This sermon delves into the importance of honoring parents as outlined in the fifth commandment, emphasizing the weight and respect that should be given to parents. It also discusses the gravity of the sixth commandment, 'You shall not murder,' highlighting the sanctity of life and the biblical principles surrounding self-defense, capital punishment, military service, and the refugee crisis. Additionally, it addresses the seventh commandment, 'You shall not commit adultery,' focusing on the significance of marital fidelity and the consequences of adultery, while emphasizing the need for repentance and seeking forgiveness. The sermon concludes with a call to embrace God's love, surrender fully to Him, and engage in heartfelt worship to experience a transformative relationship with Him.

We're still in the Ten Commandments. We're going to finish up Commandments 5, 6, and 7. And then next week, 8, 9, and 10. And then we'll be going on again in Matthew. So if you have your Bibles, Exodus 20 v. 12. And this is an interesting one that we're going to talk about first. Honor your father and mother that your days may be long upon the land which the Lord God is giving you. How many of you would like to put that in your teenager's room? Right? Honor your father and your mother that your days may be long upon the land which the Lord God is giving you. Now in the context, it's dealing with the whole nation of Israel here. In the land that God is giving you. The nation of Israel. There'll be peace there. There'll be plenty. God will bless that. But I also believe that it applies to us even here now, not just in Jesus' time, or actually Exodus is way before. Jesus' time. But honoring our father and our mother. And there's a special blessing that comes with that. And it's interesting, the first four commandments are about honoring God, then honoring our parents. So it talks about the first four about honoring God, and then right into honoring our parents. Now I think I should clarify this because honor means, sometimes we think, well, I have to do what they say, and now you do if you're younger. But I'm talking about older adults here. But this isn't really about doing what they say. It's about honoring them. And the word honor means heavy, weighty, it carries weight. There's something about that they were your parents that carries weight. There should be an honoring, a respecting of what God has given you. And many times though, especially in single families and different things, it's hard to confuse this word honor with totally obey and submit to, when it really isn't meaning that. I'm gonna get to that in a minute. But first thing, under honor, honor doesn't mean agreeing with everything. So when you honor your parents, it doesn't mean that you agree with everything. But there's an honoring there. For example, who's the president right now? Not everybody agrees with him. But there's an honoring of that position. The Bible tells us that, that they pray for those in authority. And there's an honoring. It's almost like you would put something on the ground and stomp on it because you honor it. There's a respect there. So honor does not mean agreeing with everything. It's obeying and respecting and speaking highly of when you can. What I mean by when you can is, if a parent is acting in a way that's not biblical, the child or the young adult underneath them doesn't submit to sin. It's not about submitting to whatever they say, because sometimes what they say is not according to the Bible. But there's an honoring that takes place, a respecting, speaking highly of. And how many times do we get in the trap of not speaking highly of our spouse or those parents above us? I've had the privilege of talking to a lot of people who do speak highly of their parents, and it's a wonderful thing because it shows respect. And a quick message to the young adults. In most cases, your parents have walked the road that you've traveled. So when they say, don't do this, there's a good reason behind that. They're not just, ah, you're old-fashioned. You don't know what's going on. You're out with the times. No, they've walked down the road. They've seen the roaring lion that's seeking to devour. And I think if kids would look at their parents more as those trying to help them, not hurt them, they would get a lot more from it. So when your parents say, hey, you might want to, whether it's financial, and usually when they give you advice it's because they've seen the vice fell. They've seen what works, what doesn't, and why. They know the biblical principles behind it. So it's very important to listen to your parents when you can, especially if they're directing you down the biblical course. Be under this honor. Honor needs to be encouraged. Honor needs to be encouraged. There must be a united front. Now, parents, you need to be on the same page in the house and not foster division. You know, you can't have one parent saying this to the kids and the other parent saying this, and there's division. One parent wanting to reprimand the other parent, saying no, no, it's not their fault. It's almost like taking sides. And when God has given us the wonderful aspect of having a family, the parents need to be united. Although they don't agree on everything or maybe not how to handle everything, the kids should see a united front, not a divided front. And I think a divided front in the marriage also leads to a divided front in the family. And you see healthy families often, the wife and the husband will talk about it later, but in front of the kids, again, not talking about sin issues, but in front of the kids, there's a united front. Because I also believe that a parent can help a child break this commandment by not being on a united front, by causing division in the home. Well, your father doesn't know what he's talking about. And you know who really runs this house. And don't listen to what he's saying. You're not helping things. That's not honoring. And you can't force respect and honor. Men need to hear this. You can't force somebody to respect you. It has to be earned. It has to be, you can't walk in the house and say, I'm the husband, you need to respect me. It has to be earned. And many times when you say that, you probably have a respect problem and you're not gonna get that respect. And we are, the reason it has to be encouraged now, especially, is we are swimming upstream in this culture. Today, the culture mocks it. Remember when I was growing up, it was Al Bundy. Or now some of the stuff, Good Luck Charlie, or the dad is the idiot. It's just the idiot. And I'm not saying don't watch that show necessarily, but be careful because they are making, they are dumbing down the parents. They are making the dad look like an idiot and the mom look like just a babbling, doesn't know anything, so the kids are running the show. So if you fill your mind with hundreds of hours of that a week or a year of the parents being idiots, the dad, what do you think we're producing? Why are the schools battlegrounds? Why are we seeing all this? Because we've lost that structure. We've lost the structure of honor. And honor also means removing selfishness. And here's what a commentator said, D.K. Stewart, in his commentary on Exodus, highly recommend it if you want to really dig deep. Children take care of their parents in their parents' old age when they are no longer able to work for themselves as well as to honor whatever their parents have prescribed by the way of inheritance for their children. Thus the commandment is followed by the promise of living long in the promised land. Just as parents who have lived long in their own personal lives need to be cared for at the end of those long lives, so the nation of Israel would be able to enjoy a long life in the land that God has given them. So that also honoring is towards the end of the life, and this is where it gets difficult. Doesn't mean my mom just had hip surgery and she's not getting around like she used to, and it's difficult, it's a difficult season. And we know that as people age, that that is a time where we do show the honor and the respect of what they, I mean, what did they do for us for the first 15 years or 12 years, and raising us, and there's an honor there that has to be established. And on this point, though, a lot of people say, well, my dad doesn't deserve it, or my mom doesn't deserve it. They don't deserve it, and I hear that a lot. And it's important to remember, too, it's really not about them, it's about us. Same with forgiveness. How many times do we grapple over forgiveness because they don't deserve it? Right, it's not about them. It's about you and getting your heart right. I just talked to somebody this morning on my way to the funeral. She is very upset, doesn't even live in this state, the way the church is handling some things, and I tend to agree, but I was reminding her, don't let bitterness and unforgiveness, now it's influencing you. See what's happened? You've allowed it to come in, and you've gotta release that. Well, they didn't deserve it, they didn't, right. But see, a lot of times, we get it mixed up. It's not about them, and the same thing applies here. My parents don't deserve it, right, but God is asking us to honor our parents, whether they deserve it or not. Actually, I believe the greater blessing becomes when they don't deserve it. Because even Jesus said, it's easy to love those who are lovable, but try loving your enemy. Same thing, when we show honor to those who don't deserve it, there's power in that. And I've seen a lot of fathers sometimes, not even seen personally, but heard about it on their deathbed or nearing that when their kids begin to honor them, and that breaks them, and they're receptive to the gospel, because they see it lived out. Son, I don't deserve this. Daughter, I don't deserve this. Why are you doing this? And it begins to take that hard heart and break it down and crush it into where he's now receptive for the gospel. But if the children are like, well, you didn't deserve, you treated me like this, and then you keep that wedge, and that's why I believe there's a lot of, in memorial services, we had one this afternoon, is children feel that they didn't honor their parents, and they could have done more, and then now they're living with regret, and they should have, and part of this honoring, I believe, is not living with regret, because when you honor your parents, and it finally comes to that day that you have to bury them, and there's a feeling of, God, I've done what you've called me to do. Not perfectly, but I've honored them. And it's interesting, too, that verse came to mind. I don't know why it came to mind, but all week before, as I was studying this, that love covers a multitude of sin. Love covers a multitude of sin. And the reason I'm opening up with that is dads and moms, if this is you, please repent and return to God. If we are being those parents that are angry, and mean, and divisive, I don't, no, not this group's good, right? But second service might need to hear this. But if this, if we're being that parent that we always thought we'd never be, this is a time for us to wake up, and I think the sermon's focus is on that, is we need to get back to the heart of God, and raising our kids, and love covers a multitude of sin. To cover means to put something on top of, or in front of, to protect or conceal. So parents, if we go into loving, wanting to protect and conceal, that can make a huge difference in our family. I read something, a sermon illustration, actually, this week. It was of Charles Elliott. It said, Charles Elliott, Harvard's esteemed president of yesteryear, was born with a disfiguring birthmark. At first, it was most difficult for his mother to accept it. All the while, however, she kept schooling herself in the art of loving her unattractive child, saying as she met his needs, he is my son, he is my son. And then with the passing years, Miss Elliott had every right to say, and with pride, he is my son. One honor after another marked Elliott's achievements until at last, in 1869, he was elected president of Harvard University. And then the story ends, what if he had not been loved in his home? And I think then the power of love in the house, and a lack of love is the leading cause of a dysfunctional family. And love doesn't come naturally, it comes supernaturally. I believe that a lack of love is causing a lot of dysfunctional families. A dysfunctional family is, I mean, to some degree, we're all dysfunctional families, but where there's just walking on eggshells, and there's anger, and there's abusiveness, and that lack of love withdrawn leads to a very dysfunctional family, and then the children grow up with a lot of pain. And I don't have it in my notes, I've been praying about it all week. I even left my mom a message, you know, letting her know I might talk a little bit about this in case she wanted to avoid the service. But I had a very difficult, my brother and myself raised with my dad, very angry. I remember pulling my dad off of my brother, I remember him throwing me under tables and beating us, and it was a very hard family life, living in that environment. It's hard to even talk about it, really. He was a very angry man, but of course, I loved him and honored him, and that's why, when he died and I was 24, and just wet, because I never had the chance to, dad, what's a man look like, what's it on? We were not really getting along, and being raised in that, there's dysfunctions. There's alcoholic books out there, like Children of Alcoholic Homes, and even though he wasn't one, what he made us is, now I'm very reserved, and you're walking on eggshells, you don't wanna lose another relationship. It's like a wounded dog, you've been hurt, you've been beaten, and it was a very difficult season, very difficult 12, 15 years. And that led, I believe, to alcoholism early in my life, and just being not good in relationships, and that dysfunction, because love was lacking. And I was reading David Wilkerson's autobiography, I might have told you guys this already this summer, and he read where he said his dad never said he loved him, and I kinda just dropped the book right then, and I realized that's me. I don't ever remember that, and that's hard for a child to hear, dad never said he loved you. And so coming from, the whole point of this point is, the lack of love leads to dysfunctional family, because love causes parents to be humble, and broken before their children, and gentle, and I didn't have gentleness. It was, I mean, it was fly off the handle, if you know what that means. You know, when somebody says walking on eggshells, I know exactly what, it's like, I'm coming into the house, is this going to be a good day, or is this gonna be, you know, and it was yelling, it was getting the belt out, it was, it would be child abuse, you know, today, for sure. So, carrying that, and now seeing how honoring our parents, and still I did that, I still do that today, and I don't say this to dishonor my father, I say it to, he came to the Lord later on, towards the end of his life, and he would probably say the same things, but I had to fight that honoring. It wasn't easy, because it was a difficult, and one of my family members said when he died, it was the best thing that ever happened to them, because of the hard environment, and that was hard for me, to hear that, and so, I think it's relevant in this point of honoring your parents, because it didn't come naturally. It wasn't something, what, I mean, he doesn't, I mean, look at, how can I do that, and God really began to minister, in my own spirit, about this issue of, it's not about him, it's about you, and speaking highly of, so I still do speak highly of my dad, I write about him in the books, hard worker, farms of Oklahoma, driven, type A personnel, I built a construction company, we did very well in sports, because of how he would, you know, we're gonna go out there, and you're gonna throw 12 strikes, and we're not coming back in until you do, and it's that pushing, and pushing, and so it created, there's a lot of positives about that, and there's a lot to focus on in honoring, but just be very careful in your home. If love is not the dominating characteristic, it will wound, and it will hurt your children. There's no way around that, and then when the children grow up, it's hard to honor what used to hurt. They can't find, so that's why I think this commandment's difficult. We don't realize that this is, honor isn't saying, well, yeah, I deserved it, you know, they were right in everything they did, I concede, honor is just showing your parents some level of respect, and also understand, understood not being a believer, so that helped me, he wasn't a believer, coming from farm life in Oklahoma, and you know what that means, you know, boy, you don't cry, you know, get up, that whole hard time, I mean, there's bricks through the door, and it was just, it was a difficult, difficult season, so you can honor your parents, regardless of what they went through, or what you went through, and then we move right into number six, commandment number six, you shall not murder. You shall not murder. The Hebrew equivalent is never murder. That's the Hebrew equivalent, it's not you shall not murder, it's just never murder, two words. Basically, it's no one acting on his own can decide that he has the right to end someone's life. What do we call that? Premeditated murder. It's interesting how our early laws in our nation came directly from the Old Testament, and mainly in Exodus and Deuteronomy, and there's something called the William Blackstone's Commentaries of the Laws of England, that they brought over from England, that every law was founded on scripture. You know, from premeditated murder to houses of refuge, you know, would be for somebody accidentally killed them, and we have, you know, it would be manslaughter, and things like that, but this you shall not murder has been widely, widely misquoted. Politicians love to misquote this, and let's talk about a few things what it's not. I don't think it has anything to do with self-defense. Now, a lot of people, you know, some of these are debatable topics, and I'll get emails on it, but that's okay. Self-defense, I gave a whole sermon on this, titled Guns, What Does the Bible Say? So you can, you know, kind of research that, and I think if it's a personal, like me and somebody's coming at me, and I decide to, hey, I'm taking one for Christ, fine. I'm talking about self-defense and defending family, defending your family, and I think, if you can't even provide for your family financially, the Bible says you're worse than an unbeliever. I think that would fall in the category of defending them as well, and not allowing and protecting. It's called, men are called to protect and nurture, so it wouldn't involve that. Also, you know, the issue of capital punishment comes up, that many people wanna get rid of that, because there's failures in the system, and I understand that, but the more you dumb down the penalty, the more you'll see crime increase. That's just bottom line, and we see scripturally, we see this in the Old Testament. We also see Romans 13, which I've quoted before, but let me read again. Let every soul be subject to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except from God, and the authorities that exist are appointed by God. Therefore, whoever resists the authority resists the ordinance of God. And then verse three, for rulers are not a tear to good work, but to evil. Do you want to be unafraid of authority? Then do what is good, and you'll have praise from the same. So, do not murder, to me, would not have anything to do with capital punishment, because the punishment fits the crime. If somebody takes a life, then a life is required for them. Also, people have issues with the military, and this is, you know, don't murder. How can you go out and murder? They're not murdering, they're defending. Big difference. They're part of the government, right here, Romans 13, for he is God's minister, verse four, for he is God's minister to you for good, but if you do evil, be afraid, for he does not bear the sword in vain, for he is God's minister and avenger to execute wrath on him who practices evil. So, it's an interesting parallel. We are not supposed to murder, and it's left up to the governing authorities, but then the military, God's avenger, and they are there to protect and defend the nation. It's scriptural, it's biblical. There's nothing wrong with that. Then, of course, everybody's asking about the refugee crisis, and I mean, I need a whole sermon to unpack that thing. On one hand, of course, you're supposed to love your neighbor, the refugee, but on the other hand, there's some cracks in the system here, and you're letting in the evil, and you're not taking safeguards to protect. So, how do you find that balance of caring for those who need it and also protecting? Well, we don't have time tonight, but suffice it to say that there can be a balance reached. I mean, one idea might be a lie detector test. Before you get on there, come over here, let's take a lie detector test. Are you going to shoot us? And I'm not joking, necessarily, but there's got to be a way to where we can balance both helping those in need but at the same time protecting, because I believe both are biblical. I don't believe that we should just be a doormat and whatever happens, because Romans 13 and many other places, that we should be careful in this area. Also, what about abortion? Clearly, that's murder, that's taking a life. And it's hard to say that. Obviously, abortion is murder. When you abort, you murder. And I've opened up about my past in this area of conceding to an abortion 24 years ago and murdering a child, a six-week-old. And with my dad, with that, it's a pretty messed up past, for sure. So, by the grace of God, here I am up here. And one of the hardest questions, we did a video that focused on the family use on this experience, and the hardest thing, I couldn't even answer the question they asked me, what would you say to your son or daughter now if you could see them? I couldn't answer it other than I'm sorry. I'm sorry. And these are heavy topics, but I'm not afraid to say that abortion is murder, even whether it's five weeks old or not. It's your taking of a life. And that's what he's talking about here. There's ramifications for this. And then we go right into the seventh commandment. If you have your Bibles, Exodus 20, verse 14. You shall not commit adultery. Now, I'm not gonna spend a lot of time here because we've talked about this extensively. You shall not commit adultery. Marriage is foundational to the creation order and to human society. This is, again, quoting D.K. Stewart. Marriage is foundational to the creation order and to human society. Husband and wives, husbands and wives can hardly function fully as one flesh if they do not trust each other. Sexual relations are the virtual seal of a marriage covenant, and adultery betrays the emotional and psychological intimacy that specially connects adult men and women within marriage. Wow, well, that's a commentator for you, right? They just unpack it. And the bottom line is, once with adultery, you ruin that issue, you break that bond of trust. There's a covenant relationship where husbands and wives come together, and there's a covenant with God, a covenant with themselves, and unlike any other sin, sexual sin is a sin against the body, and it breaks that covenant. There's a hurting, there's a process, there's a pain, you're breaking the trust, and God says it's not healthy, it's not good. And then people say, what about polygamy? Mormons do it, David did it. Well, from a biblical perspective, polygamy was tolerated. Polygamy was tolerated, but monogamy is everywhere in Scripture, assumed as God's perfect design. So polygamy was accepted. I don't know if you can find a Scripture where God said, sure, yeah, just this is my design. You know, many different wives, that's what I want. He would always bring back to one husband, one wife, obviously. I don't even know how people live like that. That would just be weird, you know? I mean, for lack of a better word. It just doesn't work. It's not God's perfect plan. And the act, this is interesting. We often think of the act of adultery, but many people, in my opinion, are committing adultery up here more often than they think, because if they're thinking and they're fantasizing or they're acting out or they're constantly, now, there's a difference between having a thought and saying, that's not a good thought. I'm taking that thought captive, right? I'm not gonna go there. That's why when I go to the mall, I walk on the other side of Victoria's Secret and it's like, how is this even in the public? It's amazing what we allow. But there's a difference between a thought coming in and then going after that thought or developing that thought or, well, I'm not gonna actually do it, but I'm gonna think it. It's the same thing. It's in God's eyes. Jesus says, if a man lusts after a woman in his heart, he thinks about it. If he even lusts at her, he's committing adultery in his heart. Because the act, really an act is what's already going on in the heart. So just because you don't finalize the act, it doesn't mean that the heart's not already engaged. So that's why there's a distinction there. Now, I do wanna encourage people on this issue, but God, because there are people dealing with this issue of adultery, not only adultery, pornography, different things where God says, you shall not do this and it's been done and people are like, oh, now what? And we can live in shame and guilt for a long time. We can take that shame, that guilt, and live in it and never break free, but God, okay, yes, he says, don't do it, it's happened, there's gonna be consequences, but there's forgiveness at the cross. There's forgiveness and I've seen a lot of marriages, some that you don't even know it occurred, have actually been strengthened once they went through this. Now, am I recommending go through this to strengthen your marriage? No, because the statistics are not good on the other way either. But if you look to Christ, look to forgiveness and exemplify it, it can strengthen that marriage. And I've seen actually recently too, when this happens, you see somebody, oh, there's tons of tears and oh, just crying, crying and rightly so, but then when it's time to make some changes, get some accountability in place, they get upset. So that tells me they're not truly broken over their sin. They're mad they got caught, right? Or they're, oh, now my life's ruined, now my friends know how embarrassing. That's not repentance. That has nothing to do with repentance. So that's one good thing about allowing consequences to happen is you can see where a person's heart's at. If you say, okay, this happened, now we need you to step down or we need this to happen or, and they say, no, no, I don't wanna do that and they get defensive, then you know the heart's not right. Because a person, here's what happens, when a person is truly broken and repentant, they'll say this, whatever you need me to do. Church, leadership, whatever you need me to do. Spouse, whatever you need me to do. Get rid of my phone, undo Facebook, right now I'll do it. Whatever you need me, you know the heart's right. And I just talked to a guy this week too who this actually happened to a while back and I kept encouraging him, you gotta get some software on your phone. Well, it doesn't really, you know, come on. You're walking down a very dangerous path there unless you get some boundaries in place. Because the interesting, the sin of adultery, what's interesting about this too is, once that door's open, if it's not closed very, very hard, very abruptly and with concrete, not sand, it can open again. I've seen a lot of people go into the second or third or fourth affair. Why, because the door wasn't closed. It wasn't secured and that's what the enemy calls it, or the Bible calls a stronghold or a foothold. The enemy has a foothold there and once an area of weakness, I believe always an area of weakness, you know. I'm not one of those people who say nobody can ever break free and this, but I am saying you have to be careful. A crack in the armor is a crack in the armor. Anytime you put super glue on the crack in the armor, they're still not as strong as the armor before it was broken. So you have to watch those weak areas. You have to watch where you've fallen before or where you're about to fall or the tendency is to fall. And actually I was reading something this week and many of you have already heard this, I'm sure. There's an acronym called HALT. Hungry, angry, lonely, and tired. That's usually when addiction, that's when the enemy comes in in those four areas. When somebody's hungry, you know, that when you're hungry, there's a temptation there. When you're angry, that's a no-brainer. I'm just gonna go out and do this. And my best friend in high school, his wife cheated on him. Guess what he said? I'm gonna go out and do this. He went out and did it. And because their anger, they're hurt. And these are areas, these are weak points we have to watch when we're hungry, when we're angry, when we're lonely, and when we're tired. Because tired zaps your strength. When you're tired, you're tired spiritually too. At least I am. When I'm exhausted, I'm like, I'm just tired. So those are areas we have to watch many times. If looking back and talking to, I mean, I don't know if it's just me, but I know a lot of people who are going through this with affairs and adultery. I mean, it's everywhere. In the church, it's everywhere you look. It's happening, I don't wanna use the word epidemic, but it's close to that. It's like, folks, wake up. And in many cases, talking to the men, talking to the women, I have my wife there, you know, obviously, when I talk to them. But there's a course that sin takes. It's not when they're doing good in the marriage. I've never heard, we were doing so good in our marriage. We had date nights. You know, we're loving each other. And I don't, it just happened this week. I don't know what happened. It was progressive. The enemy gets in, and anger comes in. And it begins to divide the family. And loneliness, or tired, and he begins to work in that area. So it's a progression. And that's why, thank God, God allows us to nip it in the bud soon. I mean, there's steps there that we know along the way, this was not a good first step, but nothing happened. This is not a good second step, but nothing happened. That was not a good third step. I should have not called. I should have not met them at Starbucks. But nothing happened. And then, you know, just keep walking. You know where this ends up. Come on. This isn't preschool. Eventually, in many cases, people get hotels, and, oh, let me meet you at the hotel. And even driving there, I'm saying, aren't you convicted? I mean, is there not a, baby, baby, baby, turn around, turn around, stop. I mean, it's like, how do you even get to there? Because you start to compromise. And that siren gets a little quieter, a little quieter, a little quieter. It used to be loud, and then it settles down. Because the more, I believe the more we ignore the conviction of the Holy Spirit, the less we'll feel the conviction of the Holy Spirit. Usually, the more you keep ignoring it, and ignoring it, and ignoring it, it often gets, the conviction gets less and less and less. I wanna, I don't know if this closing will be long or short, but I wanna talk about, since we talked about love in the home, even God's love and forgiveness for a minute, because we all need it. You know, if you're that parent, this is gonna go out in the video, in the radio, and if you're the parent feeling very convicted about how you've been treating your kids, maybe committed adultery, maybe committed murder, with abortion, with different things, we have to realize that all that's been covered and paid for by God's forgiveness and his love. That's the wonderful thing about the gospel. I love that line that we sang, I can't remember the worship song, it really stood out, the simplicity of the gospel. The simple gospel, that's a simple gospel. I need a Savior, I need forgiveness. And I like what Oswald Chambers said in his devotional a few days ago. If you read his devotional, it's a yearly devotional, and each day has a different message, really quick, it's really good. He said, beware of the pleasant view, the pleasant view of the fatherhood of God, that God is so kind and loving that of course he will forgive us. That thought, based solely on emotion, cannot be found anywhere in the New Testament. The only basis on which God can forgive us is because of the tremendous tragedy of the cross of Christ. To base on our forgiveness, to base our forgiveness on any other grounds is blasphemy. And at first, the students, I had to reread again, and I thought, this is so true, because many people think, well, God will forgive me, the forgiveness of God, like it's something you choose at a buffet. Like he's a, yeah, I know God, yeah, I'll take a forgiveness, I guess, what's it gonna hurt? And that's, if you're not understanding the cross of Christ, if we're not understanding repentance and what it costs God, forgiveness had a price. Forgiveness, to forgive me of these sins or in you of these sins, there's a deep price, unless we realize that, then we'll have this pleasant view of God that's not biblical. It's not a forgiveness to just take and leave at our convenience. It costs Christ his life. And once you realize, once you realize all that it costs God to forgive you, you will be held as in a vice, constrained by the love of God. Oswald Chambers, once you realize, and see, that's what I wanna get people to realize. Once you realize the cost of God, if we really realize what it costs God to forgive us, we would be constrained, constrained by the love of God. If you could just take for a minute and we could go back 2,000 years ago and we could actually see the execution and say that was for me, you think it might change the way you live? I told people at the memorial today, I said if he could come back and speak to you, he would be pleading with you. There would be tears. This would be tear stain. He'd be saying, come home, return. Backslider, return. Stop running from God, return. You don't wanna go the other direction. He would be up at the pulpit for hours, begging and pleading, begging and pleading to turn back to God. Turn to him. Would he not? If he just met God, the risen Savior, and he had a view, correct view of God, he would come back here, that would be the best sermon you ever heard. Why pleading? Because he's experienced him. And many people say, I don't understand how God sent his Son and the Son of God don't understand all this stuff. And like I said this morning, I'll tell you, I'm not going to go to hell over a mystery. I'm not going to go to hell over a mystery, meaning I don't understand everything about God. I don't have any idea why he would do that. Why would he save me? Why would he save you? Why? Why would a king come down from heaven, from his throne, be mocked and ridiculed, beaten, I mean, this is terrible, and then hang on a cross and die and feel the pain, feel the wrath of God. It makes no sense. It makes no sense. But that's why grace is so sweet. Because even though it doesn't make sense, it's the truth, that God died for me. And if you just, man, if you just meditate on that and think about that, that's why this worship, I don't know if you know it, but this is good worship. I mean, Ronnie's gifted. I speak at a lot of places and there's bad worship. And that worship, that worship, the word of God compelling us, should motivate us to worship him. I mean, if you look, the love of God, the true love of God compels us to, I have to. That's what people don't understand. I have to. I have to worship. He died for me. You don't think if you could go back 2,000 years and be on the dirt floor there and go off to the place of the skull, climb up that hill and watch and see, and watch that blood run down, watch the thorns on his head, dripping eyes, everything brew, and say, that was for me? You don't think you'd come back different? You'd be on fire for God. Everywhere you go, you'd say, Lord, how can you use me? And that's what I, Lord, how do you want to use me? Where do you want to put this, what do you want to do? I'm so indebted to you. But see, that, the mindset doesn't come naturally. It comes supernaturally. The more we focus on Facebook and ISIS and the movies and the entertainment and feeding our bellies and all this stuff, the more we get drawn away. And that's why I think many, we have a lukewarm form of Christianity. We have no power of the gospel in our lives. Worship is dead, whatever. Yeah, shame, okay, you're getting it out loud again. That's what's new. You know, there's just no change in our hearts. The human heart has to meet Christ. It has to. Why is it when we, have you ever held your newborn? Some of you, you remember holding your first baby? Was it a big deal? All right, take her back, I don't care. I mean, I can't even, I mean, I'm embarrassed. I'm crying. The nurse, oh, it's okay, it's okay. It happens all the time. What is this little, I mean, I just, it's just an overwhelming sense. So if we have that for a newborn baby and we lack any emotion for God, what's wrong? There's something wrong. And I don't say any of this to beat up whatsoever, but I see so many people, they're just bored. They're disengaged. They're not worshiping. They're looking at their phone. I mean, and that kind of worship and those kind of lyrics and nothing's penetrating your heart, folks, something's wrong in the heart. I'm just shooting you straight as I can. And the only thing I can link it to is when I used to go to church in my 20s, same thing, back row, move my lips a little bit. Yeah, I mean, the sad thing is I didn't know God personally in a deep way, and that's what I want. That's what he's called me to do. He didn't call me to take a job. He called me to awaken the church. He called me to pull out of you what's already inside, and that's a deeper relationship with God. But you have to, you have to ask him for it. You have to seek him with all your heart. It's not just gonna pop on you. Ron, he's not gonna be singing worship, like, what was that? Oh, now, now I just love God. No, the heart has to be engaged. And what it looks like is this, Lord, I'm sorry. I've been disengaged. I haven't been worshiping you. I've lost my first love. I don't truly know you. I don't know what you're, and the heart cries out for God. When he says seek me with all of your heart, you think it involves running down 60th Street trying to find something? A seeking is a panting after, like the deer pants after the, it's the heart. It's the heart breaking before God and seeking him. Lord, my heart seeks after you. My feet can stay still. My heart still seek him, right? Or my feet can be running and my heart go nowhere. It's an issue of the heart seeking him, and I see so many people that God has everything for them. Come follow me with all your heart. And that passion, wouldn't you like to wake up tomorrow morning saying God, I love you. Where's your Bible? Where's your word? I don't care about Facebook. I just want to worship you, Lord. I want more of you. Don't you want to wake up that way? I sure do. I'm just tired of playing games. But we have to embrace his love. We have to, the heart, something in the human heart is prideful. It's a surprise, right? We don't want to worship. We don't want, we like comfortable Christianity. I don't want to become some weirdo, Shane. I mean, you're not going to become a weirdo. You're going to become a devouted follower of Christ, and you'll be filled with the spirit. And once you're filled with that, you'll say I never want to go back. I never want to go back to the lukewarm, callous, cold Christianity. I wanted that passionate, to be a passionate follower of Christ. And it's funny, people say, well, Shane, I can never have what you have. Yes, you can. I'm just the messenger. I'm just saying, here's how you do it. I'm just the vessel like everybody else. There's no special anointing, or special this, or I wish I had passion for Christ. You can have the passion, but your passion is directly related to your surrender. You know, I talk about that often. Fully surrender, big passion. Little surrender, little passion. Everything has to do with how much we surrender our will and everything to God. So let's get into worship. I'm gonna have Ronnie come up and do a few songs before the next service. And I just want to focus on, don't just look at the lyrics to look at the lyrics. Let's engage the heart and say, Lord, how do you want to speak to me in this area? Because when God truly breaks you, when you humble yourself and worship comes alive, it's better than any heroin shot, any snort of crystal myth, any six pack of anything you've ever bought, because it's something that will never leave you thirsting for more. People are searching for all these other things when really they're searching in the wrong direction. I think somebody said, whoever believes on me as the scripture says, out of his belly will flow rivers of living water. Woman, take of this water and you will never thirst again. That's what he's talking about. It's a genuine, doesn't mean life's perfect. Doesn't mean life's great, and I'm just always on the cloud. No, but it does mean you know the true source of your hunger and your thirst, and you're going to seek him, and you're going to regain that, and seek him and regain that, and seek him and regain that. One of the hardest things for Christians is we're often called lambs, right? What does a lamb like to do? Wander away. The good shepherd. Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil. That good shepherd, he makes me lie down in green pastures. He restores my soul. His rod and his staff, they comfort me. And that rod and staff, they're sometimes being brang back and brang that sheep back. And the closer you get to the shepherd, the more secure you feel. And that's what I would encourage you to do tonight.