Hey, I'm glad you're here.

I'm in Romans chapter 1, verse 18 through 32.

Got to read this as I start.

Got to read it.

Dear mom and dad, some of you may have heard this before.

Dear mom and dad, it's been three months since I left for college.

I've been remiss in writing and very sorry for my thoughtlessness in not having written before.

I will bring you up to date now, but before you read on, please sit down.

You are not to read any further unless you sit down.

Okay.

Well, then I'm getting along pretty well.

Skull fracture.

And the concussion I got when I jumped out of the window of my dormitory, when it caught fire shortly after my arrival, are pretty well to heal now.

I only spent two weeks in the hospital, and now I can see almost normally, and only get three headaches a day.

Fortunately, the fire in the dormitory and my jump were witnessed by an attendant at the gas station near the dorm.

He was the one who called the fire department and the ambulance.

He also visited me in the hospital.

And since I had nowhere to live because of the burnt-out dorm, he was kind enough to invite me to share his apartment with him.

It's really a basement room, but it's kind of cute.

He's a very fine boy, and we have fallen deeply in love and are planning to get married.

We haven't set the exact date yet, but it will be before my pregnancy begins to show.

Yes, Mom and Dad, I'm pregnant.

I know how much you are looking forward to being grandparents, and I know you will welcome the baby and give it the same love and devotion and tender care you gave me when I was a child.

The reason for the delay in our marriage is that my boyfriend has some minor infection.

which prevents us from passing our premarital blood test, and I carelessly caught it from him.

This will soon clear up with penicillin injections I am taking daily.

I know you will welcome him into our family with open arms.

He's kind, and although not well-educated, he's ambitious.

Although he is of a different race and religion than ours, I know your expressed tolerance will not permit you to be bothered by the fact that his skin color is somewhat different than ours.

I am sure you will love him as I do.

His family background is good, too.

For I am told that his father is an important gun bearer in a village in Africa from which he comes.

Last paragraph.

Now that I've brought you up to date, I wanted to tell you that there was no dormitory fire.

I did not have a concussion or skull fracture.

I was not in the hospital.

I'm not pregnant.

I'm not engaged.

I do not have syphilis and there is no soiree in my life.

However, I'm getting a D in history and an F in science.

And I wanted you to see these marks in the proper perspective.

Now, the reason I start like that is because, folks, the Bible says that Jesus stood up to preach and he sat down to teach.

And because we're in this series called Essentials, we're in a weekend kind of service, it's difficult for me to sit down, but I wanted you to understand that we are most definitely teaching in this series because we have so many new people who have come to Christ.

And it's important that they know the fundamentals, the foundation, in the essentials.

And as I said last week...

If you will bear with me, even if you're a seasoned believer, you should be learning or relearning some things maybe that you've forgotten in a long time.

When Paul, let's start like this, when Paul wrote, the reason I started with the letter, when Paul wrote his letter to the Romans, it's important to know that he stayed within the form of letter writing in the Greco-Roman world.

We've said that Paul was a citizen of Rome, he lived in a Greek city, he was a well-educated Hebrew, and because he was well-educated, That earned him an audience and gave him credibility with people who were outside the Jewish faith and the Christian faith.

So when he writes a letter, it's important to know he's conforming that letter to the letter writing of the Greco-Roman world, which means it has three sections.

Greetings and salutations, you will find that in Romans chapter 1 verse 7.

The body of information or instruction.

And then if you look at Romans 16, 25 through 27, you will have a closing benediction.

So since he's...

Since he's not just writing and going in this direction and that direction, he has a purpose in mind, then the question is, what is his purpose for writing the letter?

Everything I'm about to say to you has to be couched in that.

What is his purpose?

And his purpose is to show how everyone who's ever lived, no matter who you are, where you were born, what your family name is, everyone who has ever lived needs the gospel of grace offered uniquely in Jesus Christ.

That's the message.

And we said in the first three chapters, there are three catalytic moments that the light's supposed to come on, and you began to see the uniqueness and the relevance of the gospel, why it's so different.

Last week, we talked about what?

The obedience that comes from faith.

We learned that salvation, yes, is by grace through faith alone, but genuine faith always leads to obedience.

Not perfect obedience, but the desire is in you to follow Jesus.

in every aspect of your life.

We said that obedience is always the result of authentic faith.

And now today...

We come to the second catalytic moment, and it's in Romans 1, 18 through 26.

And in this passage, we're about to learn that the natural bent, including you and me, the natural bent of humanity is toward autonomy and disobedience.

Your natural bent is not to follow God and obey God.

Your natural bent is to resist God as your master, to demand autonomy.

and to go the way of disobedience.

In fact, he'll say, Paul will in Romans 8 verse 7, the mind governed by the flesh is hostile toward God.

In other words, there's a part of all of us, we've said this before, we would rather God did not exist.

We would rather he did not exist because his existence creates a significant problem.

Autonomy and disobedience will result in the demise of the individual and culture.

I like to golf.

You may have known that.

And my father-in-law is notorious for stating things the way they are.

And we were playing a lot a few summers ago when his health was better.

And I have this tendency that when I hit a bad shot to say, I can't believe that.

Okay.

Now, I think it got on my father-in-law's nerves.

And I said that, I think I hit a, missed the green to the right, ended up in the bunker, and I said, I can't believe that.

And he goes, why can't you believe that?

You're not that good.

You've hit that same shot a hundred times over the last two weeks.

You're hard to convince.

Now, I hear Christians say all the time, I can't believe there's so much corruption in California.

I can't believe our nation persecutes Christians and opens its arms to Islam.

when clearly Islamic countries persecute women, execute people of other faiths, and want to force Sharia law on the West.

I can't believe that young people are committing acts of violence, that we are calling what is good bad and what is bad good.

I can't believe that some people who call themselves Christians live like the rest of the world without distinction.

And I think if my father-in-law was here, he'd say, really, you can't believe that?

You're hard to convince.

We were told it was going to be this way.

And things have been this way from the beginning.

In verse 19 of 1 John 5, we know that we are children of God and the whole world is under the control of the evil one.

If you are following Jesus and trying to obey him, you realize that you're in the minority, the small minority.

You are walking the narrow way.

You are distinct, unique, and quickly becoming extinct.

You are in the small group.

Now, where the rest of the world is concerned, The Apostle Paul gives us one of the best theological arguments in Scripture here, for why the world is the way it is.

We never get to talk about this because we're always on another topic.

He separates this section into four parts.

One, the suppression of truth.

Two, the reality of idolatry.

Three, the depraved mind.

Four, the signpost of cultural demise.

Here we go.

You ready?

I got to go fast.

Number one, the suppression of truth.

Let's read it.

Verse 18.

The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of people who suppress the truth by their wickedness, since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them.

For since the creation of the world, God's invisible qualities, his eternal power and divine nature have been clearly seen being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse.

So he begins a difficult passage, which is really not that difficult.

He says the bottom line is this, God's existence is undeniable, but the prince of the power of the air has convinced the world that he does not exist.

Bertrand Russell was the noted philosopher slash atheist, and he was asked one time by a Christian apologist, what are you going to do when you die and you meet God?

What excuse are you going to give God?

And he says, I will look God in the eye and say, you didn't give me enough evidence.

According to Paul, evidence is not the problem.

It's a suppression of evidence.

Now, why would someone want to suppress the evidence of God?

One word, autonomy.

It's that simple.

We make it far too hard.

Suppress is a Greek word that means to push down, which means we know that God exists, but we know that if he does, something's got to give, something's got to change, so we press it down, and we don't think about it.

Now, Paul says the thing that makes God so evident you Two things really.

One, his invisible qualities.

Now what is that?

We know the visible qualities.

The invisible qualities, he's talking about there's something inside all of us that knows about the existence of God if we would just think about it.

One of the arguments I use, no matter where I go, to talk to people about belief in God, believe it or not, is not the created order, which that's a pretty compelling argument, is the existence of evil in the world.

If you can always take your conversation, when somebody is questioning the existence of God, back to this one discussion, God comes out winning every time, because I've never met anybody that did not believe in Categoric evil.

But once you believe in categorical evil, rape is bad, right?

Racism is bad.

Once you believe in categorical evil, you also believe in categorical good, and you're admitting that you have the ability to distinguish between the two.

If you have categorical evil and categorical good, you've got to have a moral law somewhere to define those categories of evil and good.

You can't get away from this.

If there's evil and there's good, there's got to be a moral law.

Tells us what ultimately is objective evil, what is objective good.

But you can't have a moral, you can't have an absolute moral law without an absolute moral law being.

You can't have an absolute moral law to define the categories of good and evil unless there's an absolute moral being who stands outside of time and space, who's the creator designer and knows ultimately what good and evil really are.

The fact that you know that rape is evil, That sexual immorality is evil, that social injustice is evil, that oppression, the rich oppressing the poor is evil, tells you those are the natural senses, the invisible qualities tell you that there is a God who is above and beyond all things.

And then the apostle Paul says not only those invisible qualities, but the eternal power and divine nature.

He says the rational mind knows that God exists.

You may say, how so?

Now, I had to be careful here.

We could go in so many different directions, but let's keep it simple.

Everything that begins to exist has a cause.

The universe began to exist.

Therefore, the universe has a cause.

That cause must be self-existing.

It must be eternal.

Do you understand that?

You can only trace the existence and beginning of things all the way back until you come to what?

Nothing.

So then you've got to ask, how do we go from nothing to something?

And the only answer is the Creator, an eternal being that is not limited by time and space.

If you go back and say the Creator himself was created, then you still have another problem.

Who created the Creator?

Who created the creation?

That's why challengers in debate have often said to me, Pastor Jeff, if everything has a cause, what cause to God?

But you're making my point for me.

We know the universe is not eternal.

Science tells us that.

And if you trace something all the way back to nothing, the first cause of something must be self-existing.

He doesn't depend on anything outside of himself for his existence.

If I've lost you, I'll catch you again.

Robert Jastrow, an astrophysicist and director of NASA's Goddard Institution of Space Studies, says this, Now we see how the astronomical evidence supports the biblical view of the origin of the world.

The essential elements in the astronomical and biblical accounts of Genesis are the same.

Consider the enormousness of the problem.

Science has proved that the universe exploded into being at a certain moment.

It asks what cause produced this effect.

Who or what put the matter and energy into the universe?

And science cannot answer these questions.

For the scientist who has lived by faith in the power of reason, the story ends like a bad dream.

He has scaled the mountains of ignorance.

He's about to conquer the highest peaks.

As he pulls himself over the final rock, he is greeted by a band of theologians who have been there for centuries.

Let me give you a simple illustration.

I, okay, if you've ever seen the cars I drive, they're kind of average.

You know, the cars I drive are average.

But I do have a dream car.

It is a BMW 5 Series Cobalt Blue.

Okay, that is the dream car.

Now, I will never own it or drive it.

There's a couple of reasons.

Number one, can't afford it.

That's a pretty big one.

But number two, if I could, I still wouldn't drive it.

I just don't think a pastor should be driving around in a BMW 5 Series Cobalt Blue.

But I can still dream about it.

I can still say, that's a cool car.

And maybe one day a friend of mine will let me rent one for a week or something.

But the point is, that's just the car.

If that Cobalt Blue BMW 5 Series showed up in my driveway tomorrow morning, I would know it didn't get there by accident.

Somebody drove it and placed it there.

And that's just the car.

We're talking about the universe, folks.

Not far from here, about 50 miles northeast of downtown San Diego, Mount Palomar, is that what it's called?

So these astrometers, just not too far from us, have these giant telescopes, and they have written that they've been able to observe objects 4 billion light years away, 25 septillion miles, 25 septillion miles.

Folks, if you leave right now, you will never get there.

It's the distance between the trash can to the trash bins outside.

I've tried to tell my wife that for years.

That's a distance none of us can fathom.

You can't go that far.

Seriously, there are billions of stars in our galaxy alone, and there are billions of galaxies.

Now you can understand why David wrote this in Psalm 1, 1, 3 through 4.

Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth.

You have set your glory in the heavens.

When I consider your heavens the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars which you've set in place, what is mankind that you are mindful of them, human beings that you care for them?

So Paul says, if you want to know God exists, look out the window and keep looking.

I think it was earlier this year, man, I've been traveling so much, I can't remember what year it is, but I took Ron and Burrow, one of our pastors here in Jesus Arriaga, to New Zealand with me to kind of get a glimpse of what we're doing on radio in the South Pacific.

And I made sure that I included in the trip a journey to Mirawai, my favorite place in the world, where the Gannet Colony...

exist and we were there the right time of the year to see it as well.

In fact, a friend of mine last night who lives in New Zealand, Debbie Retief sent me a photo.

She and her husband Carl had gone out to Miroway and they know how much I love it and they just took a photo and sent it and I just stared at that photo forever.

You know, New Zealand has some of the most beautiful things I've ever seen in my life.

It is a country.

It's almost like God just said, you know, I'm tired of America and Asia and, you know, India.

I'm going to do something different.

I'm going to make New Zealand.

And yet, as beautiful and wonderful as it is, the fastest growing religion in New Zealand is no religion.

Why?

I lived there for 10 years.

It's not a lack of evidence, but the suppression of it.

Kiwis, and I know my New Zealand friends are going to be upset with me, but Kiwis have an insatiable thirst for autonomy, not only from God, but quite frankly, from the rest of the world.

They don't want anybody dictating or telling them what to do.

And Paul's argument is one of the most, by the way, he is one of the most educated men in his time, said if you look out the window, it's inconceivable that this power and intricacy and harmony could have been developed by any means other than the master designer who rules the universe.

That's why I told you a few years ago when we did a doubt series, and this may shock some of you, we are now living in a time that 50%, close to 50%, you of the most respected and influential scientists on the planet were asked if they believe in God.

Close to 50% said yes.

And 40% said not only do we believe in God, but we pray and we believe he hears our prayers.

New York Times had a headline that said 40% of scientists believe in God to whom they pray.

Nature Magazine, the April 3rd edition.

had a headline that said, scientists are still keeping the faith.

A significant amount of scientists do not believe for a moment that science has disproved God.

God is alive and well.

That's the Apostle Paul's comment.

And I'm not quoting scientists that are in some hidden place like East Tennessee.

I'm talking about the most famous, well-respected scientists.

Dr.

John Lennox, an Oxford mathematician, said to a room full of atheists, and I quote, I am not ashamed of being both a scientist and a Christian.

Because Christianity gave me my subject.

Now, what do you mean by that?

Do you realize that science was born out of Christianity, wanting to understand more about the God who created the heavens and the earth?

What I am amazed at, he says, is that some thinkers today continue to ask us to choose between God and science.

That's like asking people to choose between Henry Ford and engineering, as an explanation for the motor car.

When Isaac Newton discovered his law of gravity, he didn't say, I've got a law.

I don't need God.

No, he wrote what?

Percipia Mathematica.

Arguably, the greatest work in history of science.

Because he saw that God is not the same kind of explanation as the scientific explanation.

Agency does not compete with mechanism and law.

What does he mean by that?

Just because you discover how something works, that doesn't compete with who created the thing in the first place.

Discovering the how, which we've done a lot, does not negate the who.

Theologians have referred to the created order, beauty, wonder, and design for centuries as general revelation to all men and women that God is powerful, creative, and divine.

So I go back, Paul is saying, for you to say there is no God, it's not a lack of evidence.

You're suppressing the evidence because you want autonomy.

Now, one of the guys that have been very honest about this is Thomas Nagel, a university professor of philosophy and law at New York University.

Let's know what he says.

I want atheism to be true, and I'm made uneasy by the fact that some of the most intelligent and well-informed people I know are religious believers.

It isn't just that I don't believe in God and naturally hope I'm right in my belief.

It's that I hope there is no God.

I don't want there to be God.

I don't want the universe to be like that.

My guess is that this cosmic authority problem is not a rare condition.

and that it is responsible for much of the scientism and reductionism of our time.

Wow Nothing like an honest atheist.

In our time, when someone reminds us of the existence of God and his authority over our lives, we become enraged.

It's a different time.

So if you watch any YouTube at all, I get these things that pop up, and it probably knows I'm a pastor.

So it feeds me things that it thinks I'm going to like.

And there's this group called abolitionists.

And they go around and stand in public places and they hold signs that basically say, abortion is murder.

Now what's interesting about these little snippets is they just hold the sign and they only engage with you if you engage with them.

And I'm thinking to myself, dude, if you're so angry, just don't engage with them.

Just walk by them.

But there's part of the human condition that is so angry when someone says there is a God and the unborn child in the womb is a life, they can't resist.

They are so angry.

They become non-rational.

And they do something like slap him.

They just walk up and slap the guy holding the sign.

Or they put their hands over the camera.

They act like little children.

Sometimes he'll be punched in the face.

And I'm thinking to myself, and they end up going to prison, by the way, for assault or theft.

And I'm thinking, dude, just go, just walk by.

You don't have to engage.

And the owner and proprietor of abolitionists says the reason they do is because when someone sees the sign of abortion and the sin of abortion, it rises up in them a guilt and an anger.

And if they've encouraged an abortion, guilt and anger rises up within them.

And the only way they know how to deal with it is to lash out.

What's interesting about the abolitionists is they always present the gospel of grace.

So no matter who comes up, if you've had an abortion, Christ forgives you.

That's their ultimate message.

But it doesn't matter.

Our culture detests the word sin, right?

You want to trigger somebody?

Call them a sinner.

Oh, man.

So we rename sin to make it appear far more benign.

And if you know anything about history, changing language and definitions has always been a key mechanism of power structures who want to suppress the truth.

Pol Pot did it, Hitler, Stalin, Putin is doing it now, by the way, in a bureaucratic and linguistic inversion.

So definitions are rewritten and euphemism mask atrocities.

Abortion is called pro-choice or reproductive freedom.

Same-sex marriage is called marriage equality.

Adultery is called extramarital relationships or finding myself.

Christians, by the way, do this too.

Gossip is called sharing a prayer request.

Yeah.

Greed is called ambition.

I remember when I was working in Zimbabwe, there was a house, it was kind of a halfway house called Bread of Life, and they would take in drug addicts and try to help them with their addiction, which I really appreciated.

But I always found the staff a little bit different.

I thought, I'll tell you what we'll do.

I'll get my staff at our church that I pastor, and their staff, and we'll play a game of kickball.

We'll get to know each other, you know, bridge the gap.

You know kickball, kickball's fun.

You roll it and you kick the hound out of it, and then what's the best thing about kickball is when you get it, you get to just bash them with it.

If they're off base, you can just smash them with it, okay?

So, fun game of kickball.

There was one guy on the other team.

I don't know what happened, but as soon as we started playing kickball, he became the most obnoxious person I have ever seen, yelling at everybody, debating every call.

You can't do that.

You stink.

You can't kick it past me.

I mean, man, you just want to say, shut up.

We're just trying to have some fun.

And when he got the ball, I mean, there was a little 10-year-old on our team running.

He took the ball, banged him in the head with it, but knocked the kid out.

Finally, after a while, I said, dude, what's your problem?

He says, I can't help it, Pastor Jeff.

I'm just competitive.

And I said, because I was younger and more rude, no, you're obnoxious.

And you know something else?

You're self-centered.

You're a lying, cheating jerk.

That's what you are.

He didn't take it very well.

The point is, we say, you're competitive?

No, man, you're just rude.

C.S.

Lewis said, we make monsters and call them noble.

We make cowards.

and call them cautious.

We make avarice and we call them, which means greed, we call it prudence and we call lust an appreciation for beauty.

Another young man I've seen on YouTube is a young man who goes out to gay conventions or outdoor pride festivals and he simply preaches the gospel that Jesus loves you, has a better life for you and wants to forgive all sin.

Ironically, when he goes to these conventions or parades or whatever, there are huge signs in rainbow colors that say tolerance.

And yet people will walk up to him and the look on their faces, and some of it appears to be downright demonic.

The way they look at him, they want to kill him.

Now why?

Why?

Because he's reminding them of their sin.

And when you remind a culture of sin, People get angry and they lash out.

The Apostle Paul is simply saying here that at a fundamental level, rejecting God is not a philosophical issue, but one of autonomy.

I don't want to live under anyone's authority.

I want to do what I want to do.

So we either reject the existence of God or we create God in our own image where God likes everything we like and hate everything we hate.

And what we've done is made an idol.

A God that does not exist.

And there's a lot more we can say because of time.

Let's keep going.

The suppression of truth.

And then the reality of adultery.

Idolatry.

Not adultery, but idolatry.

Paul goes on to say the fundamental sin in our world is not breaking the rules, but exchanging the creator for created things.

Let me read it.

Verse 21, for although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God, nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile, and their foolish hearts were darkened.

Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like a mortal human, being, and birds, and animals, and reptiles.

Now, you think that doesn't apply to you because you don't have those statues and those wooden things that you worship over your mantle anymore.

But that's not the point at all.

The point Paul makes is once a culture or an individual begins to suppress the truth of God, your heart has a void in it, and it's going to search for something that it can Worship.

You were meant to worship.

You're going to worship something.

If you suppress the truth of God, your heart looks for something to give you what only God can give you.

So you're looking for security, hope, meaning, significance, purpose.

This cannot be overstated.

Remember what we said numerous times in the denial of death written by Ernest Becker.

He's a historian as well as a philosopher.

And he says every culture makes an attempt to silence the voice of death.

by attaching themselves to something that makes life worth living.

The religious solution, the creative solution, the romantic solution.

So you end up worshiping your job, or your relationships, or your own self-righteousness.

You give ultimate worth to worship, dependence on those things.

And those things begin to determine your self-worth, your security, your self-esteem.

And you begin to do whatever it takes to ensure that these things survive.

Because you believe that without them you're nothing.

But the Bible says you think you're wise, but you're foolish.

Because everything that you're chasing is unpredictable, fragile, and temporary at best.

They're created things.

And he says if you don't worship God, and he's not the ultimate in your life, you will elevate something else.

You will elevate something that is good to a God-like status.

Career is good, but you make it a God.

Your family is good, you make it a God.

Romantic fulfillment, you make it a God.

Self-realization.

You turn those things into an absolute value.

And again, those are all good things, but the problem is you make a good thing into a God thing.

Now, let's give some practical examples here.

I've seen this all my life.

When I was in Zimbabwe, I was coaching basketball.

One of the first things I did was go to the local high school and offer to coach the basketball team because they needed high school basketball coaches.

And I had a player on my team named John Dodsey.

The first time I saw him at practice, I knew we were going to win.

I'm gonna build this whole team.

It's like having Michael Jordan.

I don't need great players.

If I got Michael and four decent players, we're gonna win.

And this team had not won very often.

This kid was amazing.

He was from Ghana, now living in Zimbabwe.

They called him Jumpin' Johnny.

Now, that ought to tell you something.

This guy was an incredible athlete.

Ends up going to Southern Illinois University on a full ride.

Now, for a long time, played for the Globetrotters.

They offered him a good salary, and he wanted to go to the NBA.

Didn't quite make it or had some injuries, but he ended up playing for the Gold Trotters.

So when I first met John Dodsey, I saw someone.

I thought, I don't think I've ever seen anybody pursue God like this young man.

Every morning up, crack of dawn, reading his Bible, praying on his knees for over an hour.

And then he would start his basketball training routine.

And then about three years into my relationship with John, one time he said to me, Pastor Jeff, I just got to make it to the NBA because without basketball, I'm nothing.

And I began to realize he wasn't pursuing God.

He was pursuing God to get basketball.

As a result, over time, he became incredibly legalistic.

He even ended up telling me that I didn't have very much of a chance of going to heaven because he had the method and the formula to be used on God to get from God what you wanted and ultimately earn a way into heaven.

When I was a kid, I was a huge, now you're going to hear the story, a Dallas Cowboy fan.

Okay, now before you boo me, I need you to understand, I need some grace and mercy.

So my mother's sister married a man, Kirby Thomas is his name, that's my uncle.

And Kirby Thomas was first cousins with D.D.

Lewis.

D.D.

Lewis, a middle linebacker for the Dallas Cowboys in the Staubach era.

And so every Christmas, you have to understand, we got Dallas Cowboy paraphernalia from D.D.

Lewis.

I had a whole team poster of those Cowboys with everyone signing it, especially to me, not one that you get just online.

No, this was the real thing because I was related to D.D.

Lewis.

Big Dallas Cowboy trash can, Dallas Cowboy toboggans, you call them toboggans, what do you call them?

Hooties now, whatever you call them.

So of course, we didn't have a team in Elizabethan, Tennessee, so of course I'm going to be a Dallas Cowboy fan.

And I started to learn about D.D.

Lewis, and I learned that he was a Christian, and he expressed his Christian faith throughout his life, so that's going to appeal to me even more.

You know, if I could find one Christian on the Dodgers, I'd be for them.

I'm just kidding.

I know, I know, that's just kidding.

Listen.

Listen, 1981, D.D.

Lewis received the Bart Starr Award, and that's given annually by the NFL for outstanding character, leadership, Christian values in the home, on the field, in the community.

He's also famous for one of the most iconic faith-tinged quotes in sports history regarding the original Texas stadium design.

He is the one that said, Texas stadium has a hole in the roof so God can watch his favorite team play.

That came from D.D.

Lewis.

Now...

But after D.D.

Lewis retired, he moved deeper and deeper into depression, turned to alcoholism, drug addiction.

He lost everything.

He lost his relationship with his kids, with his wife.

He said, the purpose that defined my life left a significant void.

It's gone now.

Now contrast that quickly with Scotty Scheffler, who was a famous golfer.

In fact, some would say he's the best golfer in the world.

Do you know that his career scoring average is better than Tiger Woods?

Do you know that his single season birdie average is better than Tiger Woods?

Why do I say that?

Because Tiger Woods is the greatest golfer of all time.

And yet, Scotty, when he won the Masters, said some pretty compelling things.

They asked him the question, how do you stay so calm?

I'll quote, the reason I play golf is to glorify God for all that he's done in my life.

So for me, my identity isn't a golf scorer.

Like Meredith, by the way, Meredith is his wife, told me this morning, if I win this tournament today, if I lose this golf tournament by 10 shots, if I never win another golf tournament again, you're still going to be the same person loved and adored by God.

Why worry about what the peasants think when you have the love and acceptance of the king?

Ironically, the irony is that kind of peace in the life of an athlete frees them up to succeed.

He says, Meredith always prays for peace because that's what I want to feel on the golf course, is peace and have fun and just feel his presence.

So he's not playing for his identity.

That would be pressurized.

His identity is not at stake.

He's just having fun and enjoying something that God enabled him to do.

That goes back to Harold Abraham's.

who said, I have but 10 seconds to prove the reason for my existence, and even then I'm not sure I will.

While Eric Little is saying, God has made me for China, but he's also made me fast, and when I run, I feel his presence.

In Chariots of Fire, he said, I love to run, but my purpose and significance do not come from it.

My meaning is far greater.

By the way, you'll be glad to know that D.D.

Lewis made a miraculous recovery.

He credited his Christian faith and relationship with God as the foundation for his recovery.

He said, God became the center of my life again, and much of what ails us and our culture is easily remedied when God is given his rightful place.

Please hear me.

That tells me that anybody, no matter how far from God you are, with one decision can come back.

And when the prodigal son returns, the arms of the father are open wide.

Now, when the central anchor, God, is removed.

All other human desires become disordered, exaggerated, driving.

That's the point of the passage.

They over-determine your behavior.

And when what you're putting your faith and trust in is threatened, you're going to lash out in anger because your identity is at stake.

Many men have taken their own lives when what they built in life begins to crumble.

Many men and women have ended their own lives when a relationship they thought they could not live without comes to an end.

When your life is anchored to something that is temporary, I've told you numerous times, you may suppress it, but inside, your soul knows very well and it will never find its rest.

Now, let's go on to the third one quickly.

When an entire culture evicts God, destruction begins and the principle of reaping and sowing kicks in.

So we have the suppression of truth, the reality of idolatry, the depraved mind.

Now we come to one of the most sobering concepts in the New Testament.

Lean in.

I gotta finish this.

You come on Saturday because it's live and you have to pay the price.

Verse 18, the wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of people who suppress the truth by their wickedness.

Man, when I saw this, and probably 10-15 years ago, Just everything started to make sense.

There are two words translated wrath in the New Testament.

One is orge.

Orge is a settled, deep-seating, abiding opposition that God has to evil.

And then there's thumos, which is like a volcano exploding.

Suddenly, God is angry in response to atrocities.

His patience runs out.

The word used here in Romans for the wrath of God being revealed is not thumos.

It's orge.

It's a cause and effect embedded into the universe.

So as I've said before, when culture or an individual sins against God, God is not up in heaven saying, I'm going to get you.

He doesn't have to.

The cause and effect is already embedded in the creation scenario.

So when you lie, you're going to lose your reputation.

When you betray a loyalty, you're going to lose trust.

When you worship something temporary, your soul is going to begin to disintegrate.

When you commit adultery, it's going to destroy your marriage.

God doesn't have to zap you and make sure your marriage is destroyed.

This is just reaping and sowing cause and effect.

Verse 24, therefore, God gave them over in their sinful desires.

Because of this, verse 26, God gave them over to shameful lust.

The Greek word is paradokin.

And paradokin is punishment that is not a lightning bolt.

but the word means granting what you are pursuing.

God will give it to you.

So when it leads to your demise, he hopes you'll repent and come back to him.

Isn't that amazing?

You look at the prodigal son story.

When Jesus told that story to his audience and they heard that the father actually gave the inheritance to the son and allowed him to go, they would have said, no way.

Because if you acted the way that young boy did, they'd take you outside the city gates and stone you.

But in the parable Jesus told, the father comes and gives him the inheritance and wishes him well, and he goes on his way.

He gravely misbehaves.

I want my inheritance now.

I wish you were dead, father, so I don't have to live under your authority.

I'll take all the blessings without respect for your graciousness.

And the father, what does he do?

He removes his restraining grace and he allows the son to experience the natural destructive consequences of his own idolatry and self-centered choices.

In verse 24, therefore God gave them over in their sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another.

They exchanged the truth about God for a lie.

and worshiped and created or served created things rather than the creator who is forever praised.

Amen.

God's judgment on ungodliness, listen now, is often to give us what we want, to see the futility and turn to him.

Oscar Wilde said, when the gods want to punish us, they answer our prayers.

Do you know how many times I've seen this as a pastor?

A man worships his career because that's the source of his ultimate meaning and significance.

It drives him.

It dominates him.

Everything else is fitted around it.

His marriage is in disarray.

His wife has learned to live with it.

He thinks she's accepted if she just learned to live with it.

He misses his children's ball games and graduations.

The worst thing that can happen to him is a promotion.

Because that enables him to forget the wreckage he's making of his family.

When Paul says, therefore God gave them over in their sinful desires, he uses the Greek word epithumia.

It's the word for lust.

And lust is the word for over-desire, controlling, all-controlling, drive and longing.

And so the main problem of our heart is not so much desires for bad things, but it's over-desiring good things.

Our turning of created good things into God's objects of worship.

And when the guilt comes, we ignore it.

The fire of conviction comes, we ignore it.

And when we do, destruction happens all around us.

God's judgment, when the Bible says he hands you over to your depravity, God's judgment is to let you catch the thing you're chasing and to allow it to bring destruction.

So finally, you would say no.

There's got to be something better.

Can I ask you as all Christians, stay with me now.

I told you Saturday night, you're going to get the whole thing.

We could go home right now, but I'm not finished.

Listen, listen.

What are you chasing in your life that you truly believe if you can just catch it, your life will be complete?

You would say, I've arrived if I can just get there.

That's your real God.

And you're hoping the real God will help you get the false God.

And could it be that what you've been praying for for a long time, you're never going to get because God knows it will destroy you?

Where is your faith and trust in God?

But Jeff, I'm asking for a good thing.

Yes, but you've made a good thing a God thing.

You tell yourself that you've got to have it.

You can't live without it.

But the only thing you can't live without is God.

Now, here comes the hard part.

As culture, when that culture continues to evict God, blows past conviction, and continues to smother guilt, while at the same time worshiping money, power, sex, whatever it is, the Bible says there comes a time in every individual's life, in every culture, that God hands you over to your depravity.

Now listen, don't walk out on me either.

You hear me out on this, okay?

God hands you over to depravity in hopes of repentance.

In one such cultural...

Indicator is the prevalence of homosexuality and lesbianism.

Because of this, God gave them over to shameful lust.

Even their women exchanged natural sexual relations for unnatural ones.

In the same way, the men also abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed with lust for one another.

Men committed shameful acts with other men and received in themselves the due penalty of their error.

Remember the four things we've talked about.

God's law.

Not arbitrarily given.

God knows our design because he created.

The Bible is our authority.

And one of Satan's primary tools is this.

Goes all the way back to the garden.

Did God really say that?

In the last 30 years, there has been a concerted effort to say that we have misunderstood the meaning of this passage.

And one of the things cultures do to silence the voice of guilt is to cast doubt on what God really said.

And so parents with gay children...

latch onto this verbal minority as a means to deal with the overarching sadness they feel due to the sin of their kids.

Satan always gives a counterfeit gospel or counterfeit truth to ensure that he continues to rob, steal, kill, and destroy.

Folks, there is nothing unclear about this passage.

Nothing.

Even their women exchanged natural sexual relations for unnatural ones.

The Greek word is paraphousin.

It means against nature or against design.

And we're told that when this happens, the reaping and sowing of God takes over.

God doesn't sit up in heaven and say, I'm going to get you.

I mean, my goodness, when I heard theologians say, AIDS is God giving people their due penalty.

Well, there's a lot of people who got AIDS, not just gay and lesbian people.

No, no, no.

The due penalty is a reference to the cause and effect already embedded in the universe.

When you violate the parameters of any God-given gift, you step outside of that, you bring destruction.

And it's motivated out of the love of God, not the hatred.

He loves you.

He wants what is best for you.

So when a culture is intent on committing sexual immorality and abusing something that is good and making it God-like, The Bible tells us that God hands us over.

He's going to let you chase what you think will save you in hopes that the destruction in itself will bring you back to the Father.

And the reason Paul highlights same-sex practice is because it serves as a vivid illustration of humanity turning away from God's intended design.

That is the context.

Just as humanity turns away from the ultimate relationship between creator and creature, same-sex relations Turn away from the fundamental male-female relationship established by God in Genesis.

It's unavoidable.

No matter what you do, and a telltale sign that individuals or a culture has suppressed the knowledge of God, become resentful toward God's authority over their lives, and have begun to worship created things, is that God has handed them over to their depravity.

And when he does, men will lust after men and women will lust after women.

And when adultery is common among heterosexuals, when sex before marriage is acceptable to all, it's God judging in the sense, I'm going to hand you over and allow you to destroy this in hopes that you will realize you've been going the wrong way.

Now, be careful as Christians by saying, yeah, Pastor Jeff, you tell them while you're sleeping with a woman you're not married to.

We're in a series called Essentials.

Yes, we're saved by grace through faith.

I live a life of obedience as a result.

When we violate God's design, disintegration begins in culture.

And God, wrath or gay, his embedded judgment in culture begins.

So let me ask you another question.

Did you bring a sleeping bag in case we need to...

It's not that much more, but you got to stay with me.

Where are you violating God's commands in your life?

Where are you violating his designs?

So easy for you to pick on the gay and lesbian community while you were violating it in your own sexual lives.

Where are the idols in your life?

Why do you judge the homosexual and lesbian for not repenting?

Why?

When verse 28 says, furthermore, just as they did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God.

So God gave them over to depraved mind so that they do what ought not to be done.

They have become filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed, and depravity.

They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, malice.

They are gossip, slanderers, god-aiders, insolent, arrogant, and boastful.

They invent ways of doing evil.

They disobey their parents.

They have no understanding, no fidelity, no love, no mercy, although they knew God's righteousness decree or righteous decree.

That those who do such things deserve death.

They not only continue to do these very things, but also approve of the things who practice them, or those who practice them.

Remember, the whole context of Romans 1 through 3 is everybody's a sinner.

But Paul does say, when culture gets to this point, God will hand you over to your depravity.

And one of the telltale signs is homosexuality, lesbianism, sexual immorality, heterosexual immorality will be off the charts, and that's where we are.

How do we respond?

First, if you're in this room and you're struggling with sexual sin, repent.

You've turned something good into God-like and you're rebelling against God's design.

If you're committing adultery, fornication, fornication is sex before marriage, same-sex activity, all of them.

God's grace and mercy are for those who repent and turn away from their sin today.

It can be the first day of the rest of your life.

And to those in homosexual and lesbian relationships?

You need to understand something.

I love you.

I don't hate you.

Just as I don't hate everyone participating in adultery.

This is not about hating anybody.

This is about saying to you, God loves you.

He's created the parameters.

And as a pastor, my heart is that you have your best life possible.

And your best life possible is not in a same-sex relationship.

How do you know that?

God said it.

Now, can I say something else?

This should actually give hope to parents.

Did you know that?

God has not given up on your son or daughter.

He's employed his most effective mechanism.

He's handed them over to the counterfeit in hopes they'll return to the real thing.

Keep praying.

Second, for the Christian, this is important, the Bible is our authority.

It's the key to human flourishing.

Let me, those who are struggling with some of the things I'm saying, think about this for a moment.

Do you agree with the fact the Bible says, love your enemies, pray for those who persecute you, feed the hungry, clothe the poor, visit those in prison?

the equality of male and female, that no ethnic group is superior to another, that we should stand against social injustice, that we should love our neighbor as ourselves, that men should be faithful to their wives and wives to their husbands, that fathers should not exasperate their children.

Do you like all those?

Do you agree with them?

Okay, how about number 10, that sex is reserved for marriage between a man and a woman?

So suddenly you like not what you say.

Nine out of ten is not bad.

Oh, so you get to pick and choose what you think is appropriate and right.

You've become the God of God.

The first step toward depravity.

Remember, we reject God at the center and we insert ourselves into the place of God.

Pastor Jeff, you don't seem to have any sympathy for people who have same-sex attraction.

That's another sermon, and of course I do.

Of course I do.

I have sympathy for people who are addicted to alcohol.

I have sympathy for the people, young men who are addicted to pornography, fornication, abortion, adultery, all those things.

And because I do love you, I say this to you.

Repent.

It's your only hope.

Christian parents who encourage their children in this area for fear that if they don't, their children will leave, you're not loving your children, you're enabling them.

There is a way that you can love them, appreciate them, no matter what, without affirming the behavior is acceptable.

But if you don't draw the line somewhere, they're going to assume they have your blessing and acceptance.

That's not loving.

You know, a few years ago, we went to Victoria Falls, and for some reason, my wife and my daughter and my father-in-law wanted to jump off Victoria Falls Bridge.

I mean, why would you want to do that?

Now, suppose I'm watching all this, and my son says, Dad, I want to go without the harness.

Now, what would a loving father say?

Don't do it.

It'll kill you.

It's not loving to say, son, if that's what you want, if that makes you happy, go ahead.

I'm sure the crocodiles haven't been fed in a while.

They're waiting on you.

And third and finally, the cross is the place you find God's mercy.

The point the Apostle Paul is making is that no matter what we've done, where we've been, who we are, the cross, we're one step away from God's mercy.

See, it really comes down to this, folks.

Do you trust that God knows better than you?

Do you trust he knows better than you?

And if you do...

If you do, you're going to follow him.

And when he says that this is not the best way, you're not going to suppress it and push it down.

You're going to say, God is telling me this because he loves me.

Look, guys, listen.

There is no...

In the passage I just read...

Folks, it's only been the last 30 years where some theologians, in no way the most respective, have tried to turn and twist this.

And it's just, it's what I call hermeneutical gymnastics.

They're playing word games and everything to try to make this passage say something it does not.

So that we can suppress the truth and do what we want to do.

Let me finish like this.

This is the end.

You okay?

Okay.

C.S.

Lewis, The Great Divorce.

One of the most striking illustrations of true repentance.

And I hope God give me the ability to communicate this well.

There is a group of people who are taking a bus ride up into heaven from hell.

It's like a field trip.

And they show up near heaven.

And they are almost, you know...

Translucent.

They're a shell of the former selves because some addiction that they had just ate them up and they're no longer who they were meant to be.

And they're just overwhelmed with sadness, but they don't know what to do about it.

And the closer they get to heaven, the more the wholeness of heaven makes it difficult for them to bear it.

And they move closer and closer and they're met by angels.

And St.

Louis tells the story of one particular man.

He's a soul trapped in some kind of an addiction.

He doesn't tell us.

And because he's so trapped, he's a hollow man.

He's a shell of a former self, destroyed by earthly addictions and misery.

And as he walks toward the angel, there's a lizard, a red lizard on his shoulder.

And the red lizard represents his disordered earthly desires.

The angel says to him, by God's grace and divine authority, I can kill this lizard for you, but I cannot kill it unless you let me.

And the angel says, you can't come into this place with that thing.

It's got to be killed.

And the man, typical addiction, offers all kinds of excuses.

He says, well, it's not bothering me right now.

It's quiet.

I'm good.

And the angel says, you want me to kill it?

He says, well, I can control it better.

You know, I'll control it better in the future.

Maybe killing the lizard should be done gradually, not all at once.

And by the way, if you kill it, you might kill me.

And the angel says, no, no.

And he starts to move toward the lizard to kill it.

And it burns the man a little bit.

He goes, you're hurting me.

He says, I didn't say it wouldn't hurt.

I said it wouldn't kill you.

And the man fears giving up this sin and bad habit will strip away his joy and identity and vitality.

And the angel says, I tell you, I can kill it, but not without your permission.

God will never violate your free will.

Salvation and transformation require a willing surrender.

When the man finally cries out in agony, God, help me.

Go ahead and have it your way.

The angel moves forward, burns, and snaps the lizard's neck.

The man experiences pain, but just for a few moments.

And then here's where Lewis is brilliant.

Immediately after that, the pain gives way to unbound health and joy, and the lizard transforms into this majestic, glowing stallion.

And the man mounts the horse, and he rides off, fully glorified, solid presence deeper into heaven.

And Lewis goes on to say, God does not want to destroy your desires.

He wants to elevate them.

Do you know the difference between lust and desire?

Desire is a God-given passion fulfilled in legitimate ways.

Lust is a God-given passion fulfilled in illegitimate ways, and it destroys you.

But if you give it completely and you surrender whatever it is over to God, He will give you something powerful, beautiful.

And you will possess it in a way that gives you life and vitality.

Folks, true repentance requires yielding what we cling to, trusting what God hands back to us in its place will be infinitely greater.

Father, I thank you for a message, a passage that is extremely difficult and yet easy at the same time.

Your existence is so clear.

The heavens declare your glory.

Internally, we know that you are real, that there is a beyond in us that compels us.

We just suppress it, and that autonomy will ultimately destroy us.

I pray for every person in this room as they've heard this message, if there's anyone who needs to repent in any area of their lives.

Make it clear through the power of your spirit.

Give them the courage for whatever they're holding on to, to give it over to you, trusting that you will return it.

And it will be far more glorious than they ever imagined.

In Christ's name, everybody said, amen.