Andy Stanley - Ninety Part 2 Upside Down

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:02):
Today we're gonna talk a little bit about temptation, and
so as I was thinking about temptation, I made this
observation basically as it relates to me, and I think
this is probably true of you as well, that temptation.
For me, temptation is always an invitation to embrace self interest.
Have you noticed this? I mean, when I'm tempted to
do something, it's always from my perspective, something that's gonna

(00:23):
be beneficial to me, or I think will be beneficial
to me. But it's certainly all about me. I am
never tempted to be selfless, right, I'm never tempted to
be overly generous. In fact, when I have an inclination
to be selfless, like I think I'll give up my
Saturday and go help them, or give up half a
day of work and help them, or not do what
I need to do in order to help somebody else,

(00:43):
or write a check to an organization that's in need.
Whenever I find an inclination to be selfless, I don't
consider that a temptation, do you? You know what we
consider that? We consider that Am I a great person?
Or what? That's what we consider that, right, But it's
kind of the same thing. It's like, I'm sort of
tempted to do something selfless, and then I'm tempted to
do something that's selfish. And again, maybe this is just confession,

(01:04):
and maybe you can't relate to this, but I tend
to be more successful at overcoming temptations to selflessness than
I am temptations to selfishness. Isn't that strange? And then
I have learned, and we've all learned, and some of
you are in the middle of this. In fact, maybe
it's why you're watching or listening or why you're in
church today. We learned that over time that in our

(01:25):
pursuit of our selfish self interest, that we eventually hurt
ourself and oftentimes we hurt others. And then Jesus comes along.
This is so amazing, He was so brilliant. Jesus comes
along and says this, if you live a self centered life,
in other words, if somehow you make your life all
about you, all about self, in the end, you don't

(01:47):
just hurt yourself. This is powerful. In fact, this may
be where you are. You just didn't have these words,
he said. In the end, you don't just hurt yourself
in the end, you lose yourself. For the next few weeks,
we're following Jesus from the time that he was introduced
to the world to the time that he sacrificed his
life for the world, and throughout the series, we're going

(02:08):
to come back to this theme that Jesus showed up
to introduce something brand new, to introduce something brand new
to the world. Specifically, he came to introduce a brand
new covenant, a brand new arrangement between God and mankind,
a new covenant that would replace the old covenant between
God and a nation. He came to introduce a brand
new command, a single governing ethic, one single command that

(02:30):
would be the governing ethic for his brand new movement,
which is called the Church. And from the beginning, from
the beginning, those who paid attention and those whose fortunes
were tied to the old way, it was very very
clear to them that Jesus had not come to continue something,
to do Judaism two point zero, to simply complete some
sort of religious book. They understood that Jesus came to

(02:53):
do something and to introduce something, and to offer something
brand new, and so they resisted. And that's the tension
of the story. Now. Previously on ninety we were introduced
to the guy that introduced Jesus's name is John the Baptist.
Not a stranger to too many people. John drew an
extraordinary large crowd. And once he drew an extraordinary large crowd,

(03:14):
he then drew people's attention to Jesus. And if you'll remember,
if you were here last week, how John introduced Jesus.
And I love this, he simply said, to his audience,
to his crowd, to his fans, many of whom thought
he might be the Messiah himself. He had this giant crowd,
and Jesus shows up on the banks of the Jordan River,
and John says, may I have your attention, please? Look,

(03:35):
I love this. Look, here's why this is important. He
did not say believe, He did not say follow, He
did not say change, He didn't say change your mind,
and he certainly didn't say pretend. He said, look, the
Lamb of God who comes to take away not just
the sin of our people and his people, who comes
to do something for the entire world. And that Jesus

(03:58):
makes his way down into and he insists that John
the Baptist baptize him. And this is so backwards. This
is so upside down. In fact, when he gets down
into the river, John is a little bit embarrassed because
he's told his whole audience how great Jesus is and
that he's not even worthy to be jesus servant. And
now Jesus comes into the water and he insists that
John baptize him, which is a symbol of him placing

(04:20):
himself under John's authority. This is so upside down in fact,
the text says this, But John tried to deter him.
Imagine you're face to face with the Son of God
and you say no. I mean, you know, we do
that all the time because he's invisible. But imagine you're
standing with Jesus. It's like no. John tries to deter him, saying,
I need to be baptized by you. You are the

(04:40):
greatest one. You are the great one. You're the one
we've waited for, in some cases for centuries. And now
you're here and you want to submit yourself to me.
This doesn't make any sense, and you you should be baptized.
You should be baptizing me. I don't have any business
baptizing you. Again, it was so backwards, it was so
upside down. And here's the point. This was the first
clue as to the upside down nature of the new

(05:03):
that Jesus when it was introducing into the world. Now
Here is the fascinating twist in the plot. At this point,
Jesus is now a public figure. Jona says, look the
lamb of God. He hasn't done anything, he hasn't amazed anybody.
He's just another guy in the crowd. But everybody in
the crowd knows this is something special. He and John
are having this little interaction down in the water. There's
a murmur in the crowd. Jesus is baptized, and then

(05:26):
instead of sort of stepping front and center and saying John,
thank you very much, you can go behind the curtain.
I'm you know, I'm here. Thanks for introducing me. Matthew, Mark,
and Luke. All three gospels say that immediately Jesus left
and disappeared by himself into the wilderness. In fact, they
say that God actually sent him into the wilderness. It's like, daddah,
here's Jesus. He'll be back later. And Jesus disappears alone

(05:50):
into the wilderness. But there's more to it than that.
Here's what the text says. The text says, then Jesus
was led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be
tempted by the diaboloss before we get our word diabolical,
the slanderer, the accuser in our English Bibles, the devil. Now,
this is a really interesting little piece of narrative. And

(06:13):
if you grew up in church, it's like, oh, yeah,
I know how this whole thing goes, so just hang on.
If you didn't grow up in church, it's like, okay,
so wait, wait, wait, wait, so do you expect me
to believe in the devil? And the answer is no.
So for those of you who know how the story goes,
and for those of you who want to cross your
arms and say I'm checking out because you're going to
talk about the devil, for both groups, I want you
to just hit pause for a moment, because, more than anything,

(06:33):
I want you to understand why this is included in
the New Testament. Whenever you read anything in ancient literature,
especially but maybe especially the Bible, because come on, you
don't read any other ancient literature for the most part.
In fact, most people don't even read the Bible. But
when you run across something in ancient literature, you should
always ask the question why did the author choose to
include this? And the reason that's a big deal in

(06:53):
ancient literature is there wasn't much ancient literature, and anything
that was written took on an extraordinary extraordinary authority. I mean,
even in our culture, if you're having a conversation with
someone and you're arguing about something, and somebody in the
argument says, well, I read an article. As soon as
they say I read an article. The fact that somebody
actually wrote something gives it a little bit more credibility.

(07:16):
And then if you find out who the author of
the article was, that even has more credibility. Well, in
a day and age, in ancient times, when virtually nobody
could read and nobody could write, like ninety over ninety
percent of the population, anything that was written down had extraordinary,
extraordinary authority. It was expensive to write anything down, and
so you have to ask, of all the things Matthew,

(07:38):
Mark and Luke could have written down about Jesus, why
did they include this? Why was this so important? As
strange as it is, as odd as it is, as
many questions as it surfaces for all of us and
for them, why in the world. Would they include this
little bit of narrative. And the answer is, it's not
a lesson on how to overcome temptation. Although there are

(07:59):
certain takeaways, it's way bigger than that. It's way more
epic than that. And what happens next is central to
the story of Jesus because Jesus in these moments, and
as we're going to discover later, Jesus throughout his life
was tempted to opt for the old ways instead of
the new ways that he had come to introduce, the

(08:21):
old way being the me first way, the kingdoms of
this worldway. In fact, Luke says this was recurring temptation
throughout his life. So here's how it went down. After
fastening forty days forty nights, he was hungry. This may
be the most obvious statement in all of the New Testament,
but they included it in case we missed that little detail.
He fastened for forty days and forty nights and he

(08:42):
was hungry. And why do they include this. Here's why,
because they wanted their readers to know. In the first
century he was human, he was a person. This is
why the apostle John constantly said, our hands have handled
our hands have handled we touched him. He was not
a ghost, he was not an apparition, he was not
some sort of spirit. He was human. So he fasted
forty days and forty nights, and he was hungry, and

(09:05):
he was weak, and he was vulnerable. And it says
if he was saying to the tempter, come on, give
me your best shot. I want you to know how
serious I am about the new I've come to introduce
to the world. And the tempter came to Texas. The
tempter came to him. And now it's a new Greek word, pironzo,

(09:26):
which basically means the inquisitor, the tester, the prodder, the poker,
the person that's going to try to get out of
him what no one else could get out of him.
And he said to him, if you are the son
of God, tell these stones to become bred. In other words,
just speak it, and if you're the son of God,
it will be done. Because I mean, you know, I
read the first part of your book, and God spoke
the universe into beings, so certainly you could speak from

(09:48):
bread into being from stones. Besides that, you're entitled. Come on, Jesus,
you're you, You're Jesus, mortal kings, if they had that
kind of power, would do as much. Jesus responds to
this first temptation by leaning into the old Covenant, the
covenant between God and Israel, because even though he had
come to establish a new covenant, throughout his life as

(10:09):
the hinge, as the door from one to the other,
he functioned under the rules and the laws of the
old Covenant. So he leans into that and he quotes
from the Old Testament. He says, this Jesus answered, it
is written. He responds, as one under this old covenant.
He says, this man shall not live on bread alone,
and he quotes from Deuteronomy eight, where takes us back

(10:31):
to that picture of the nation of Israel traveling through
the wilderness and there's nothing to eat, and God provides
manna from heaven. And in those years, God was teaching
his people to depend on him every single day, daily dependence,
daily dependence, daily dependence. And Jesus finishes it out. He says,
but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.
In other words, even though I am the son of God,

(10:55):
even though I have been sent into this world to
do something new for the world, I will act on
my own, and I will not act independently of my
heavenly Father, because to do so is so kingdom of
this world. Then the text says, then the devil took him. Now,
as a kid, when I would hear this story, taught

(11:17):
it was sort of like something from Star Trek. Suddenly
they were beamed from one place to the other, and
this whole story is But it's not that way at
all when you read the text. This wasn't some magic trick,
This wasn't some mystical thing that apparently Jesus and Evil personified.
They spent time together. So the text says, then the
devil took him, and Luke says brought him. That is,

(11:37):
they walked there. They walked from the wilderness all the
way to the Holy City of Jerusalem. He took him
to the Holy City and he had him stand on
the highest point of the temple. And again you get
this picture that they're standing, you know, balancing on some spire,
But that's not the case at all. They essentially went
to the highest point of the temple, which was on
the southeast corner where you look down hundreds and hundreds

(11:58):
and hundreds of feet into the valley to the kid
Dron Valley. In fact, Josephus, who was the first century historian, said,
if you stood on that southeast corner and you look
long enough, you would get dizzy and people would have
to step back because it was it was so spectacular
and it was so far down. And so the tempter
says to Jesus, okay, let's try this. Then the devil
said to him, or then he said, if you are

(12:19):
the son of God, why don't you just throw yourself down?
I mean, people would notice. This would be a big deal.
I mean, I mean they saw you on the banks
of the Jordan River. That was but you know, a
big deal. I who is this guy good? But I'm
telling you, you throw yourself off this ravene into this
ravine and you dust, you know, shake the dust off.
I mean, that's that's pretty spectacular. I mean, why don't
you just throw yourself down? For it is written? And

(12:41):
now the tempter actually quotes the Old Testament that Jesus
too can play that game. He says this, He quotes
Psalm ninety one. He talking about God. Come on, Jesus,
throw yourself down, because he God will command his angels
concerning you and they will lift you up in their hands.
You'll land lightly on your feet so that you will
not strike your foot against the In other words, he

(13:01):
taunts Jesus. He says, didn't God promise to take care
of you? Don't you have faith in God? Come on, Jesus,
don't you believe him? And you just said every word
that comes from the Father's mouth, surely you trust that
God is going to take care of you. And in
this moment he was tempting Jesus to do it. Oftentimes
we're tempted to do He was tempting Jesus to try

(13:21):
to use God or to presume on God. This, unfortunately,
is the modern version of faith, the faith that some
of you were brought up with, the faith that some
of you chose to leave, The faith that some of
you should leave, The faith that is the reason you
haven't been back to church in a long time. The
faith that says, if you just believe, you'll receive, If

(13:43):
you just believe, you'll receive, if you just believe enough,
if you just quote a verse, God has to come
through for you. And Jesus answered and said this. It
is also written, do not put the Lord your God
to the test. And he quotes Moses. When Moses was
addressing the Nation of Israel on their way to the
Promised Land. The nation said to Moses, God has to

(14:06):
do such and such for us. God owes it to us.
We are his special people. This is what God has
to do for us. And Moses say, no, you don't understand.
You're God's chosen people. But God doesn't have to do anything,
and you do not manipulate and you cannot manipulate your God.
In fact, the point for us, and we'll move on,
is simply this. If you're a Christian, and this may

(14:28):
be disturbing, the moment that you try, and the moment
that you begin trying to manipulate God, the moment you
begin looking for a magic formula, the moment you begin thinking,
if I do these three things consistently, God has to
do something for me, and that moment you are no
longer practicing Christianity, and that moment you're practicing magic. Your

(14:48):
religion has become superstition. Your religion has become the pagan
superstitions that Jesus came into this world to replace. Not
simply for a nation before all nations, for all mankind.
Your religion has become so very kingdoms of this world.
Here's why I say that, because later we'll get to it. Later,
Jesus would say to those who gathered around to hear

(15:10):
him speak, he would say, look, when you think of God,
God is not a king in heaven that can be
bribed or manipulated. God is not a king in heaven
with his arms crossed waiting for you to bring enough
gifts and enough sacrifices, and enough offerings, and enough prayers,
and enough good deeds and enough generosity to get his attention.
When you think of God, from now on, you are
to think a perfect, heavenly father who already knows everything

(15:34):
you need. He does not need to be talked into something.
He cannot be bribed. You come as children who simply ask. Now.
Those are the first two temptations. Jesus got through those,
and he passed, and he gets to the third of Now.
I think the third of this is just my opinion.
I think the third one's the main event. I think

(15:55):
the first two were kind of a warm up. I
think you were just getting to know each other. Because
now they've spent maybe days or weeks together, we don't know,
And now we get to the third, but not the final,
but the third in a list of three that will
be repeated over and over throughout his ministry. We get
to the main event, but before we get to that,
I want to talk about us for just a minute.

(16:15):
Then we'll get to it. Here's the question I want
to ask. Why are powerful people so inclined to go
off the reels? Why is that? Why are powerful people
so Now? When I first created a slide, I had men.
Why are powerful men? I thought, Nah, I don't want
to leave anybody out. I'll get email, Okay, So why
are powerful people? Why are powerful It's mostly men? We

(16:38):
know that, but you know I want to be inclusive.
So why are powerful people so inclined to go off
the rails? Why are they so inclined to go off
the rails morally, ethically, financially, why is that? I mean,
you would think that the more power a person had,
the better person they would be. They have less financial pressure,
nobody's telling them what to do, they have more freedom.
You would think with more freedom and more autonomy and

(16:58):
more wealth, person would become a better person. In fact,
you think if you had more power and more influence
and more wealth, that you would be a better person,
don't you think so? Why is it that powerful people
oftentimes go off the us. Why is it that the
inclination is, now that I've got the power, now that
I've got the influence, now that I've got the wealth,

(17:20):
I'm going to leverage it for my benefit. Where does
that come from? Why isn't it the opposite? Why do
powerful people ultimately oftentimes make it all about themselves? Similar
along the same lines, where does bullying come from? I'm powerful,
I'm bigger than you, since that sense of entitlement, sexual harassment,

(17:43):
because I have the power, and because I'm stronger, and
because I have more influence, and because I can control
your future and control your profession and control which opportunities
you get or don't get. Where does that come from? Arrogance,
dismissiveness that you know, well, just whatever, you're just the
little people. Elitism extrive get consumerism. People who just spend
gobs and gobs and gods of gobs of money on

(18:04):
more and more and more stuff. And they're a little
generous here and there, and they think they're just so
generous because they look at the dollar amount rather than
the percentage. Where does it come from? Greed. What is that?
Because you think like I think, Wow, if I had
that much, if I had that much influence, that much power,
I would just be the best person. I would be
a better person. Why is it that it generally doesn't

(18:26):
make people better, it makes them worse? Why do they
go off the rails? Why is it that power corrupts?
Why is it that there are just so few stories
of extraordinarily wealthy, powerful people who actually end well? What
is that? And here's the great thing, And this is why,

(18:47):
this is why you should follow Jesus. Just should even
if you don't believe this Son of God, you should
follow Jesus throughout jesus ministry throughout his life. We're gonna
watch this and look for this. Throughout his time on earth,
Jesus taught and modeled. He taught and he modeled. He
taught and he modeled. He taught and models something that's
not new to us. But I'm telling you it was

(19:08):
new to the first century. No one had ever seen
it done well on a grand scale. He taught and
modeled that power is not primarily for the benefit of
the powerful. No one had her ever heard of such
a thing. That's just not the way the world works.
That's not how you get anything done. Jesus, if you're

(19:28):
gonna start a movement, if somehow you're gonna move the needle,
if somehow you're gonna change what's happening the vicinity of
your hometown and Jerusalem and Judea and Gully, if somehow
you're gonna get the Jewish people back on track and
in the sync with the will of God, so God
can do something magnificent. This isn't gonna work. This is
upside down. He taught that wealth is not primarily for

(19:50):
the benefit of the wealthy. Jesus consistently taught. In fact,
Jesus talks so much about money, and Jesus consistently said
that wealth is a sewardship and that it all belongs
to my Father in Heaven, and that wealth, just like power,
it's a test. It's a test to see how well

(20:11):
you will do. And how well you do is judge
not on how you spend it on yourself, but how
generous you become, if you can be trusted with more
later and very few people past the wealth test, very
few people. And I know when I say that, I
know what you're thinking. I'd like to at least sign
up for the test. Can you sign up for that test?

(20:32):
Because I think I could pass it. I'd at least
like to try to take the test right. And the
truth is, if you're listening to me, or watching me
or here in one of our rooms, you're already taking
that test. Seventy percent of the people in the world.
Eighty percent of the people in the world would consider
you wealthy. Ninety percent of the people in the world
would consider you wealthy. And you know what you do?

(20:53):
You do? What I do? You think? Yeah, well, I'm
like middle there's you know, there's the super rich. Wherever
you are, there's more than that. They're the rich. That's
who Jesus is concerned about. And Jesus will say throughout
his his ministry. Wait, wait, wait, what's in your hand?
What's in your hand? What's in your hand? Who do
you think that's for? Well? I earned it, I deserved it.
And Jesus is gonna say consistently, that's the kingdoms of
this world, that's the way the world has always worked.

(21:15):
I have come to introduce something new. And that influence,
he would teach, is not primarily for the benefit of
the influential and then throughout his ministry. That's why this
is such an epic battle. This is why the whole
story begins here. Throughout his ministry, he would be tempted

(21:38):
right up until the very last night on this earth.
Throughout his life, he would be tempted to go kingdoms
of this world and to take what was rightfully his
and to leverage what he could leverage for himself for
him self. And that's why I think this third temptation

(21:59):
was the point of the whole interaction. Again, the devil
took him, didn't magically take him. They walked there together. Again.
The tempter took him to a very high mountain and
he showed him all the kingdoms of the world. And
of course that's impossible, but now we can do it
with Google Earth. But somehow they did it then. But

(22:21):
here's what I think. This is just my and I
love this. They don't leave it there, Matthew doesn't leave
it there, not just the kingdoms of the earth. And
this is the point and their splendor. And I think
what happened is they went to a very high mountain,
probably north of Jerusalem, at night, and they sat on
that high mountain and it was cold and they were
bundled up, and he saw the whole city lit up

(22:42):
at night in all of its splendor, and about sixteen
miles away there's Jericho lit up at night, in all
of its splendor, all of its history, the epicenter. This
was the epicenter of the presence of God and the
lives of Jewish people. This was the group that was
waiting for God, dude to do something in the world
for the nation. And it's as if the tempter said,

(23:07):
feast your eyes, because I know this is why you're here.
All of this I will give you, he said. Luke
tells us he says it a little bit differently, and
Luca says, I will give you all of their authority

(23:28):
and their splendor. It has been given to me, and
I can give it to anyone I want. And besides that, Jesus,
I know why you're here. This is what you've come for.
I mean, isn't that what we all want? Isn't this
what everyone wants? Isn't this what you want? To be recognized,
To have your fair share, to have a little bit
more power, a little bit more glory, a little bit

(23:48):
more wealth, a little bit more influence, a little bit
more leverage. Imagine if someone offered you the kingdoms of
the world and he said, all you have to do
is bow down. All you have to do is recognize
that it's mine to give all you have to do.
I don't. I'm not for the rest of your life.

(24:08):
I just want a moment where you will recognize that
it is mine. I want you to leverage your worship
for your sake. After all, that's what she came for.
After all, we both know it's yours anyway, It's what
you're entitled to. And come on, who refuses what they're

(24:29):
entitled to, Who refuses what they deserve, Who refuses what's
come in their way? Who does that? I'll tell you
who does that. The people that you have the most
respect for. Great people. Here's the point. Jesus had not
come to barter for a kingdom. Jesus had not come

(24:51):
to barter for kingdom. Jesus had come to establish a
kingdom in the hearts of men and women, a kingdom
of conscience, a kingdom that said wealth is not for
the wealthy, and power is not exclusively for the powerful,
and influence isn't to be leveraged for those who have
all the influence. A kingdom like no other, an upside

(25:15):
down kingdom, a kingdom where the subjects were not at
the whim of the selfish rulers and kings. A kingdom
where the subjects weren't weren't required to lay down their
lives for the king. A kingdom with the king would
lay down his life for subjects. There had never been

(25:42):
such a thing, And anyone on the outside watching would
have said, it just doesn't work that way. And Jesus said,
away from me, Satan, for it is written, worship the Lord,
your God, and serve him only. And the text says
that when the devil had finished at all this tempting,

(26:03):
he left him. And this is what Luke says, for
an opportune time. In other words, this is just round one.
We're not finished. While you're walking on this planet. I
will be back, and I will be back to convince
you to opt for the ways of the kingdom of
this world. And then the text tells us that after

(26:24):
this Jesus went back north to Galilee. He says he
went to Galilee in the power of the spirit, and
news about him spread throughout the whole countryside. And then
just for fun, just perhaps despite the devil. Instead of
turning stones into bread, he went to a wedding and

(26:44):
he turned water into wine, not for himself, but for
the guest and to honor the host. And do you
know why Jesus turned water into wine because his mama
asked him to do it. And I think that's the
point of this entire story is say yes to your

(27:07):
mama and no to the devil. Now you laugh, and uh,
let's just be honest, all of you watching all of
our campuses, you're at home by yourself, how many of
you would admit you would be better off if you
had said yes to your mama and no to the devil.
Let's see those hands. Yeah, yeah, a few honest people,

(27:28):
that's right. Now, here's the real point. Jesus early on
was offered, at some level and to some extent, what
we all want, but he refused it because Jesus had
not come to take over. Jesus had come to take

(27:48):
away the sins of the world, and Jesus had not
come to lord over. Jesus came to get up under
the burden of mankind. In fact, at the end of
his time on the planet. And we're gonna get to
this in a few weeks. I love, love, love this
piece of narrative. We're gonna look at it in detail.
Jesus is on his way to Jerusalem. And as many

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times as he has said this, and as many times
as he's modeled it, as many times as he's taught
it and illustrated it his followers, they still can't get it.
They're still thinking, Okay, we know the way the world works.
You know those are good sermons. Yeah, yeah, but whatever.
But we know how it works. We know how authority works.
We know there's like the top person, and the top
person tells the next level what to do, and they
tell them the next We know how this works. I mean,
we've seen it all our lives. It's the kingdom of

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the world. It's the way of things. And at the
very end, they still haven't been able to wrap their
minds around the fact that he has come to introduce
a brand new way of living, a brand new way
of thinking, a brand new kind of relationship with God.
And so he sets them all down and he gives
them a little lecture, and we'll look at the lecture
in a few weeks. But at the end, he says this, guys,

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come on, Come on, look at me, he would say.
Even even the Son of Man did not come to
be served, but to serve and to give his life
a ransom for many guys. I'm serious. We're not going
the way of the kingdoms of this earth, the kingdoms

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of this world. The me first. I'm in it for me.
What can I get out of it? Kingdoms of this world.
I know it's all you've seen. I know it's the
way the world works. I know that you've never seen
another plan, You've never seen it work out. But I'm
telling you I'm not backing down. This is why I've come,
and I'm going to stay on this course all the
way to the very end. And here's why this is

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important for you. Regardless of your religious belief or background,
or if you're part of another faith community. Do you
know what Jesus valued more than the kingdoms of the world.
He valued you because you are a part of this

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many that he came to ransom his life for you,
Because regardless of how much power you had, you don't
have the power to overcome the consequence of sin in
your life. Do you He came to ransom you because
regardless of how much money you have or don't have.
No amount of money can heal a relationship, and heal

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a broken relationship, and get you forgiven or get you
forgiveness from someone you love. And no amount of influence
can reverse the consequences of sin in your life. The
kingdoms of this world, the values of this world, they
don't even they don't even intersect in any kind of
meaningful way with the things that are most important to

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the human heart and the human soul. And so he
came to be a ransom for many. And regardless of
what you believe, and regardless of what you've been taught,
you are part of that many. And do you know what?
Do you know what hung in the balance? Do you
know what hung in the balance of Jesus' decision to
resist temptation to embrace the ways of the kingdoms of

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this world? Do you know what hung in the balance?
You hung in the balance. And do you know what
hangs in the balance of your decision not to embrace
the ways of the kingdoms of this world? You hang
in the balance. And you know what. You already know this.
And here's how you know it. Because when you live

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your life for you, you just get smaller don't you.
And when life is all about you, it's not much
of a life. And the reason I'm tempted, and the
reason you're tempted every single day of our lives to
do it all for us. The powers for me, the
wealth is for me, the influences for me. How do
I get more, more and more and more and more

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so my life will be better? Better, better better. It's
all we've ever seen, it's all we know. And in
the end, in the end, we're smaller, we're not better.
And Jesus said, that's why I've come. I've come that
you might have life, And when it's all about you,
it's not much of a life. You see the reason

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on a daylight today, all over the world we're talking
about Jesus in languages we've never heard of, in places
many of us don't even want to visit. The reason
he's central is because he did not opt for the
kingdoms of this world. And his life was so big,
and his influence was so big that he outlasted his

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own life, his own generation. In fact, he would say
it this way, and this is what he would say
to you, and I'll close with this. He would ask
this question, and this is again, regardless of what you
think about Jesus or if there's a devil, just forget
off of that for a minute. This is this is
the question we all have to wrestle to the ground.
This is the question Jesus came to address, and this
is this is the issue that kept him on, you know,

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marching orders all the way to the cross to be
a ransom for you and a ransom for me. He
asked question, He said, come on, Americans, come on, middle class,
come on, upper middle class, come on, rich people, come on,
people who are trying to you know, get there. Come on,
come on, let's just be honest. Okay, you know enough
to know this is true. What good is it? What

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good is it? I mean, come on, in the end,
what do you really get out of it? What good
is it if you gain the whole world? What good
is it if you become the wealthiest and the most
powerful and the most influential. What good is it if
you gain the whole world? But in the end you lose,
or you forfeit your very self. Selfishness at the end

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of the day, leads to a loss of the very
thing you're trying to gain and save, which your self.
And here's how you know this. You know this, You
knew this before I said it. Because the people who
have the biggest lives and the people who make the
biggest difference, and the people you admire the most are
the most self less, and we rarely see it done well.

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Jesus says, I've come to establish a kingdom. That's all
about that. So in this new upside down kingdom, the
first would be last and the last would be first,
and power. Power would be leveraged for the powerless, and
wealth would be leveraged for those in need. An influence
would be leveraged for those without a voice. But this

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would not sit well with the powerful and the wealthy
and the influential. Then here's why, and this is where
some of you are even as I'm speaking. We naturally resist.
We naturally resist what we can't control and don't understand.
We naturally resist what we do not understand and what

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we cannot control. And so temple an empire would conspire
together to crush him, but in the end they would
be maneuvered