WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:08.960 Years ago when our boys were little kids, we took them to the beach and I was excited to show them how to build a sand castle. 00:00:09.679 --> 00:00:13.099 So we got all our tools together and we started working. 00:00:13.919 --> 00:00:20.219 And I showed them how to build the turrets and then the walls and then the front gate. 00:00:20.359 --> 00:00:23.059 And then we started building the buildings inside the walls. 00:00:23.059 --> 00:00:29.939 And it was wonderful and we were putting all kinds of details in there and using shelves for windows and things. 00:00:30.179 --> 00:00:33.359 And as soon as we got done, I turned and I said, boys, isn't this great? 00:00:33.420 --> 00:00:34.439 This is a sand castle. 00:00:34.659 --> 00:00:41.399 But before I could even get those words out, they leapt on the sand castle and began to demolish it. 00:00:41.960 --> 00:00:48.640 And they smashed every piece of it down to the ground to where you could no longer tell there had ever been a sand castle. 00:00:48.640 --> 00:00:52.159 They turn and they look at me and they are delighted with themselves. 00:00:52.159 --> 00:00:54.399 And they are covered head to toe in sand. 00:00:55.179 --> 00:00:59.519 And it occurred to me we may not be on the same page when it comes to the point of this exercise. 00:01:00.019 --> 00:01:01.739 They had a different agenda in mind. 00:01:02.399 --> 00:01:06.219 And I think about that as I read these final chapters of Nehemiah. 00:01:06.399 --> 00:01:09.199 It may be something of how Nehemiah felt. 00:01:10.039 --> 00:01:17.019 He had spent 12 years of his life, 12 good years, leading God's people in the rebuilding of the city of Jerusalem. 00:01:17.019 --> 00:01:18.039 They built the walls. 00:01:18.159 --> 00:01:18.859 They built the gates. 00:01:18.959 --> 00:01:20.039 They were rebuilding the houses. 00:01:20.040 --> 00:01:28.780 And he had put all kinds of reforms in place to not only rebuild the people, but to rebuild, to not only rebuild the city, but to rebuild the people. 00:01:29.719 --> 00:01:31.620 And then he leaves. 00:01:32.200 --> 00:01:37.980 And no sooner does Nehemiah leave than the people immediately begin to smash everything to bits. 00:01:37.980 --> 00:01:43.960 Not so much the physical walls of the city, but all of the reforms that he put in place. 00:01:44.620 --> 00:01:48.480 So we are going to look at these final chapters of Nehemiah, chapters 11 through 13. 00:01:48.939 --> 00:01:53.240 And we are going to ask what they have to teach us as God's people in 2024. 00:01:53.719 --> 00:01:54.180 Let's pray. 00:01:54.180 --> 00:01:57.160 Lord, we thank you for your word. 00:01:57.300 --> 00:01:59.900 And we ask now that you'd bless us as we open your word. 00:01:59.980 --> 00:02:06.320 We pray that you would help us to understand it, to understand how it speaks to us today. 00:02:07.160 --> 00:02:11.760 We pray that your Holy Spirit would do what we can't do, which is to use your word to bring life in us. 00:02:12.500 --> 00:02:18.120 Lord, to challenge those of us that need to be stirred up, to comfort those of us who need to be encouraged. 00:02:18.120 --> 00:02:21.420 Lord, we pray that you would do your work through your word. 00:02:21.860 --> 00:02:23.259 In Jesus' name, amen. 00:02:24.819 --> 00:02:27.180 So let me summarize what's happening here. 00:02:27.259 --> 00:02:30.620 This is a lot of ground to cover, so we're going to summarize it fairly quickly. 00:02:31.219 --> 00:02:32.500 There's a lot of material here. 00:02:32.580 --> 00:02:37.420 But essentially, after 12 years of working to rebuild city and to rebuild the society, 00:02:37.860 --> 00:02:41.599 Nehemiah is called to return to give a full report to the Persian king. 00:02:41.599 --> 00:02:52.539 And he has instituted a number of reforms to ensure that God's people continue being faithfully devoted to him and him alone. 00:02:52.680 --> 00:03:00.519 And so when the time comes for him to leave, he looks around, and he probably feels fairly satisfied that the mission has been a great success. 00:03:00.780 --> 00:03:03.219 Everything is as it should be. 00:03:03.560 --> 00:03:06.879 God's people have broken their idolatrous marriages. 00:03:06.879 --> 00:03:15.620 See, one of the big issues is that they would marry into other pagan people groups and that they would begin to worship the idols of those people groups. 00:03:15.759 --> 00:03:18.000 And so the concern was idolatry. 00:03:18.139 --> 00:03:24.060 And so they had broken out of these idolatrous unions and had rededicated themselves to God. 00:03:24.620 --> 00:03:26.800 They're keeping the Sabbath faithfully. 00:03:26.919 --> 00:03:28.579 The Sabbath reforms had worked. 00:03:29.060 --> 00:03:34.000 They're giving to and they're maintaining the temple, and they're serving and worshiping in the temple. 00:03:34.000 --> 00:03:38.039 They're gathering publicly to read God's word and to pray. 00:03:38.219 --> 00:03:39.620 They're marching around singing. 00:03:40.300 --> 00:03:45.199 And there had even been a great celebration to mark the restoration of the city and the people. 00:03:45.699 --> 00:03:48.960 And for that celebration, they called every musician they could find. 00:03:49.659 --> 00:03:54.180 Anybody who could play an instrument, come into the city and be a part of this celebration. 00:03:54.759 --> 00:03:59.319 And so they have hundreds of musicians and hundreds of voices all singing together. 00:03:59.319 --> 00:04:03.379 And here's how it summarizes that at the end of chapter 12, verse 43. 00:04:03.840 --> 00:04:04.099 It says, 00:04:04.239 --> 00:04:10.519 And they offered great sacrifices that day and rejoiced, for God had made them rejoice with great joy. 00:04:10.879 --> 00:04:15.840 The women and children also rejoiced, and the joy of Jerusalem was heard far away. 00:04:17.259 --> 00:04:21.219 And Nehemiah and the people lived happily ever after the end. 00:04:22.240 --> 00:04:24.240 Wouldn't it be nice if the story ended there? 00:04:24.240 --> 00:04:26.699 But it does not end that way. 00:04:27.160 --> 00:04:29.860 There's one final chapter, lucky number 13. 00:04:30.680 --> 00:04:38.319 A few years later, after Nehemiah has returned to the Persian king, he gets leave to come back to Jerusalem. 00:04:38.840 --> 00:04:39.840 And what does he find? 00:04:40.900 --> 00:04:45.319 Well, the people immediately started to smash everything to bits. 00:04:45.460 --> 00:04:49.920 They had rejoined into their idolatrous unions with the pagan people. 00:04:50.060 --> 00:04:51.920 They had broken the Sabbath. 00:04:52.160 --> 00:04:53.939 They had profaned the temple. 00:04:53.939 --> 00:04:59.500 There were the same kinds of issues we see today of favoritism and idolatry and materialism. 00:04:59.839 --> 00:05:01.480 All of that was happening. 00:05:02.399 --> 00:05:08.019 Nehemiah had worked so hard to bring reform, but after just a few years, it had already started to crumble. 00:05:08.740 --> 00:05:11.300 So Nehemiah is absolutely furious. 00:05:12.480 --> 00:05:13.159 So what does he do? 00:05:13.240 --> 00:05:14.759 He starts cursing at the people. 00:05:15.300 --> 00:05:16.860 And then he beats them. 00:05:17.319 --> 00:05:19.120 He starts punching people in the face. 00:05:19.360 --> 00:05:21.180 And then he starts yanking their beard hair. 00:05:21.180 --> 00:05:24.900 This is a really insulting thing to do, really, to anybody. 00:05:25.400 --> 00:05:30.300 But particularly in this culture, if you really wanted to insult somebody, you would yank their beard hair. 00:05:30.800 --> 00:05:32.259 It's just not a nice thing. 00:05:32.259 --> 00:05:39.399 And this shows us, really, that Nehemiah has been pushed past his limits. 00:05:39.519 --> 00:05:41.019 He sort of loses self-control. 00:05:41.879 --> 00:05:46.819 And then he begins to furiously reinstitute the reforms and to try to set everything right. 00:05:47.480 --> 00:05:48.699 And then the book ends. 00:05:48.699 --> 00:05:59.479 And now we have to ask, what can we possibly learn from this ending to what has been really an amazing book and an amazing journey? 00:05:59.979 --> 00:06:01.139 It's an amazing story. 00:06:01.219 --> 00:06:06.680 And then it ends in such an odd, anticlimactic, sort of disappointing, disillusioning way. 00:06:06.680 --> 00:06:15.860 As much as we might enjoy a happily ever after ending, the Bible is really not interested in fairy tales. 00:06:16.600 --> 00:06:18.900 The Bible is interested in reality. 00:06:19.060 --> 00:06:24.980 The Bible is interested in helping us to see things the way they truly are, not the way we would prefer to see them. 00:06:24.980 --> 00:06:32.920 And in these final chapters of Nehemiah, we see something vital about individuals and about society as a whole. 00:06:33.980 --> 00:06:37.280 There will always be the need for reform. 00:06:38.540 --> 00:06:39.540 That's the point. 00:06:39.620 --> 00:06:47.360 There will always be a need for reform when it comes to our lives, when it comes to our marriages and our families, 00:06:47.480 --> 00:06:51.280 when it comes to the church, when it comes to the society we live in as a whole. 00:06:51.279 --> 00:06:55.379 The work of reform is never done. 00:06:56.299 --> 00:07:00.819 Coming out of the Protestant Reformation, there was a phrase that became almost a slogan. 00:07:01.039 --> 00:07:03.239 Ecclesia reformata, semper reformanda. 00:07:03.739 --> 00:07:06.639 The church reformed, always reforming. 00:07:07.619 --> 00:07:10.259 Now that's been used in all kinds of ways. 00:07:10.459 --> 00:07:12.799 It's been abused in some ways as well. 00:07:13.379 --> 00:07:17.619 But originally, it was coined by a Dutch pastor named Jodocus von Lodenstein. 00:07:18.019 --> 00:07:19.679 And he meant something like this. 00:07:19.680 --> 00:07:31.780 Even if we get all the externals right, even if we get the correct doctrines and the correct forms of worship and the best form of church governance, 00:07:32.000 --> 00:07:38.960 even if we get all the externals right, there will always be one thing that needs reform. 00:07:39.960 --> 00:07:41.220 And that is the human heart. 00:07:41.220 --> 00:07:47.160 The human heart always needs to be reformed. 00:07:47.160 --> 00:07:50.040 And that sits at the very heart of anything. 00:07:51.000 --> 00:07:56.400 And this is something that if you're here, by the way, and you're not a Christian, pay attention to this. 00:07:56.399 --> 00:08:16.879 In a secular world, in our secular society, people love to believe in the essential goodness of human beings, that we are born good, that we're born more or less blank slates, that we are wired for goodness, but that we are corrupted by society. 00:08:17.019 --> 00:08:18.399 We're corrupted by outside forces. 00:08:18.399 --> 00:08:22.819 And those ideas come from a man named Jean-Jacques Rousseau. 00:08:23.519 --> 00:08:24.959 So people love to believe that. 00:08:25.039 --> 00:08:28.539 We're originally good and innocent, but society corrupts us. 00:08:29.419 --> 00:08:39.399 People love to believe in the myth of progress, that even though there are some bad people over here, that most of us are good people working together to make the world a better place. 00:08:39.459 --> 00:08:43.079 And that history is the story of the world becoming better and better and better. 00:08:43.080 --> 00:08:44.639 And eventually we're going to succeed. 00:08:44.780 --> 00:08:45.920 We're going to arrive. 00:08:47.240 --> 00:08:48.860 Now, these are nice ideas. 00:08:49.100 --> 00:08:52.700 They are appealing and they're attractive, but they are fairy tales. 00:08:54.340 --> 00:08:57.220 They're for people who like happy ever after endings. 00:08:57.920 --> 00:09:01.960 They're popular because that's the way we pretend the world is. 00:09:02.020 --> 00:09:08.740 It makes us feel better to think we have that much control over the way things are and the way things are going. 00:09:08.900 --> 00:09:10.740 But it doesn't map onto reality. 00:09:10.740 --> 00:09:16.320 Throughout history, there have been hundreds of attempts to start utopian societies. 00:09:17.259 --> 00:09:19.639 And there is a 100% failure rate. 00:09:21.159 --> 00:09:23.100 Now, why is that the case? 00:09:24.799 --> 00:09:25.240 Right? 00:09:25.360 --> 00:09:38.000 If we're simply corrupted from the outside, why not take a bunch of young, innocent people, move out into the country where no one can corrupt them and start a society where no one gets corrupted and we can build things the way we know they should be? 00:09:38.000 --> 00:09:41.240 Well, it turns out a whole bunch of people have tried that. 00:09:41.679 --> 00:09:42.820 And it never works. 00:09:43.879 --> 00:09:50.340 Now, while it's true that since the Enlightenment, there have been many improvements to the quality of life and to lifespans. 00:09:50.580 --> 00:09:51.720 They've gotten longer. 00:09:51.799 --> 00:09:52.759 We can't deny that. 00:09:52.759 --> 00:10:05.700 No matter how many advances we make culturally, technologically, no matter how much education or wealth we may amass, the world remains as broken today as it ever was. 00:10:05.700 --> 00:10:18.379 No one can look at the atrocities of the 20th century and make a compelling case that we have made progress as human beings. 00:10:20.040 --> 00:10:23.160 And we find ourselves on the brink of another world war. 00:10:24.160 --> 00:10:24.360 Right? 00:10:24.500 --> 00:10:25.680 Roughly a century later. 00:10:25.679 --> 00:10:30.839 Many people say we are making the very same mistakes that we made a century ago. 00:10:30.919 --> 00:10:32.120 Now, why is this the case? 00:10:33.419 --> 00:10:35.299 Well, essentially, Rousseau was wrong. 00:10:36.719 --> 00:10:41.120 Evil is not the result of outside corrupting influences coming at us from society. 00:10:41.459 --> 00:10:42.659 Evil comes from within. 00:10:44.279 --> 00:10:47.239 Here's how Jesus teaches us. 00:10:47.240 --> 00:11:01.519 For from within, he says, out of the heart of man come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, coveting, wickedness, deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride, foolishness. 00:11:01.980 --> 00:11:04.100 All these evil things come from within. 00:11:06.000 --> 00:11:07.840 That's Jesus' explanation. 00:11:08.480 --> 00:11:11.820 Human beings were created for goodness and beauty and truth. 00:11:11.919 --> 00:11:13.659 We long for those things still. 00:11:13.659 --> 00:11:20.659 But ever since our first parents rebelled against God, our hearts have been corrupted by sin. 00:11:21.719 --> 00:11:35.539 So even if we get all the externals right, the best education, the best government, the best people in office, enough wealth to go around so that everybody has a shot at a flourishing life, the human heart will always need to be reformed. 00:11:35.679 --> 00:11:36.559 Simper reformanda. 00:11:38.059 --> 00:11:39.659 Now, the good news is this. 00:11:40.139 --> 00:11:42.439 This is exactly why Jesus came. 00:11:43.659 --> 00:11:48.240 At the end of Nehemiah, Nehemiah has reinstituted his reforms. 00:11:48.759 --> 00:11:57.100 And in the last line of the book, he says, almost with a tone of exasperation, remember me, oh my God, for good. 00:11:57.919 --> 00:12:03.639 He's essentially saying, let my good deeds cover all of their wicked deeds. 00:12:04.819 --> 00:12:07.139 Let my righteousness count for something. 00:12:09.039 --> 00:12:10.079 Focus on me. 00:12:10.419 --> 00:12:12.000 Don't pay attention to what they're doing. 00:12:12.000 --> 00:12:16.820 But, of course, Nehemiah himself is full of sin. 00:12:17.059 --> 00:12:21.440 We catch a glimpse of that when he beats the tar out of people for disappointing him. 00:12:23.000 --> 00:12:23.179 Right? 00:12:23.220 --> 00:12:25.179 People hold him up as an example of a great leader. 00:12:25.419 --> 00:12:30.200 There are some things to learn there, but by no means should we follow every example he says. 00:12:30.200 --> 00:12:38.320 What we need to understand is in the larger story of Scripture, Jesus is actually the truer and better Nehemiah. 00:12:39.180 --> 00:12:43.440 That Jesus is the one who became like us in every way and yet without sin. 00:12:43.720 --> 00:12:43.900 Right? 00:12:44.480 --> 00:12:48.920 And Jesus is the one who's able to give his life for us to atone for sin. 00:12:48.919 --> 00:12:59.259 And so the gospel says that Jesus is actually the one who stands before the Father and says, like Nehemiah, remember me, oh my God, for good. 00:13:00.199 --> 00:13:02.639 Remember the perfect life I lived. 00:13:03.639 --> 00:13:07.120 Remember the death on the cross that I was willing to die. 00:13:07.819 --> 00:13:10.419 Allow me to pay the price for their sin. 00:13:10.559 --> 00:13:13.699 Allow my righteousness to become their righteousness. 00:13:13.700 --> 00:13:18.600 And unlike Nehemiah, Jesus is able to pray that successfully. 00:13:19.600 --> 00:13:22.840 Remember my righteousness in place of their wickedness. 00:13:23.700 --> 00:13:26.960 And that's the hope that Christianity offers the world. 00:13:27.040 --> 00:13:32.520 And that's why when Jesus began his public ministry, he didn't start by issuing a bunch of reforms. 00:13:34.360 --> 00:13:36.840 He didn't give us a moral to-do list. 00:13:36.960 --> 00:13:38.660 And here's how you need to shape up. 00:13:38.700 --> 00:13:40.080 And here's what you need to start doing. 00:13:40.140 --> 00:13:42.040 And you need to stop doing all of these things. 00:13:43.700 --> 00:13:50.120 Jesus began by calling people to repentance, which is not the same thing as reforms. 00:13:51.680 --> 00:14:00.500 Because when we repent, we turn away from sin, and we come to Jesus, and we confess that sin, and we ask for forgiveness. 00:14:01.420 --> 00:14:09.140 And then Jesus responds, not by saying, shape up, but by forgiving us and pouring grace into our lives. 00:14:09.139 --> 00:14:15.779 And then he fills us with the Holy Spirit to help us overcome sin in our lives. 00:14:16.100 --> 00:14:27.639 And then he promises that from that day forward, we'll never again be alone in our battle against sin, that he will be with us in it, strengthening us, encouraging us. 00:14:28.179 --> 00:14:31.779 And that we will no longer have to pay the penalty for that sin. 00:14:31.779 --> 00:14:33.139 It's already been dealt with. 00:14:34.339 --> 00:14:42.240 So this gives us a way to deal with sin once and for all, an objective, true, and lasting forgiveness. 00:14:42.799 --> 00:14:45.539 And it gives us a way to reform our hearts. 00:14:47.019 --> 00:14:49.539 So this is not something that we do once. 00:14:49.659 --> 00:14:52.220 This is something that is ongoing. 00:14:52.559 --> 00:14:54.159 It's a way of life. 00:14:54.159 --> 00:15:00.559 It's a way of responding to the brokenness in the world until Jesus comes again to make all things new. 00:15:02.719 --> 00:15:06.740 So understanding this, I mean, what's the so what of this? 00:15:06.799 --> 00:15:07.919 How does this apply to us? 00:15:08.139 --> 00:15:11.299 Understanding this is absolutely essential. 00:15:12.620 --> 00:15:19.459 If you want to make sense of the church and the kind of culture we're trying to build here at a place like Church of the Advent. 00:15:19.460 --> 00:15:27.379 If you come into the church with utopian expectations, none of this is going to make sense. 00:15:28.639 --> 00:15:31.500 And you're probably going to set yourself up for a whole lot of disappointment. 00:15:32.700 --> 00:15:35.240 Because you're never going to find a utopian church. 00:15:35.420 --> 00:15:36.940 You're never going to find a perfect church. 00:15:37.900 --> 00:15:40.540 Our goal is, frankly, not to build a utopian culture. 00:15:40.800 --> 00:15:42.759 It's to build a repentance culture. 00:15:42.759 --> 00:15:48.319 It's to build a culture where repentance is our normative way of life. 00:15:49.860 --> 00:15:53.100 Repentance, my friends, is the Christian superpower. 00:15:54.419 --> 00:15:58.299 It is the thing that gives us the capacity for self-correction. 00:15:59.720 --> 00:16:04.019 It is the thing that gives us a way to deal with sin objectively and permanently. 00:16:04.879 --> 00:16:12.159 To rebuild relationships with God and other people that would otherwise be impossible to repair. 00:16:12.759 --> 00:16:20.200 So the church is a place for people who are very serious about heart reform through ongoing repentance. 00:16:21.039 --> 00:16:22.240 Semper reformanda. 00:16:23.559 --> 00:16:29.519 And I would say that a culture of repentance requires that at least two things be true. 00:16:30.860 --> 00:16:35.179 There need to be two things in place for a culture of repentance to exist. 00:16:35.279 --> 00:16:39.480 Number one, there has to be a high commitment to personal responsibility. 00:16:39.480 --> 00:16:43.860 Meaning that there is a readiness to admit sin. 00:16:44.700 --> 00:16:49.820 There is a readiness to take responsibility for the wrong that we have committed in our lives. 00:16:50.220 --> 00:16:51.440 High personal responsibility. 00:16:51.600 --> 00:16:52.680 A readiness to admit sin. 00:16:52.920 --> 00:16:56.240 And right alongside that, you have to have a high commitment to grace. 00:16:56.240 --> 00:17:00.139 Which is about Jesus' readiness to forgive. 00:17:01.060 --> 00:17:01.299 Right? 00:17:01.360 --> 00:17:10.099 So if there is a readiness to confess sin and a readiness in Jesus to forgive that sin, there you have a culture of repentance. 00:17:10.519 --> 00:17:17.799 And in any community where there is a high personal responsibility and high emphasis on grace, you have that kind of culture. 00:17:18.019 --> 00:17:20.319 And that is the kind of church that changes lives. 00:17:20.319 --> 00:17:24.740 That is the kind of culture where people change and grow. 00:17:24.740 --> 00:17:36.740 So when it comes to this church, when it comes to your marriage, when it comes to your family, when it comes to your friend group, what kind of culture do you want to live in? 00:17:38.120 --> 00:17:47.920 I think this is maybe helpful if this is the kind of thing that if we see it, it helps us make sense of not only the kind of culture we want, but maybe the kind of culture that we have lived in. 00:17:47.920 --> 00:17:51.120 So can we put that up on the screen if you guys have that back there? 00:17:52.060 --> 00:18:00.940 This is a way to sort of help us make sense of what happens when you have a high commitment to personal responsibility and grace or when you don't. 00:18:04.080 --> 00:18:08.000 So in the top right, we see what we're talking about right now. 00:18:08.740 --> 00:18:10.300 A repentance culture. 00:18:10.779 --> 00:18:14.420 Where there is a high commitment to personal responsibility. 00:18:14.600 --> 00:18:15.759 People are quick to admit wrong. 00:18:16.060 --> 00:18:16.860 They're quick to forgive. 00:18:16.859 --> 00:18:18.759 They're quick to take responsibility. 00:18:20.059 --> 00:18:27.500 In this kind of culture, when something goes wrong in your relationship, your first impulse is to ask, is there anything in this I need to own? 00:18:28.839 --> 00:18:35.479 You know, if you have a huge fight with your spouse, your first question is not, let me tell you all the things you did wrong. 00:18:35.599 --> 00:18:38.299 It's, what do I need to own in this? 00:18:39.679 --> 00:18:44.439 You know, people are eager to repent because they understand how powerful repentance can be. 00:18:44.440 --> 00:18:50.279 People embrace grace and forgiveness as a means of growth and healing and change and reconciliation. 00:18:51.440 --> 00:18:55.580 And this kind of culture reinforces a core message in all of us. 00:18:55.579 --> 00:18:59.079 We all see ourselves in a culture like this. 00:18:59.379 --> 00:19:01.699 Everybody fundamentally believes about themselves. 00:19:01.859 --> 00:19:02.519 I'm forgiven. 00:19:03.319 --> 00:19:06.299 And therefore, I am loved and I am accepted. 00:19:07.859 --> 00:19:08.279 Right? 00:19:08.339 --> 00:19:20.139 So the more evil we commit, the more things we see in our lives, the more we repent, and the more that deepens that belief in us that I'm forgiven, I am loved, I'm accepted, I belong. 00:19:20.140 --> 00:19:22.380 That's a repentance culture. 00:19:23.000 --> 00:19:25.840 Now, what happens when both of these things are not in place? 00:19:25.920 --> 00:19:27.220 Well, let's look at the top left. 00:19:28.180 --> 00:19:40.940 If you have a high emphasis on grace and the gospel, but you have people who are not ready to admit their own sin or to take responsibility for their own wrongs, well, then you have a denial culture. 00:19:40.940 --> 00:19:48.100 This is also known as a culture of cheap grace, to borrow the phrase from Dietrich Bonhoeffer. 00:19:48.820 --> 00:19:52.480 This is essentially a culture where there is forgiveness but without real repentance. 00:19:53.680 --> 00:19:57.000 In this kind of culture, people tend to minimize their sin. 00:19:57.080 --> 00:19:59.200 They tend to justify their sin. 00:19:59.420 --> 00:20:02.059 If you confront them, they'll say, well, this is a misunderstanding. 00:20:02.460 --> 00:20:06.700 If you knew what my real intentions were, that's how they make excuses. 00:20:06.700 --> 00:20:09.620 They claim to be misunderstood or unfairly judged. 00:20:10.700 --> 00:20:19.140 They demand and expect that people forgive them and overlook their offenses, but they're never really willing to admit or take responsibility for them. 00:20:20.340 --> 00:20:29.140 And there is a core belief that is reinforced in a culture like this, and that is that actually at the end of the day, you know, I believe in the gospel and everything, but I'm actually faultless. 00:20:30.420 --> 00:20:31.860 The gospel is for the bad people. 00:20:31.940 --> 00:20:32.480 It's for the other people. 00:20:32.519 --> 00:20:34.920 But I'm actually doing okay. 00:20:34.920 --> 00:20:37.759 So that's a culture of denial. 00:20:38.620 --> 00:20:48.039 Now, on the bottom left, we see what happens when you have neither grace nor personal responsibility, and this is what we would think of as a blame culture. 00:20:48.259 --> 00:20:55.720 This is what happens when people don't take responsibility for their sin, and they don't really practice grace and forgiveness toward others. 00:20:55.720 --> 00:21:04.799 So in this kind of culture, people externalize and blame other people for all the evils and all the ills of the world. 00:21:05.400 --> 00:21:07.900 They tend to see themselves as the good guys. 00:21:08.339 --> 00:21:12.680 They tend to get offended very easily, and they're very quick to call other people out. 00:21:13.420 --> 00:21:16.299 You often see this in the world of secular activism. 00:21:16.299 --> 00:21:18.579 And it makes sense. 00:21:18.579 --> 00:21:33.059 How can you possibly enter into and to try to tackle issues like racial injustice or generational poverty if you're not willing to own your part in it, nor do you believe in a God of forgiveness and reconciliation? 00:21:33.059 --> 00:21:41.500 You end up having a whole lot of people claiming the moral high ground and blaming other people for all the evil in the world. 00:21:42.379 --> 00:21:49.039 And there is a core belief that is reinforced in this kind of culture, and that is ultimately, hey, at the end of the day, I'm kind of the victim here. 00:21:49.039 --> 00:22:05.879 And if people confront you or say, hey, this is the way that you've done wrong, or your spouse comes to you and says, this is the way that you did wrong or hurt my feelings, your response is to kind of say, well, if you really understood this correctly, I'm actually the real victim here, and you're the one who should be apologizing to me. 00:22:07.200 --> 00:22:08.339 That's a blame culture. 00:22:08.779 --> 00:22:12.740 No personal responsibility and very low emphasis on grace and forgiveness. 00:22:13.779 --> 00:22:17.960 And then finally, bottom right, we have a shame culture. 00:22:17.960 --> 00:22:28.600 This is when there is a high readiness to admit sin, personal sin, and to take responsibility maybe too much, but a very low emphasis on grace. 00:22:29.860 --> 00:22:37.039 In a culture like this, people lack the ability to find healing and forgiveness, and that leads to despair and self-condemnation. 00:22:37.700 --> 00:22:42.160 People tend to feel overwhelmed by guilt and by shame. 00:22:42.160 --> 00:22:51.100 This is the kind of culture where, if it's a religious culture, people tend to believe that God is disappointed with them or frustrated with them or angry with them. 00:22:51.380 --> 00:22:54.660 So this is the kind of culture where people learn how to hide their sin. 00:22:55.720 --> 00:22:57.120 They learn how to conceal. 00:22:57.240 --> 00:22:58.660 They learn how to separate out. 00:22:59.480 --> 00:23:07.000 They play the part of a religiously faithful person on the outside, but they hide the brokenness of their lives so that no one else can see it. 00:23:07.000 --> 00:23:10.700 Because they believe, if anyone really knew the truth about me, that they would reject me. 00:23:11.079 --> 00:23:12.680 Nobody would want to be near me. 00:23:13.980 --> 00:23:23.599 And you often see this in fundamentalist religious societies, not just in the Christian church, but in other religions. 00:23:23.980 --> 00:23:29.119 Fundamentalist legalistic societies that tend to focus on works as a means to salvation. 00:23:29.119 --> 00:23:35.279 There are the externals of religious faithfulness, but there's really no heart change. 00:23:35.599 --> 00:23:37.599 People just learn how to say what they need to say. 00:23:38.919 --> 00:23:44.059 And there's a core belief that is reinforced in these kinds of cultures that ultimately I'm unworthy. 00:23:44.500 --> 00:23:45.859 I'm unworthy of love. 00:23:46.000 --> 00:23:47.239 I'm unworthy of God's love. 00:23:47.739 --> 00:23:48.939 I'm unworthy of friendship. 00:23:50.119 --> 00:23:51.739 I don't deserve to have good things. 00:23:51.819 --> 00:23:52.819 I don't deserve joy. 00:23:52.899 --> 00:23:54.539 I don't deserve to have good experiences. 00:23:54.539 --> 00:23:59.159 And so there's a deep sense of unworthiness in cultures like this. 00:24:00.519 --> 00:24:05.879 Now, taking all of this into account, I put it up there simply to provide a kind of diagnostic tool. 00:24:06.859 --> 00:24:08.799 Because we need to actually apply this. 00:24:08.940 --> 00:24:11.879 We should ask ourselves, where do I find myself here? 00:24:12.899 --> 00:24:14.039 What are my tendencies? 00:24:15.460 --> 00:24:17.259 Think about your family growing up. 00:24:17.319 --> 00:24:19.240 What kind of family did you grow up in? 00:24:20.159 --> 00:24:21.720 Where would you place that on the chart? 00:24:21.879 --> 00:24:23.420 What about your current friend group? 00:24:23.420 --> 00:24:29.220 The people who have the most influence on you and how you make sense of the hard things in your life. 00:24:30.160 --> 00:24:31.740 What is being reinforced there? 00:24:32.660 --> 00:24:33.880 What about your marriage? 00:24:34.840 --> 00:24:37.180 How do you operate in times of conflict? 00:24:38.779 --> 00:24:39.960 Do you tend to play the victim? 00:24:40.080 --> 00:24:42.180 Are you willing to take responsibility and get wrong? 00:24:42.300 --> 00:24:44.019 Do you carry around deep shame and failure? 00:24:46.120 --> 00:24:47.240 What about your family? 00:24:47.380 --> 00:24:49.000 How are we parenting our kids? 00:24:49.860 --> 00:24:52.220 What kind of culture are we reinforcing for them? 00:24:52.220 --> 00:24:58.339 If we are not quick to forgive, to repent and quick to forgive. 00:24:58.660 --> 00:25:01.100 If we don't have a high readiness to admit sin. 00:25:01.600 --> 00:25:06.600 And if we don't have a knee jerk reaction to go to Jesus and to actually believe that he forgives us. 00:25:08.120 --> 00:25:09.360 We need to figure out. 00:25:09.359 --> 00:25:12.500 Do I have a low view of grace? 00:25:13.139 --> 00:25:14.959 Do I have a low view of personal responsibility? 00:25:15.779 --> 00:25:15.979 Right? 00:25:16.000 --> 00:25:20.399 If you find yourself being overly defensive or minimizing or blame shifting or hiding your sin. 00:25:21.279 --> 00:25:22.740 Are those things in place? 00:25:24.819 --> 00:25:26.599 So just a couple of final takeaways. 00:25:26.599 --> 00:25:34.480 Number one, hopefully it's clear by now that gospel ministry, gospel ministry looks different depending on the situation. 00:25:35.439 --> 00:25:42.500 For some of us, gospel ministry means an emphasis on the grace and forgiveness available through Jesus. 00:25:42.659 --> 00:25:43.859 And that's what we need to hear. 00:25:44.079 --> 00:25:46.859 If you're in that bottom right corner, that's what you need to hear. 00:25:46.859 --> 00:25:57.459 But for some of us, gospel ministry may begin painfully to truly have the gospel work itself out in our lives. 00:25:57.839 --> 00:26:03.299 We may need to do the hard work of actually confronting and admitting our own sin. 00:26:03.299 --> 00:26:06.379 And that's something that our culture very much does not emphasize. 00:26:08.639 --> 00:26:22.680 But for gospel ministry, we may need to do some hard, deep soul searching to break through the denial, break through the justification, break through the victim narrative, to own what we need to own so that we can give it away to Jesus. 00:26:23.399 --> 00:26:24.259 So that's the first takeaway. 00:26:24.419 --> 00:26:26.119 The second and final takeaway is this. 00:26:26.919 --> 00:26:30.980 Hopefully it's clear by now that the gospel is not just something that we believe intellectually. 00:26:30.980 --> 00:26:38.819 The gospel is something that we have to work out in our daily lives through ongoing repentance. 00:26:39.920 --> 00:26:41.059 Semper Reformanda. 00:26:41.579 --> 00:26:42.019 Let's pray. 00:26:43.720 --> 00:26:57.860 Our Lord in heaven, we thank you that these are not just truths or ideas to give us a different way of thinking, that this is the blood and the life of your son worked out in our lives. 00:26:57.859 --> 00:27:09.159 Lord, this is the so what of thousands upon thousands of years of salvation history working out across cultures, across continents. 00:27:09.859 --> 00:27:15.639 Lord, this is the so what of plans that you put in place that will one day lead us to the new creation. 00:27:15.640 --> 00:27:22.300 Lord, now we are seeking to be reformed and renewed through your Holy Spirit. 00:27:22.580 --> 00:27:32.720 But we know that the promise is that there will be a day when the good work that you have begun in us will be brought to completion, where we will see you face to face. 00:27:32.720 --> 00:27:36.880 And we will recognize you because we will be like you. 00:27:37.759 --> 00:27:46.700 Lord, we pray in the hope of that day and we ask for your Holy Spirit to help us to be faithful as we live the death and resurrection every day. 00:27:46.779 --> 00:27:52.039 That you would put to death those things in us that are not of you and that you would bring new life that isn't. 00:27:52.620 --> 00:27:54.819 That one day we would be with you for eternity. 00:27:55.420 --> 00:27:57.500 We pray this in your son's holy name. 00:27:57.920 --> 00:27:58.120 Amen. 00:27:58.119 --> 00:27:59.119 Amen.