WEBVTT 1 00:00:03.720 --> 00:00:09.180 Church, one of the most dangerous places to drift spiritually is 2 00:00:09.240 --> 00:00:11.371 inside these church walls. 3 00:00:12.871 --> 00:00:18.660 Not out there in the world, but right here where it's easy to look alive. 4 00:00:20.010 --> 00:00:25.920 Where some of us settle into a secondhand spirituality, coasting 5 00:00:26.070 --> 00:00:31.741 on a Christian upbringing, a familiar routine, borrowed 6 00:00:32.430 --> 00:00:33.450 but not owned. 7 00:00:34.770 --> 00:00:40.620 And without ever saying it out loud, we start believing that proximity 8 00:00:40.740 --> 00:00:46.350 to holy things equals intimacy with a holy God. 9 00:00:47.310 --> 00:00:53.160 But our colleague confronts that illusion by declaring that God 10 00:00:53.250 --> 00:00:58.380 demonstrates his almighty power, how chiefly in showing 11 00:00:58.590 --> 00:01:04.560 mercy and pity. Meaning God's greatest flex 12 00:01:04.680 --> 00:01:09.000 isn't crushing sinners, but pardoning them. 13 00:01:10.530 --> 00:01:15.840 Yet mercy, it is never automatic. Grace is never 14 00:01:15.930 --> 00:01:21.690 mechanical. God's compassion is poured out on those who come to him 15 00:01:21.870 --> 00:01:23.730 on his terms, 16 00:01:24.990 --> 00:01:30.301 not with status in our hands, but surrender in our 17 00:01:30.360 --> 00:01:36.271 hearts. And across our readings today, God pulls back 18 00:01:36.330 --> 00:01:42.150 the curtain on a kingdom reality we cannot afford to ignore. 19 00:01:44.310 --> 00:01:47.490 Heaven does not open for the privileged. 20 00:01:48.180 --> 00:01:51.000 It opens for the penitent. 21 00:01:52.980 --> 00:01:58.711 Before God can pour transforming grace into a life, he has to 22 00:01:58.740 --> 00:02:02.250 confront the lie we tell ourselves. 23 00:02:03.120 --> 00:02:08.580 And the first lie he exposes in our text is the one that keeps 24 00:02:08.700 --> 00:02:12.720 countless believers spiritually stuck, 25 00:02:13.950 --> 00:02:18.900 the lie that someone else is responsible for the 26 00:02:18.960 --> 00:02:24.660 condition of my heart. Ezekiel and Jesus 27 00:02:24.750 --> 00:02:30.690 both drag that lie into the light. They show us the danger of a 28 00:02:30.810 --> 00:02:35.641 faith that talks big, excuses fast, and 29 00:02:35.730 --> 00:02:41.641 promises much, but actually refuses to turn and 30 00:02:41.700 --> 00:02:42.510 repent. 31 00:02:44.190 --> 00:02:49.590 Let's begin where human nature loves to hide, the land of 32 00:02:49.710 --> 00:02:55.230 self-justification. In Ezekiel 18, Israel clung 33 00:02:55.351 --> 00:03:01.230 to a popular proverb, "The parents have eaten sour grapes, and 34 00:03:01.290 --> 00:03:04.770 the children's teeth are set on edge." 35 00:03:06.391 --> 00:03:11.730 Translation, our situation is not our fault. 36 00:03:12.781 --> 00:03:18.720 They blame their ancestors for their exile, accuse God of 37 00:03:18.840 --> 00:03:24.570 injustice, and use generational pain as a shield against 38 00:03:24.660 --> 00:03:30.180 personal responsibility. But God shatters that 39 00:03:30.270 --> 00:03:34.020 shield when he says, "All lives are mine. 40 00:03:34.080 --> 00:03:39.180 The person who sins is the one who will die." 41 00:03:40.320 --> 00:03:46.140 You see, God rejects inherited excuses because every soul 42 00:03:46.590 --> 00:03:50.520 stands personally accountable before him. 43 00:03:51.601 --> 00:03:55.860 Not one of us in here can outsource repentance. 44 00:03:56.250 --> 00:04:01.020 And then Matthew 21 brings the spotlight even closer. 45 00:04:01.291 --> 00:04:06.840 The priests and the elders challenge Jesus' authority, so 46 00:04:06.960 --> 00:04:12.300 Jesus tells a parable that exposes the difference between 47 00:04:12.390 --> 00:04:16.440 religious performance and actual obedience. 48 00:04:17.760 --> 00:04:23.250 A father tells his first son, "Go work in the vineyard." 49 00:04:24.120 --> 00:04:29.190 The son snaps back, "I will not." But later, he 50 00:04:29.281 --> 00:04:33.781 considers his actions, repents, and he goes. 51 00:04:34.650 --> 00:04:39.990 The second son responds with polished respect, "I go, 52 00:04:40.410 --> 00:04:40.710 sir," 53 00:04:42.000 --> 00:04:45.420 but he never sets foot in the vineyard. 54 00:04:46.350 --> 00:04:51.510 One son rebelled with his mouth but obeyed with his life. 55 00:04:51.600 --> 00:04:56.550 The other honored with his mouth but rebelled with his life. 56 00:04:56.790 --> 00:05:02.701 The second son represents believers who give God respectful titles, 57 00:05:02.820 --> 00:05:08.310 emotional worship, and Sunday promises, but live in quiet 58 00:05:08.370 --> 00:05:11.910 rebellion Monday through Saturday. 59 00:05:13.860 --> 00:05:19.470 God is not moved by lip service. He is looking for lives that 60 00:05:19.620 --> 00:05:25.440 turn the other way. So hear this clearly from 61 00:05:25.560 --> 00:05:31.531 Ezekiel. It is not our parents' fault. It is not our upbringing. 62 00:05:31.620 --> 00:05:37.290 It is not even our environment. It's not even a season that we might 63 00:05:37.380 --> 00:05:43.230 find ourself in. God holds each of us responsible for how we 64 00:05:43.290 --> 00:05:46.650 respond to his word today. 65 00:05:48.270 --> 00:05:53.970 The question that presses on us is, if excuses and spiritual 66 00:05:54.031 --> 00:05:58.830 lip service won't open the door to God's kingdom, then what will? 67 00:05:59.910 --> 00:06:04.951 If God isn't persuaded by pedigree, promise, or 68 00:06:05.370 --> 00:06:11.040 polished religion, what is the one thing that he's actually looking 69 00:06:11.130 --> 00:06:11.520 for? 70 00:06:12.900 --> 00:06:16.050 Scripture this morning does not leave us guessing. 71 00:06:16.170 --> 00:06:21.570 It drags us to the one response God always honors, which is 72 00:06:21.750 --> 00:06:24.091 radical repentance. 73 00:06:25.320 --> 00:06:30.901 Listen to Jesus' conversation with these religious leaders, men who 74 00:06:31.140 --> 00:06:36.451 knew scripture, who taught scripture, who enforced scripture, as he 75 00:06:36.690 --> 00:06:41.220 speaks what must have shaken their theological confidence. 76 00:06:41.220 --> 00:06:47.190 "Truly I tell you," he says, "the tax collectors and 77 00:06:47.280 --> 00:06:52.860 the prostitutes are going into the kingdom of God ahead of you." 78 00:06:54.901 --> 00:06:59.160 That statement should shake every comfortable soul in this room. 79 00:06:59.250 --> 00:07:04.740 Tax collectors were traitors. Prostitutes were moral outcasts. 80 00:07:04.860 --> 00:07:10.350 Both groups the religious elite wouldn't even touch or consider, yet 81 00:07:10.470 --> 00:07:15.660 Jesus says they are entering ahead of the people who look 82 00:07:15.780 --> 00:07:17.880 most qualified. 83 00:07:19.260 --> 00:07:24.480 Why? Because when John the Baptizer came preaching righteousness, 84 00:07:24.841 --> 00:07:29.640 those broken sinners, they didn't hide behind excuses. 85 00:07:29.701 --> 00:07:34.980 They didn't polish their image. They didn't defend their past. 86 00:07:35.220 --> 00:07:40.800 They repented. They turned. They changed their direction. 87 00:07:42.000 --> 00:07:47.940 Meanwhile, the religious establishment watched those sinners transform and 88 00:07:48.331 --> 00:07:53.430 still refused to repent. They saw the 89 00:07:53.581 --> 00:07:58.201 evidence of God's power and stayed unmoved. 90 00:07:59.040 --> 00:08:04.110 Family, let us not be like Pharaoh. Do not harden your heart. 91 00:08:04.380 --> 00:08:09.960 Ezekiel echoes the same heartbeat of God when he says, "I have no 92 00:08:10.440 --> 00:08:15.690 pleasure in the death of anyone. Turn, then, and live." 93 00:08:17.460 --> 00:08:23.401 God is not eager to judge. He is eager to restore, but 94 00:08:23.490 --> 00:08:27.061 restoration requires a U-turn. 95 00:08:28.380 --> 00:08:34.050 Repentance is like driving downtown the wrong way on a 96 00:08:34.201 --> 00:08:39.660 one-way street, and your GPS is screaming, "Make a U-turn!" 97 00:08:41.940 --> 00:08:46.260 You don't ignore the warning. You don't argue with the GPS. 98 00:08:46.320 --> 00:08:51.630 You don't keep driving into danger, especially with the city buses 99 00:08:51.720 --> 00:08:56.880 barreling towards you. You hit the brakes, you turn the wheel, and you 100 00:08:57.000 --> 00:08:58.980 turn around. 101 00:09:01.020 --> 00:09:05.640 Repentance, it is not an emotional moment at the altar. 102 00:09:06.000 --> 00:09:11.730 It is a decisive, intellectual, spiritual course correction. 103 00:09:13.146 --> 00:09:18.966 If you're living in rebellion, you do not have to stay trapped in yesterday's 104 00:09:19.056 --> 00:09:19.836 choices. 105 00:09:21.126 --> 00:09:26.257 The moment you turn, God's mercy wipes the slate clean. 106 00:09:27.336 --> 00:09:33.216 But hear this, God cannot transform a person who refuses 107 00:09:33.306 --> 00:09:36.277 to change their direction. 108 00:09:37.836 --> 00:09:43.386 I can hear someone say, "I want to turn, but I don't have the strength to 109 00:09:43.536 --> 00:09:45.306 change my life." 110 00:09:46.566 --> 00:09:52.507 You see, that's not an excuse, that's the truth, and scripture does not shame that 111 00:09:52.566 --> 00:09:58.116 confession, it answers it. Because the kingdom doesn't just 112 00:09:58.206 --> 00:10:03.066 demand obedience, it empowers us to obey. 113 00:10:04.566 --> 00:10:10.326 If repentance is the U-turn, divine enablement is the engine that 114 00:10:10.416 --> 00:10:15.906 moves the car. That brings us to the secret of kingdom 115 00:10:15.996 --> 00:10:21.007 power. We cannot live a kingdom life in our own strength. 116 00:10:22.296 --> 00:10:27.366 That's why the Apostle Paul, he does not begin with our effort. 117 00:10:27.606 --> 00:10:30.757 Paul begins with Christ's humility. 118 00:10:32.106 --> 00:10:36.936 Jesus, fully God, did not cling to divine privileges. 119 00:10:37.236 --> 00:10:42.876 He emptied himself. How? By adding to his divinity the form of a 120 00:10:42.996 --> 00:10:48.277 servant, embracing the cross, obeying the Father to the very end. 121 00:10:48.666 --> 00:10:54.036 Jesus' obedience, it wasn't partial, it was not performative, 122 00:10:54.456 --> 00:10:56.436 it was total. 123 00:10:58.236 --> 00:11:04.116 And because Christ obeyed perfectly, Paul gives a command that should make 124 00:11:04.266 --> 00:11:09.277 all of us in here sit up straight. He says, "Work out your own 125 00:11:09.486 --> 00:11:15.306 salvation with fear and trembling." Not work for 126 00:11:15.396 --> 00:11:21.036 your salvation. God already secured our salvation, but work out what 127 00:11:21.126 --> 00:11:24.666 God has deposited in us. 128 00:11:26.556 --> 00:11:31.986 Then Paul reveals a truth that keeps the tension in this text. 129 00:11:32.257 --> 00:11:38.226 He says, "For it is God who is at work in you, enabling both you to will 130 00:11:38.346 --> 00:11:42.786 and to work." Why? For his good pleasure. 131 00:11:44.976 --> 00:11:50.556 God doesn't just empower our actions, he empowers our 132 00:11:50.676 --> 00:11:56.616 desires. He shapes our will. He fuels our obedience, 133 00:11:56.946 --> 00:12:02.766 and the psalmist echoes that same reality when David comes 134 00:12:02.796 --> 00:12:08.136 to God and he says, "Teach me your ways and guide me in your truths." 135 00:12:08.286 --> 00:12:14.257 Why? Because God guides the humble in doing what's right. 136 00:12:15.726 --> 00:12:21.336 The humble heart becomes the teachable heart, and the teachable heart 137 00:12:21.396 --> 00:12:27.216 becomes the obedient heart. Trying to obey God in 138 00:12:27.277 --> 00:12:32.346 our own strength is like trying to push a stalled car up a hill. 139 00:12:33.426 --> 00:12:38.736 We can strain, we can sweat, we can groan, but we will never push that 140 00:12:38.826 --> 00:12:44.436 car to the top of the hill. But when the engine turns on, when 141 00:12:44.527 --> 00:12:50.136 divine power engages, that same hill becomes climbable. 142 00:12:50.407 --> 00:12:55.176 When you receive Christ, God places within us His Spirit. 143 00:12:55.236 --> 00:13:00.727 He gives us the desire to obey and the power to obey. 144 00:13:01.116 --> 00:13:06.996 So we have to stop trying to push our life up a hill, especially 145 00:13:07.026 --> 00:13:12.186 in the power of our own flesh. Stop trying to manufacture 146 00:13:12.306 --> 00:13:17.886 holiness with sheer willpower. We must yield to the indwelling 147 00:13:18.066 --> 00:13:23.977 Spirit of God, and cultivate a humble heart, and let God's 148 00:13:24.126 --> 00:13:29.466 supernatural power drive our daily obedience. 149 00:13:30.816 --> 00:13:36.096 But all of this, family, it leads us to one unavoidable question. 150 00:13:36.966 --> 00:13:42.666 If God supplies the power, and God invites you to turn, 151 00:13:42.757 --> 00:13:48.666 and God delights in our desires, what will we do 152 00:13:48.786 --> 00:13:52.296 with his word and invitation today? 153 00:13:53.977 --> 00:13:59.706 Church, our colleague asks God for the fullness of his grace so that 154 00:14:00.157 --> 00:14:06.096 running to obtain his promises, we may become partakers of his 155 00:14:06.126 --> 00:14:07.326 heavenly treasure. 156 00:14:08.646 --> 00:14:14.526 But hear me, no one runs toward heavenly treasure while dragging the 157 00:14:14.616 --> 00:14:20.017 chains of pride or clutching the excuses of yesterday. 158 00:14:21.066 --> 00:14:26.676 God is not impressed with how strong our spiritual start once looked. 159 00:14:26.916 --> 00:14:31.146 He's looking at where your feet are pointed today. 160 00:14:32.076 --> 00:14:36.486 He's looking at the direction of your obedience right now. 161 00:14:36.907 --> 00:14:42.606 Some of us, like the second son, have responded with polite words 162 00:14:42.666 --> 00:14:48.066 and respectful titles and enthusiasm on Sunday, but a 163 00:14:48.157 --> 00:14:53.916 lifestyle that quietly says, "No, Lord." If that's you, 164 00:14:54.036 --> 00:14:59.526 the Spirit is calling you to lay down the lip service, turn, and 165 00:14:59.616 --> 00:15:00.246 live. 166 00:15:01.447 --> 00:15:07.146 Some of us may feel more like the first son, fully aware of our rebellion, 167 00:15:07.536 --> 00:15:13.236 painfully conscious of our failures. If that's you, hear the gospel. 168 00:15:13.507 --> 00:15:19.026 The Father's vineyard is open, and the moment you turn your feet toward him, 169 00:15:19.447 --> 00:15:24.606 your past rebellion does not disqualify you, your present 170 00:15:24.666 --> 00:15:27.126 repentance restores you. 171 00:15:29.017 --> 00:15:32.197 But repentance, it is not the finish line. 172 00:15:33.007 --> 00:15:36.936 It is the starting line of a Spirit-empowered life. 173 00:15:37.655 --> 00:15:43.626 The God who calls you to repentance is the God who works in you, giving you 174 00:15:43.716 --> 00:15:49.386 the desire and the power to obey. So yield your heart to the 175 00:15:49.477 --> 00:15:54.876 King today. Cast away the excuses. Surrender the self-will. 176 00:15:55.416 --> 00:16:00.936 Step into the transforming grace of God that opens heaven's door, 177 00:16:01.116 --> 00:16:04.806 not to the privileged, but to the penitent. 178 00:16:05.826 --> 00:16:10.507 In the name of God, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.