Matt Chandler - The Remedy: The Gospel of Jesus Christ

if you have your Bibles why don’t you go ahead and grab them we’re going to be in Mark chapter 7 that’s where we’re going to start um and then if you’re an overachiever you can flip over to Romans 5 and save that spot too uh because we’ll eventually um we’ll eventually get there now just rehashing a bit of last week uh we started our false series last week recovering Redemption is uh the title and and we said that the word gospel means means uh good news and for news to be good it has to invade bad spaces so there has to be some sort of tension some sort of fear some existing reality for news to show up and be good and so last week all we did was the bad news and so if you missed last week you can kind of let out some air except uhoh you’re here and I’m going to rehash and and so what we said last week is that uh there are a select few of us who by vocation are aware that the word world is broken but for the rest of us there’s two things that happen uh there is an occasional lifting of the fog so occasionally someone will get sick someone will die someone will shoot up a school or a theater or something like that we’re like dang it man the world is a mess but but by and large what you and I are plagued with um is a desire for fullness of life that always seems to kind of be in front of us and never quite being able to be enjoyed in the moment so we’re constantly moving towards the future in the promise that the future holds for us a greater satisfaction than we’re experiencing now now the problem with that is we’ve been chasing that carrot some of you for a long long long time with no real lasting satisfaction can you have a moment of it maybe can you dwell there not long not long you’re going to get bored easy with your new stuff you’re going to get and and so we said really we try to fix fix this problem of fullness of Life by by running to one of four buckets all right we want to run to the The Well of self all right the default position of everyone when they feel unsatisfied is let me better myself let me fix myself a better version of me will be the solution to my unsatisfaction and so we set out trying to create a better version of us a more attractive version than us a wealthier version of us a a version of us with a sweeter car a a version of us with a better house we are going to better ourselves and so we begin to pursue that which is why the bestselling books ever are not Classics but rather self-help books right it’s a sad day when some of the classics are being uh replaced with books like six-minute ABS I mean that’s a that’s something on our culture that we’re going to have to own eventually it’s embarrassing and so ultimately we set out to solve let me create a better version of myself but we painted clearly last week that this is simply impossible all right I if you feel a l lack of satisfaction right now which by the way is a gift from God we’ll talk more about that in a second it is a gift from God a better version of you will never satisfy that in fact you will be just as disappointed in that sexier version of you as you are right now so you 10 years from now with your ripped up abs and dollar bills falling out of your pockets you that guy will disappoint you also all right ladies if you’re all your hair’s curly now instead of straight or straight now instead of curly if you right you you know you that thing it’s mystery right you you get whatever you’re after whatever you want ladies you’re climbing the corporate light you you get that you’ll still be just as frustrated with you 10 years from now as you are today because you are not the answer to the satisfaction question and and so if it’s not you then we shift away from us at times or sometimes we try both of these together and that’s when things get toxic uh we’ll try to find satisfaction in others now our culture loves this one I mean it prays on you sucks money out of you squeezes the life out of you that you’re going to find something thank you Jerry McGuire that completes you you’re not all right and so we began to put expectation on our friends expectation on our spouse God help us expectation on our children that they would live in such a way as to erase that unsatisfactory feeling out of our heart out of us the problem is that is an impossible weight to bear for anyone and and so the way I’ve said it for coming on 11 years is women make really terrible Gods they’re nice but they’re not they’re bad Gods ladies men hello I mean how long did it take you to train your man just put the seat down right I mean you thinking that dude’s going to rescue you you can’t aim all right it’s a you’ve got this this guy is going to solve this he’s not he can’t and the expectation that he would will do nothing but bring conflict into your relationship and for those of you trying to live vicarious through your children man you got to put that to death before you crush that little soul stop it enjoy him what a gift from God kids are but don’t live vicariously through them kind of pressure is that kind of pressure is that it’s it’s crazy but God squash that in our day and age and and so we go to The Well of others and The Well of others don’t work and so we try to fix us that doesn’t work so we have expectations that other people would help us fix us and then that doesn’t work and so then we run to the world now the world is a tricky one and I said this last week the world is a tricky one because what people will run to in order to try to satisfy their longing are things that God created as good to be enjoyed but not made God and so I used three um I knew two of them were going to give me emails and sure enough it did so here were the three I used all right um food is a gift from God is it not food is a good gift from God God created food it was God that came up with flavors and the new flavors that would occur as you put things together that’s God’s work all right so food is a gift from God wine emails a gift from God all right and your problems not with me your problems with the Bible all right and sex emails a good gift from God all right it was designed by God given as a gift from God given to man for both procreation and pleasure that’s God’s stuff now here’s here here’s what I want you to hear me say so so hear me here all three of those can be enjoyed by Believers and unbelievers alike correct that’s right can we agree that people who want nothing to do with Jesus Christ can love a filet drink a cab and enjoy sex right okay now here’s what I will tell you with all my heart they as unbelievers will never be able to enjoy those things like Believers should why because for the believer the pleasure in those things doesn’t terminate on those things but rather rolls up into Praise of the God who gave us those things so for the unbeliever he eats his filet he drinks his cab right not out of a box and and then uh he um makes love to his wife and all of that he enjoyed but for the believer they eat that steak and they’re like man God’s amazing and it rolls past the steak and he drinks the cab responsibly and it rolls past the cab and he enjoys his wife she enjoys her husband and it rolls past to The Giver of those gifts it doesn’t terminate on the gift GI it rolls past them the unbeliever can’t do that they have no ability an unbeliever will never cut into that fle and go man God’s good they’re not they’re going to just be hey love steak I can pay for it awesome right so the believer enjoys the gifts of God in a different way than an unbeliever because we’re acknowledging where it came from the pleasure rolls past to the experience and into the giver it doesn’t terminate on the experience itself so that worship is rung out of the heart of believer at a meal right this is why the Bible would say whe whether you eat or drink whatever you do do all things to the glory of God this is that enjoyment of God through the gifts of common Grace that are available to all but experienced in Greater Joy for those who are believers that’s yet another one of those beautiful gifts that God gives his people but unfortunately these good gifts can be used in perverted ways that wreak havoc in the lives of people and so they run to the world to try to satisfy that unsatisfaction uh and so they get lonely and run to food and listen in a spot in a pinch in a dark moment Bluebell Works Magic on your soul no it really will all right you you get in a a pinch a a a spot then then I mean food drink relationship sex all of that works for a moment and so people run to them outside the boundaries that God has created for the fullness of enjoyment of those things and we run to those things like they are our Gods I’ll find satisfaction here I’ll find fullness here and despite the fact that it has betrayed us over and over and over again and has done nothing to bring lasting satisfaction but only regret we continue to run back to it over and over and over again like morons don’t we I mean you know that pornography did nothing to really satisfy me that’s not going to stop you from the next night logging on after the house goes quiet but God’s there he sees don’t be don’t be dumb he you not like God didn’t see that that’s my God that’s where I’m going to find satisfaction that’s where I’m going to find release that’s where I’m going to find that’s where I’m going going to food going to Wine I’m going to and there are others I’m just using these three as big examples there’s dozens of things that men and women will make Idols good gifts given by God that are abused by the recipients of the gifts and and then uh the fourth one and I I put all our junk if you’re if you’re a skeptic I I threw us out there too religion people run to religion they run to let me earn the favor of God let me tip the scales in my favor let me be a good man so that God will bless me let me be a good woman so that I might put God in my debt religion is outside in let me behave good enough so that God will have to give me what I want so that God will owe me and that’s religion those are the four Wells that people run to none of them work and and all of that as we said last week was a result of the Fall was a result of sin entering the world and fracturing the cosmos now I I need to do a little bit more work there because of this what I don’t want you to do now is go man Adam I can’t believe it you really made a mess of this thing so um you can’t blame shift over to Adam although it’s through his line that sin Reigns and rules in the world I me you to hear me when the Bible that very wildly popular bible verse that says for all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God it doesn’t make you that verse makes you not a victim of Adam’s Rebellion but a participant in his Rebellion you tracking with me so you are not just a victim of Adam’s Rebellion you have gladly joined him in his Rebellion against God so that every time you go I’ll fix it myself you’re death decaration is I don’t need you God I’m a better God than you I’m smarter than you my way is better than yours that’s Madness you would never say that out loud but when you go I don’t need you Lord I can better myself that’s what you’re saying and whenever you run to others to try to find the satisfaction that only God can bring your accusation your Rebellion against God is I don’t want you I want your stuff and I want it my way I don’t want it your way and then when you run to the world you snatch a good right gift out of his hand you abuse use that gift break it and then make accusations against him that he’s not good because of the gift that’s Rebellion like think your kid does that on CHR Christmas morning somebody catching a whipping going back to bed before we open any more presents May Maybe not maybe you’re like I deserve that may maybe that kind of parent all right but I I’m just saying if if your kid snatches his gift out of his Ops it up uh crushes it on the ground and then screams at you for giving him a broken present that’s a problem and that’s what you do when you run to the world and then religion are you serious I want to take your name God and I want to do the very thing that you came to rescue me from under the banner of your name that’s rebellion and everyone in this room is guilty and and I’m in this room every one of us guilty so we’re not just victims of sin we are active participants in it see I told you you weren’t going to get off by not being here last week all right now with that said I want us this week to really get to the bottom of this issue really get to the heart of it all right and to do that uh I want to look at Mark chapter 7 because as I promised this week is primarily about the good news not the bad news I just always need us to feel the bad so that when the good invades we can we can love the goodness of the news so Mark chap 7 I’m going to pick it up in verse 14 and he called the people to him again and said to them hear me all of you and understand there is nothing outside a person that by going into him can defile him but the things that come out of a person are what defile him and when he had entered the house and left the people his disciples asked him about the parable and he said to them then are you also without understanding do you not see that whatever goes into a person from outside cannot defile him since it enters not his heart but his stomach and is expelled this next little if you’re reading a redl version these next Black letters are I’m thankful for them thus he declared all foods clean let’s praise God for some bacon and he said what comes out of a person is what defiles him for from within out of the heart of the man come evil thoughts sexual immorality theft murder adultery coveting wickedness deceit sensuality Envy slander Pride foolishness all these evil things come from within and they defile the person so uh what you have happening in this text is people you’ve already got some common Grace present in the people who are listening to Jesus teach because they are aware that they are unclean so here’s I I want to continually try to lay this before you if you feel that that’s not necessarily a bad thing if you feel that you have fallen short of the glory of God if you know that you are in need of some help if you have some depression if you’re struggling with addiction if you have some loneliness or some despair that might just be the high surgeon of Heaven beginning to do a type of surgery that will ultimately set you free oh God that we’d be a culture that understands there’s promise in the pain pain for us is something that has to be solved we see no real value in it and anybody who’s ever tried to train their body knows there’s an aspect of pain involved to getting stronger to Growing more healthy to things have to be tore down in order to be built up the same is true about how God shapes his people and so he’s talking to people who understand their unclean some of you you don’t understand that you’re unclean and some of you you you you have such a hyper sensitivity to it that me even mentioning the word unclean has you wishing you weren’t here but we’ll deal with that more in a few minutes we’ll deal with that more here in a few minutes brothers sisters and so in this text when people realize they’re unclean they they tend to go one of two ways with it all right and here’s the the first way the first way is religion so I feel unclean so let me do number four all right and number four is nothing but number one with a choir robe on right it’s us fixing ourselves under the banner of God’s name while no and no no point really leaning into God for our help and salvation it’s I’m going to fix me so I can make God not destroy me all right that’s number four number one combined or it’s toxic and so we go into religion so the people that Jesus is teaching right now um they have dietary laws and cleanliness laws there are certain foods they cannot eat and and there are um certain ways they must wash before they eat all right there are cleanliness laws and dietary laws and so they literally believed that you could eat something or not walk a particular way before you ate something or went into the temple that would then synagogue that would then make you unclean so that something outside of you could somehow make your soul dirty and Jesus is going no no no no no don’t you see do don’t you see that that’s not how it works that whatever goes inside of you you process and get rid of how about that science right in the text no no no what’s unclean is already in inside of you so so you got to hear this because I think people get this backwards that activity that you participate in that you feel ashamed of that’s not what’s made you unclean you were unclean so you did that activity you tracking with me you don’t do sinful acts to make yourself a sinner you are a sinner so you do sinful acts that’s huge and and here’s why moral tinkering is never going to work um here’s why I’m going to make myself a better person is never going to work because what we just read in this text is really the heart of the problem is the problem of the heart you’re the problem your heart is the problem it it’s not outside of you it’s in you which is why you can’t solve it and so what we do in evangelicalism is we fixate on this issue I’ve got a lust problem I’ve got an anger problem I’ve got a laziness problem I need this fixed but we’re not watching the rear flank and so while we’re trying to put out this fire this fire starts up and that’s why we never get real Traction in regards to Growing because ultimately our heart’s not being transformed we’re trying to modify Behavior Behavior or modification isn’t going to work because whatever Reigns and rules in your heart will overflow out of your heart into your actions and attitudes always and and here’s what I’ve learned over the years um when I’ve come across Men Who really struggle with laziness or they lack initiative it’s been my experience this isn’t Universal not 100% of the time but it’s been my experience that a lot of times really the root cause there is fear it’s not it’s not even really laziness it’s fear they’re afraid that if they really put themselves out there really pushed all their chips in they really gave it their all that they would fall short and fail and they just couldn’t live with that so they do nothing and somehow they can live with that and so see if we just address laziness but we don’t get to the body botom of them not trusting God we got problems u I I’ve found that uh lust is almost always again not always but almost always has much more to do with control and anger than it does lust see for whatever reason wanting to control having some wounds you will take a human being with a soul with emotions with a a mind and a heart and we will dehumanize them and use and abuse them for our own pleasure that is pornography for men and women it is the dehumanization of another human being for our enjoyment with no consideration of their heart their soul their mind any type of damage occurred in them they are simply there to be used by US lust isn’t the problem anger and control are the problems and if we don’t get to that root putting Covenant eyes on your computer although I think might be a wise thing for most maybe a wise thing for all and and this is free I don’t even have time for this parents don’t give your kids unrestricted access to the internet it’s like letting them play with your pistol and since we’re in Texas I know that everybody can relate to that one can’t cuz I got it right here all right now in the end I’m trying to help you here so much of what we deal with in regards to 20 and 30y olds started when they were 12 and 13 year olds with moms and dads who just didn’t care what was going on in their shut bedroom and and so ultimately if you don’t get to the bottom of really this lack of forgiveness this anger you don’t get down into those roots then it’s just going to spring back up and so they’re going to get stuck in this crazy cycle of falling back into Old patterns or or it’s just there’s going to be new spots that flare up because all they did was mow over the weeds and so religion is the way a lot of people go and it’s not going to work it’s not going to work because whatever Reigns and rules in your heart will over overflow into actions and attitudes and and so some people religion’s not going