is the role of the church. That is the role of believers. That is what we do around here. We don't do a whole lot else, but that's what we do. We preach the Gospel. Come on. We preach the Gospel. We proclaim the ridiculous, crazy, good news of how good God is. How He has saved us. He did this by Jesus becoming one of us. One with us.

He does this as the means of bringing healing to our interior world. Reconciliation to our relationship with Him. Redemption of our lives. And so therefore, we ought to admit and abandon all the dumb stuff we believe about who he is, who we are. how our world works, how humanity is, all of the stuff that we believe because of our broken experiences need to be admitted and abandoned and come in alignment with the truth of what he declares.

The truth of what he has accomplished. We do this, again, by declaration with our words and by demonstration. By the demonstration, listen, yes, of signs, wonders, and miracles. We are that kind of church. We believe it. We have seen it. We will continue to see it. We are growing in it. But we also demonstrate it, come on, by our lives being healed.

By our souls being made free of the fragmentation that caused us to be incapable, come on, of holding the light and love and life that we are designed and desired for. And that begins to be healed. And listen, listen, I'm hearing testimonies. I'm sharing these testimonies, but I'm also hearing testimonies from the house of people saying like, people are just coming up to me and going like, what the heck is different about you?

What is that? That's the light and love and life of God taking up permanent residence within us, not making a visitation once a week with us. As we repent and healing comes to our interior worlds.

I said it this way. We read it in the ESV. I like reading it in the Passion because it's just beautiful. There is no one else who has the power to save us. I don't want us to slip from this. No one else has the power to save us. For there is only one name to whom God has given authority by which we must express. Experience salvation. What is that? The name of Jesus, which is Yahweh saves. Yahweh is our salvation. The God of gods is the one who redeems us, who reconciles us.

Come on, that means this. We preach to everyone everywhere because of the reality of Jesus' accomplished work. Come on, God is presently, because of that reality, God is presently... personally and powerfully at work throughout all of his creation that is in the hearts and lives of all people to awaken them to the truth of their liberation from the illusion of their bondage to darkness. God is right now at work to do that. He's not waiting to be at work to do that. He's right now working

to accomplish that in everyone's lives. Jesus has broken down every wall of separation. He's kicked open every prison door. He has destroyed every shackle and chain. And he is no longer limited. Come on. by any geographic, ideological, or even theological ideas at work in people's lives. He is free to work in all people. I'm going to show you this is true in a minute. You should get excited about it now.

He does, however, choose to partner with those who have already become aware of this truth. Those who are believers in the gospel to bring about the fullness of this revelation into the lives of those still ignorant of their freedom. We see this beautifully. We saw this last week in Peter's life. Remember? I'll re-preach. I'm happy to re-preach last week's message.

Right? Peter becomes awakened to this. He had limited, he thought Jesus just died for Israel. God had to break into his life, change his theology through an encounter with Holy Spirit. Open up his eyes to see the reality that Jesus wasn't the Savior of Israel. Jesus is the Savior of the world. So he ought to be out proclaiming the salvation of Jesus to the world.

Because the world has been saved by Jesus. And they need to know about it. Because they're currently living in ignorance of it. Hence the title of our message. They're included, but they're ignorant.

And we're going to see how important that is and the ramifications of that and God's response to that in just a moment. But he chooses, come on, to partner with us in proclaiming this so people can come into a fuller experience. I love that. I love the way that the Passion uses that. An experience of their salvation.

Okay, so here's what I want to do. We looked at Peter's last week, right? He became aware of this. He walked into it. Holy Spirit helped him. What I want to do today is see how Paul, the other great apostle in the book of Acts, responded to this same truth so we're going to go to acts chapter 17 verse 22

We're going to read this together. I am going to read this out of the ESV. Last week, I read out of the New Living because it was more of a story. This is more of a sermon, so I want to kind of be able to push and pull on some words, so we're going to read it out of the ESV. I want to make a few comments as I read through it, but then we'll do it. jump in and look at it as a whole here in just a moment. So Acts chapter 17, verse 22 through 34. So Paul's standing in the midst of the Areopagus.

Pause. The heck are we talking about? Anybody know where the Areopagus is? It's in Athens. You could probably guess that if you kept reading, right? It's a part of Greece. Athens is a cool city, was a cool city in Rome. Athens was sort of, sort of, not exactly, but sort of the LA of Rome.

It was sort of the artistic, influential, sort of trend-setting kind of hub of the world in that day. So in that day, poets, philosophers, thinkers, in that day, scientists were sexy. They're not so much now, but back then they were. And they were kind of the hip, kind of cutting-edge people. It was a very cutting-edge, you could say, city. It influenced much of the world. The arts, the social...

the philosophical ideas, even the religious ideas. In some translations, it might call this Mars Hill. Same place, same destination. It's Mars Hill, it's Areopagus, same thing. So Paul goes there, he wanders around the city, and he gets brought.

to the Areopagus. I'll just point out, he walks around the city, he gets frustrated, we're going to see about why, something stirs in his spirit, he goes to his normal place, which is the synagogue, he begins to preach there, they don't want anything to do with him, but some of the people that are part of Mars Hill, part of the Areopagus,

who are kind of the sort of the council of all of the biggest trendsetters it's like all the people with a billion followers on twitter or youtube or tick twitch or whatever the heck you hipsters are doing these days

with your Google phones. Okay, so he gets asked to go speak with them, and so he travels there, and he goes and speaks to them, and that's where we pick up our story here. So Paul, standing in the midst of the Areopagus, said, Men of Athens, I perceive that in every way... you are very religious. I love this because the circle has completed and this means today exactly what it meant back then.

If you're religious, you think that's a compliment. And if you're not, you know it's a backhanded compliment. Same thing. He's saying you're very superstitious. You're very spiritual. You're really into kind of mysticism and all these things. He's trying to show them he's aware of kind of their cultural moment and their cultural culture that they're in. He says you are very religious.

Religious. For as I passed along and observed the objects of your worship. Objects of your worship. Back in verse 16 of chapter 17, it says that when Paul saw these things, he was... provoked in his spirit. He was supernaturally provoked, listen, listen, by what he naturally perceived. So what he understood was there's more going on in this city than just some cool hipster artistic people.

there's a spiritual undercurrent that's happening amongst them that they might not even be aware of. So he engages with them in this. He says, as I did this, I found also an altar with the inscription, To the unknown God. What you therefore, what therefore you worship as unknown, I proclaim to you. Now just wait here for a second. I want to make this statement before we jump in.

Understand what he's saying. They had all of these idols, all of these shrines, all of these monuments made to all of these different gods. The idea of the pantheon of gods at this point was that different gods oversaw different things. So you've got gods of, literally, you've got gods of beer.

and wine. You've got gods of the arts. You've got gods of fertility. You've got gods of business. You've got gods of money. You've got gods of politics. And people worship all these gods. And they get within themselves this agitation, this worry, this concern like, well, what if there's a god we haven't thought of yet? Let's make him a shrine. Or her, we don't know. Like, let's just, an unknown God. I'm curious, was it just like a lump of Play-Doh? I mean, like... And Paul...

latches onto this. And we're going to see why, but what I want to point out is this. I want to point out Not the reason why and Paul uses it and that's awesome and we're going to see that that's important and we need to do the same thing. But what I want us to see more than that is this. If you are untethered from objective reality... You are left adrift by your subjective experience and therefore you are tossed to and fro by every wind and wave of doctrine.

Listen, I know it's just really, really, really boring and old school, but if there's nothing outside yourself that can tell you you're wrong, then you are tossed to and fro by everything. There's no stability. There's no safety. There's no security in your life. They're constantly having to make new gods.

They're constantly having to make new idols, new place stories, because what if we miss out on one? What if we don't understand? Because no one can actually show them the truth of what's going on in an unseen realm. So they're tossed to and fro. They're carried about. He says, what you therefore, come on, what therefore you worship as unknown, I proclaim to you.

The God who made the world and everything in it, being Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in temples made by man, nor is he served by human hands as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to, gives to who? What does he give to them? Life and breath and everything. I love that. It's like, hey, Paul, you could have skipped the first two.

Can you hear it in his voice? It's like, the God who made everything, he's the one who's giving you life. He's the one who's giving you breath. He's just giving you everything. Everything you have comes from him. Nothing you have is born of yourself. It is all from Him, He says. Verse 26. And He made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth.

having determined allotted periods and the boundaries of their dwelling place. That they should seek God and perhaps feel their way toward Him and find Him. Yet He is actually... not far from each of us. Wait a minute, I thought we were separated from God. If it hasn't bothered you yet, Paul's about to do two things that are going to bother you. One, he's going to prove to you that you're not separated from God. And two, he's going to do it by quoting secular music.

For in Him we live and move and have our being. Directly quoting a Greek philosopher. In Him... We live and move and have our being. We're not far from him. The only term Paul can think of to describe how much not far from him we are is to call us in him. As even some of your own poets have said, for we are indeed... His offspring. Well, not if they're not saved yet, Paul. Really? Because he goes on to even say, being then God's offspring.

We ought not think that the divine being is like gold or silver or stone, an image formed by the art and imaginations of man. The times of ignorance God overlooked. Right now. in your Bible, underline, highlight, circle, overlooked. If you don't like writing in your Bible, just turn to your neighbor and write in their Bible real fast.

The times of ignorance of God. We're going to come back to this. It ruined my week. But now he commands all people everywhere to repent. He commands all people everywhere to repent. Because he has fixed a day on which he will judge the world in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed, and of this he has given assurance, underline that, we're going to come back to that, assurance to all by raising him from the dead.

Now, when they heard of the resurrection of the dead, some mocked, but others said, we will hear you again about this. So Paul went out from their midst, but some men joined him and believed, among whom...

was Dionysus the Areopagite and a woman named Damaris and others with him. So let's just stop and let's look at this text now. I made some comments along the way. We're going to just jump in and see this. Understand this about Paul. Paul's mission.

He's on a missions trip. You can read through Acts. He's going from city to city, walking around. He's on a world tour. And he's going about, and Paul's mission is to awaken all people to the reality of their inclusion by calling them out of their ignorance. Paul does not preach this way because he's trying to get them to accept him. Rather, he's trying to awaken them to the reality of what is true of them in Christ.

He says this in Romans 1, verse 16 and 17, right? It says, for I am not ashamed of the gospel. He's saying, look, the way I preach is not born out of some shame toward the gospel, some embarrassment to how scandalous it is. I know how scandalous it is. I'm not ashamed of it, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes.

first and also to the Greek. That doesn't mean Jews get saved first and then we get saved. It means that's the way that the gospel spread. It started in the Jewish world and it spread out to all the world. For in it the righteousness of God is revealed by faith. For faith. As it is written, the righteous shall live by faith.

Paul does not limit his work to one specific group. He says it starts with Jews, it started with Jews, but now it is spread to the Greeks. Understand this, in the minds of the Jewish people, there were two groups of people, Jewish people and Greek people. That's just everybody. I know you might not be like, I'm, you know, Swahilian. Okay, you're included in Paul's mind as a Greek. You're just not a Jew. He had two kind of categories, people, Jews and non-Jews.

Can I say it this way? You have two categories for people as well, insiders and outsiders. And Paul here is saying those categories are worthless. You can't use those categories. He goes on to say this about the way that he ministers. I would encourage you to go back and read a few verses before this and he really unpacks this even more. We don't have time for it. But he says this, to the weak I become weak that I might win the weak. I have become all things.

To all people that by all means I might save some. I do it all for the sake of the gospel. I love this. That I may share with them in its blessing. I'm enjoying it already. I'm enjoying the blessing. I want them to share with me in this blessing. So I'm at work to awaken them to the reality of this. Not out of shame for the gospel. Not to trick anyone, but to reveal God's powerful personal present that is presently at work in their life. So in his sermon to these...

these leaders, these influencers, Paul makes it clear that humanity is substantially included in the life of God. Did you hear that in his message? He made you. In Him you live and move and have your being. He gives you life and breath and everything. He is working in your midst. He's... Okay, let me see if I can do this. Let me see if I can do this. Let me see if I can do this.

He's inspiring your poets to recognize these things. Do their poets have a full picture of what's going on? Absolutely not. He makes it clear. You guys are so lost. You're just like, I don't know, there's like an unknown God maybe? I don't know. But he's saying, but God's actually at work. He's set the period and the place of where your nation's going to exist.

He's working all these things to awaken within you a desire to seek and feel your way back to him. Even though, guess what? Newsflash, you're actually not that far from him. You're actually in him. You're substantially included in the life of God. and you are simultaneously ignorant of the nature of God. You are ignorant of the nature of yourself, and you are absolutely ignorant, he tells these people, of the way the unseen realm works.

You think everyone's equal and you do not realize this. There is a God who is above all these other unseen beings.

Listen, there is a spiritual reality, there is a spiritual realm, there is an unseen realm that is just as real as the one you and I can perceive with our senses. And he's telling them, you are messing with stuff you do not understand. I came here to call you out of your ignorance. I came here to respond to this.

Paul makes this clear. He calls people to repentance and faith. Understand this. I know I said it already. I'm going to say it again. Our repentance and our faith does not make Jesus our Savior. It is how we acknowledge and align our lives with the reality that he is our Savior. Okay, you seem to be okay with that, so let me see if we can go one more stepping stone further. You ready? Neither the fall, which we read about in Genesis, right?

neither the fall nor the cross changed God. It did not alter anything within the heart of God. See, that's not... That's not what religion told me. Religion told me God was really, really, really, really, really perturbed because it wasn't allowed to use language any stronger than that. really perturbed at me before the cross, but thankfully on his way to beat the hell out of me, Jesus stepped in the way. God beat the hell out of him and he was just too tired to have anything left for me.

And so He was changed by the cross. But what did we learn about the fall? God still showed up. Nothing changed in Him. Nothing changed after the cross for Him. It absolutely, neither the fall nor the cross changes God. It absolutely fundamentally changes everything about me. He does not change. I change.

I was affected by the fall. I was changed by the cross. If you don't believe this, just jump on your body. I'm not going to go there. I don't have time. I'm not going to go there. I don't have time. I'm not going to go there. I don't have time.

Romans chapter 5, verses 12 through 21. Just read those for yourself. If you have questions, ask the Holy Spirit. He's your teacher. The issue is not your inclusion in the life, love, and light of God.

I wanna be really, really clear. I wanna be really, really clear to make sure that I offend all the people that I need to offend so that we can be offended into the truth, not out of the truth. That statement that I just made, I'm gonna make it again. I'm gonna make it again so you can hear it. The issue is not your inclusion in the life, love, and light of God.

I am not talking just to Christians. I'm talking to everyone within the sound of my voice for as long as this recording lives. Your issue is not that you are not included in the life, love, and light of God. For that has been accomplished. For you, by Jesus. Not just, here's the part that bakes my noodle. Not just 2,000 years ago was that dealt with by Jesus for you.

But according to Revelation, it was done before the foundations of the earth. The cross is the manifestation of the Lamb that was slain before the foundations of the earth. 13.8 if you need to look it up. The issue... is that you are ignorant. And that ignorance has produced and promotes the illusion of your isolation and the separation of your mind.

You are not alienated from God, except in your own mind. That's what Colossians tells us. We've been alienated in our mind, and therefore we go about doing sinful deeds. It doesn't say your sinful deeds are alienating you from God. That's what I believed forever. Am I the only one in the room that thought that? I thought my sinful deeds alienated me from God. No, the scriptures actually teach us the opposite. No, it's actually you thinking you're alienated from God is what leads you to sin.

Which means that the way you conquer sin is not by trying to just really, really, really, really hard not do stupid stuff anymore, but rather awakening to the truth that he has made you one with himself. So Paul makes it clear that we are... Ignorant. I keep using this word. Ignorant. I find it funny because I literally had a conversation with the person. I was sharing the gospel this way with somebody in a coffee shop saying, well, the problem is we're...

We're ignorant of the reality of all that God has done for us. And I kept using that word. And he said, man, I don't get why you keep saying I'm ignorant. I don't hate anybody. I said, okay, let's rewind. He was like, what's that? Let's scrub back.

I said, what do you think ignorant means? And he goes, racist. And then I thought about all the ways I hear it used on the internet. I'm like, that kind of makes sense. I don't mean you're racist. If you're here and you're like, yeah, that's what I thought you were saying the whole time. We live unaware. Come on. In utter unawareness of all that God is. And that leads to all kinds of dumb behavior in our lives. And here's the big question I want to ask.

How is it that God responds to our ignorance? Next slide, please. That question's up there. You just can't see it because you're ignorant of it. How does God respond to our ignorance? Come on, how is it that God responds? What is the response of the heart of God? We are trapped in this unaware. Amen?

I have imagined, I'm just talking this morning. I'm just talking for me, maybe this isn't true for you. I imagined and was even, if I'm going to be really honest, instructed that God's response to my ignorance and the behavior that it produced... was anger. Disappointment, frustration, rejection, you messed up and therefore I'm going to whoop you until you learn your lesson. Damnation, punishment, frustration. We see in Paul's...

In Paul's message to those at Mars Hill, right? Those in the Areopagus. We see his response. I see here, and I'm going to do this real quick, three responses that God has. toward our ignorance. Can we go through these real quick? I'll wait till next week if you want me to. I'll just leave you hanging. Just like, I don't know how God responds. Tells me, what did you learn at church today? Nothing. He just asked a question and then made us leave. Let's start with the first one.

And I'm not exaggerating. You can check with my wife on this. I told her about it. It wrecked me. First thing he says is that... That God, verse 30, the times of ignorance, God overlooked. I looked up that word overlooked because I was like, it can't mean what I think. It can't mean that he just ignored my ignorance. And it got worse when I looked up what the word actually meant. God winks.

It's literally what the word means. If you have a King James Bible right now, if you're holier than the rest of us, they left it in its original Greek. Just transliterated it from Greek to English. And it said, At times of our ignorance, God winked. I got out of my chair in my office. I walked into the sanctuary and just did laps. I'm like, you... You winked!

I'm not lying. This is genuinely Friday for me. I'm walking laps in here until finally I got so fresh. I was like, well, maybe winked meant something different back then. Go into my office, and then I find this out. This is even funnier to me. The first place in literary history that we have reference to winking is what I just read you.

That's the first place we find out about winking. It's not on any hieroglyphics, on any Greek. No, this is the first place we have record of it. And after this, we see it used a lot. And guess what it means? It means exactly what it means today. It means God saw all of your ignorance, your stupidity, all the dumb garbage that that led to, all of the, all of the, all of the. And he was like, okay. That. is not what I was taught. You you you winked? You winked at it?

How in the what did you wink at it? This does not make any logical sense to me while I'm reading this. And then I remember that he's a better dad than me. And when my little kids did stupid stuff, I winked at it. I laughed at it. When my two-year-old acted like a two-year-old, When I was, come on, come on, come on. When I was in my right mind, it was funny. When I was in sleep deprived mode and overworked mode, I did not respond the way the father responds. Okay, let's just be real.

But which one of those is the Father manifesting His life and love in me? When I'm tired and frustrated and angry? Or when I'm recognizing the reality that, come on, they're two. Come on, even when they found the markers and they wrote all over the wall. If you're in your right mind, it's like, that's... It's kind of funny. Understand this. If you're here, listen to me, listen to me. If you're here and you're wondering, how has God...

I want to be clear. You are living. If you are unaware of your inclusion with God, if you are not drawing from that inclusion, your identity and your security and your ecstasy, you are drawing from a well that does not contain any life, love, or light. I want to be really clear about this. And because of that, you are eating dirt and you are pretending like it's quenching your thirst.

And I am here today and you are here today and you are hearing my voice to try to awaken you to the reality that you are being stupid. That you are ruining your life and your life being ruined because we are all connected is ruining other people's lives. And I'm not in any way saying that God just doesn't care about all of that. I'm saying he recognizes, he sees deeper than we see.

He sees from a higher vantage point than we see from. He doesn't knee-jerk and respond. Come on. But he winks at him. I'm here trying to plead with you. To recognize that you have been included intimately in the union of the Father and the Son in the Holy Spirit and you now have access from that to all of... all of who you are, all of the satisfaction that you're so long for, all of the joy that you are designed for, all of that you have access to. You need to repent and believe that.

But if you're here and you're wondering, but how does God feel about you? He loves you. And He knows that everything you're doing, you are doing. I'm just going to say it the easiest way I can say it. If it offends you, track with me and just love me enough to know that I love you. You are doing stupid stuff because you believe stupid things.

I don't care what the stupid thing you're doing is. It's based on something stupid you believe. And the gospel comes to say, not, not, not. You need to ask Jesus to save you. The gospel comes to say, Jesus has saved you. You don't have to eat that dirt anymore. You wink? Does this... Here's where it just rattled me inside. He winked at my rebellion. And he continued to wink at my religion when it was done out of ignorance as well.

I've been very honest about the fact that I stand up before you as somebody who now would say I taught things that I no longer believe. And you've got to understand the weight of that on my soul. And then I read this verse. And I was like, oh, just like you were laughing when I was being an idiot, you were laughing when I was being an idiot. Is this a better God than you were taught before?

Because it's a better God than I've ever experienced before. So God winks. God winks. I don't want to diminish that. I wish we could just live here forever, but there's two other ways that he responds. And I want to make sure that we get to them. Now let me say this before we move on from winking. I want to say this. I wrote it. I want to make sure I say it. He is not unaware of the pain our and other people's ignorance births into our world.

But rather he bore that pain, he bore that shame, he bore the weight of that sin on himself on the cross. So I get that some people's ignorance... wounded you and you are still carrying the wounds of that in your body and I don't want anybody to think God's just like oh who cares no he gets that that the reality is I know it's it sounds cliche and I hate cliches but it's the problem is it's the truth hurt people

Hurt people. So how far back is God supposed to go? Who bears the punishment of the punishment of the punishment of the punishment of the punishment? He did. He went all the way back and crushed the head of the serpent. So God winks, God winks, God winks, right? He says, look, times of ignorance, he overlooked, he overlooked, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent.

So God winks, but God also works. We see here, he determines the place and the periods for all nations. He does this, he organizes all of this, not because he just likes to play chess, but because his hope is that by determining those things, by people recognizing these things, by people recognizing that tribes and tongues come and go. So, there will be a day that America ceases to exist as a country. I know it's if the wrong person wins this next election. Oh my gosh. Maybe. Probably not.

Nations rise and nations fall. The purpose of that, according to the Scripture, is to get you to wake up that that's not where your identity, security, and ecstasy is supposed to come from. You are not first. an american the most true thing about you is not that you are an american

The most true thing about you is not the color of your skin. The most true thing about you is not the culture that you come from. The most true thing about you is not your socioeconomic standing right now. The most true thing about you is that right now you are included, seated in the Son, in the Father, in the Holy Spirit.

is the most true thing about you and he's trying to awaken to the reality that that's the only place you can actually figure out who you are that you actually know the stability you need and you can actually draw the joy that your soul is designed for He is at work in all that he does, giving you life and love and breath and everything. He made us his offspring. Understand this. Paul makes it clear in the text.

We don't make God, God makes us. We think we imagine up God, but the truth is, he imagined you. Before I formed you in your mother's womb, he said, I knew you. I thought about you. I dreamed you up. This is where I've made the controversial statement that has fooled nobody. Life does not begin at your mother's conception of you. Your life began at God's conception of you. Far before you were conceived in your mother's womb. It goes back even farther.

God is at work and he is working. He is working to call us to repentance. Amen. So he winks, he works and he wars. Listen to me. He worked. The Greek here for command is a military commandment. This is not a suggestion. This is not a like option. This is not multiple choice. Well, if you want us to live in your English, you can, but I'd really rather you prefer you repent. No, he commands us. I want to be clear. The same God that wing...

is the God that commands. In case anyone thinks I'm just trying to preach a greasy gospel that's real easy to hear. God commands you right now to repent. You have heard the truth. And the scriptures tell us that within your soul right now, it is reverberating. It is echoing. You know, come on, come on, come on, come on.

Okay, listen, listen, listen. If Paul can quote the artists of his day, I can quote the artists of mine. Search your soul. You know it to be true. Come on, Star Wars fans. Search your feelings. You know it. Within us. Come on. We know this to be true. And so the Scriptures call us to admit and abandon the preconceived, misbelieved, dumb stuff. and to agree and align our lives with the truth.

I don't have to look at that stuff to find joy anymore. I don't have to steal that stuff. I don't have to bet that stuff. I don't have to drink that stuff. I don't have to ingest that stuff. I don't have to do that. I don't have to achieve that. I don't have to say that. I can be who I am because of... who He is in me and who I am in Him. I can know stability even when I don't have the money for rent. I can know joy even when everything in my life is falling apart.

Wars. I'm going to say something here. We're going to land the plane. The end of this passage seems to call forth ideas that may cause a questioning of everything I've previously said. He says he commands all people everywhere to repent because he has fixed a day on which he will judge the world in righteousness by a man who he has appointed. And of this he has given assurance to all by raising him from the dead.

If you read that and hear that with a legal religious lens, you think God's in a courtroom and he's going to find you guilty because you are guilty. But I have good news. Read the scriptures from Genesis to Revelation. There's not a courtroom in the whole thing. So hear what I'm about to tell you. Jesus is the judge of humanity. And that's good news.

Can I teach this real fast? I've played with this for years. Can I just hit one hammer real fast and move on, but drive it a little bit deeper than I have? If you want to know what the Bible means by judge, don't think white... white wig and a black robe and a gavel in a courtroom. That doesn't exist here.

But if you go to the very beginning of your Bible, you'll be able to write stuff in it. And if you go past there, you'll find out about the translation. And if you go past there, they'll have a list of all the books in the Bible. And one of them is called Judges. Do you think that maybe God put that there to tell you what a judge is? Judges is so you know what a judge is. So to say Jesus is the judge of the world,

We think that means he's going to judge us, condemn us. But according to judges, the Lord raised up judges who saved them out of the hands of those who plundered them. When the people of God abandoned their covenant with God and went after other gods, they fell into the bondage that is a byproduct of that. God would raise up a judge who would do... three things. He would do three things. He would do three things. Or she. There are women judges. Come on, ladies.

The lady and judges literally took a nail and drove it through a dude's head. The Bible's boring. You're boring. Judges did three things. They called the people back to Yahweh. They conquered their enemies and they kept them secure. For as long as the judge lives. That's what the book of Judges says. Someday God will let me do a teaching through the book of Judges. It's not today. It's not this fall. Someday. Jesus' name. Let it be so.

What we see, that's what we see throughout scriptures. They call the people out of where they are, back to Yahweh. They conquer their enemies. And the scriptures say, as long as that judge lives, listen. As long as that judge is alive, the people remain loyal to Yahweh. Guess what? Our judge is still alive. He's keeping us. He doesn't just call us back to Yahweh. Does he do that? Absolutely.

Does he conquer our enemies? Has he conquered our enemies? Has he conquered your enemies? Absolutely. He's led captivity captive. He's made a public spectacle of his triumph over all of the beings of the supernatural unseen realm. And he keeps us. He keeps us. He keeps us. He keeps us. Jesus is the judge of humanity. That's saying the same thing.

As Jesus is the savior of the world. And it says he's given this one. He's given Jesus as the judge of the world. Listen, listen, I told you to underline assurance. And he has given assurance to all by raising him from the dead. Last thing, I know we're going a little bit long. I know we're going a little bit long. We just track with me here. It's going to get good. He has given assurance to all.

By raising him from the dead. Assurance. Everybody say assurance. Greek word there, pistos. It's the only place I can find that that word is translated as assurance. Everywhere else, it's translated as faith. And he has given faith to all people by raising him from the dead. You are not required to come up with the faith. He gives it to you by conquering death.

He's given it to you. You are saved by grace through faith. And even that faith is a gift of God. I'm not trying to convince you to believe this. I'm trying to get you to just... accept the free gift that he has offered to you. He's not ready to acquire salvation for you if you ask for it. He has acquired salvation and he gives it to you. So we've said it this way.

Sozo Church exists to declare and demonstrate the reality of God's love to all people. I want when you hear that. That is the mission statement, purpose statement, visions, whatever. statement you want to call it i don't care what's more of a cool cool i want you to understand this when you hear it i want you to be able to communicate it to others when they ask about it

This is why we exist. To declare and to demonstrate the reality of God's love. Not the potential of God's love. Not if you pray this prayer, God will love you. No, He loves you now. For God so... loved the world to all people. You mean all people? I mean all people. Well, he loves them, but no, he loves them and he is butt free. The love of God is butt free.

Put that on a t-shirt. Make sure you spell it right. Or don't. So the church exists to declare and demonstrate the reality of God to all people. So if you're here right now, you are here to encounter. the declaration and the demonstration of God's love for you. That's why you're here. See, why we're here isn't about why we're here. It's about why you're here. First, you're here to encounter that.

And then you're here to incorporate that into who you are so that you can be a part of declaring it to others and demonstrating it to others. Amen? Let's stand to our feet and read this verse one last time. Next week, we'll look at other reasons why we exist and we'll continue on and we'll see how this spreads out into all that we are. But this is the foundation that everything else is built up of. So here's Romans 5, verse 10, out of the Passion. It says this.

So if while we were still enemies, God fully reconciled us to Himself through the death of His Son, then something greater than friendship is ours. Now that we are at peace with God, and because we share in His resurrection life, how much more will we be rescued from sin's dominion? Again, I want to make sure I say this every time.

When the scriptures say that we were enemies of God, it does not mean that God is our enemy. It means that we try to make ourselves his enemy. He was never our enemy. He proved that by dying for us. You don't die for your enemies. He died for us. He made the way of reconciliation available for us. He tore down the wall of division for us. So we're not just friends of God.

That would be great news, would it not? That you are a friend of God. I know we sang that song years ago. I'm a friend of God. Maybe you did. I don't know. But that is not the full picture of all that you have with Him. You are at peace with Him. The idea there is literally you are in harmonious union with Him. And so because of that, come on, come on, come on.

We share in his resurrection life. Now he has given life to your mortal bodies. And we are freed from sin's dominion. Come on. You're free. You are under no obligation to behave the way you used to behave. Who am I talking to? Who am I talking to? You do not have to do what you did before. You are free. Did you hear me? You are free. You have been liberated, not by what you can accomplish or what you can do, but by all that he has done.

on your behalf. We have been made one with Him. He became one of us so that we might become one with Him. He loves us. And He gave Himself for us. The call, listen, the call is not to make Jesus your Savior. The call is to recognize that Jesus is the Savior. And to admit and abandon your search for salvation in any other place. Because there is nowhere else that you can find it.

You can have that experience you think you need to have that will make you happy. It won't. It'll make you happy for a little while, but it will not give you the joy that you need. You can accomplish that thing that you think you need to accomplish, but it won't tell you who you are. It'll get rusty. It will lose its shine. He is the one. He is the one who is your salvation. He is the one that gives you life and breath and everything. Every good and perfect gift.

comes down from the Father of lights. God is not angry with you. He loves you. And His love is calling you, commanding you at war to free you from all that would put you into bondage. If you need to call something the wrath of God, call that the wrath of God. The love of God burning out everything within you that is not of love's kind.