Man Church - Stop Asking Jesus Into Your Heart

Get your word open. Let's talk. The title for my sermon today, or my chat today, is Stop Asking Jesus Into Your Heart, or the whole issue of why do I continually feel I need to get saved all the time. And from my own story, I remember when I first responded to an altar call to give my life to Christ. I was probably 11. I'd spent the afternoon smoking cigarettes that I'd stolen from a local news agency, and I was looking up girls' skirts at a local church youth group called the Friday Club. And it was a Calvinistic Methodist church. And so I wasn't prayerful at all, I wasn't deliberately seeking God, and he came and found me. And it was a real encounter. The world stood still, my soul became alive, and they gave me a little tiny Gideon's Bible. And that was the first time I'd ever asked Christ into my heart and acknowledged my need of Jesus as a Savior. For me, life was rough back then, very abusive at home, physically and sexually. I was trafficked, what you call trafficked, as a kid. I was made to do a lot of things I never wanted to do, and I assumed that I was a bad person because I was doing these things, that I must have done something bad if I was made to do these things. I assumed that I needed to get saved again because these things didn't stop when I was at home. So I went to a Presbyterian church that was just up the road, and I was 13, and I got saved again and came home and life was still shitty. I thought, I've got to be doing this thing wrong, I've got to keep doing it. So a couple of years later, I went to an Anglican church, or what you would call an Episcopal church, and they took communion every week. So I took communion. I thought, this is awesome, I'm gonna participate with Jesus. But then the next week I came back and they were doing communion again, and I thought, man, this is great, I get to do it every week and be saved again every week with Jesus. And the preacher said I couldn't do it because I hadn't been confirmed and I wasn't an Anglican. And I thought, oh, okay, that's got to be in the Bible somewhere. So I went home and got my little Gideons out and read the entire New Testament. And I went back so excited because the word communion wasn't in the New Testament. I went back and I told this preacher the next day, hey mate, listen, the word communion is not in here. Anybody can take communion if they love Jesus, and I love Jesus. And he told me not to, and I told him to go fuck himself, and I got kicked out of church. I was 16 years of age. So I've been a bit of a rabble-rouser ever since, I think. Then when I turned 18, I had a Mormon mate, and Ray Fuggle had an orange combivan, and we would get the Australian equivalent of a Mapsco, and we'd find a church. I'd pick a spot and go there, and we'd have neckties and a packet of bikkies, or you would call them cookies, and we would go and we would rate churches on how friendly they were, how good-looking the girls were, and if they had a good feed. And I remember I went to a Spanish-speaking church. Now, this is in Australia, mate. We don't do Spanish speaking. And I went there and I didn't understand. And this old man sat next to me and spent the whole service telling me about what the preacher was saying. And I remember walking down that aisle, bawling my eyes out because I didn't understand what he said, but I needed— I was responding. There was something grabbing my heart. Spent the next 6 years fighting and shagging anything I could during college. Then I wandered into a church called Hillsong Church. And there again, I was on an altar call. I went into ministry at Hillsong, and then again, I was on an altar call every week. And I was the youth pastor. I was on an altar call, altar call, because I just didn't feel worthy. And at some point in my 30s and 40s, I realized that it wasn't about me needing to be saved again. It was about me understanding what salvation meant. And so I'm sure some of you are here today and you've faced a similar dilemma or a similar question like that. Am I good enough? Am I really saved? So I want to give you some basic theology, and I want to explain one scripture, Romans 8. If you've got your Bible— if not, go and get one now. If you need one, I'll probably organize to get one to you at some point. And I want to explain one scripture I want to ask you 3 questions, and then I just want to have a chat. I want to open it for questions and answers at the end of our session, as we always do at Man Church. So now, when it comes to theology, I will not treat you like morons if you don't pretend to be idiots. That's my deal with theology. We're all grown-ups, and we can understand big words and new terms if someone takes the time to explain them to us. There is nothing hard about theology. What is hard is accepting— honestly, is accepting the truth of it and the simplicity of it. Now, humans always want to screw something up, particularly when it comes to the nature and character of God, by making it more complicated than it is. Primarily, unfortunately, it's preachers who want to appear smarter than they are. And so you don't need to do that. We all need to understand the word of God, and we all need to understand what God's precepts and concepts are for us. So when I say theology, don't roll your eyes. That's why we've got the cameras on. So don't do that, because theology is simple and beautiful and obtainable. It's the study of who God is and what he says about us and what he's done for us, and that's it. That is— there's nothing complicated in that. You ready? I'm going to read your statement and then I'm going to break it down for you. And if you've got questions, just write them down and we'll have a chat at the end about it. All right, salvation. Salvation is God's free sovereign grace rescuing sinners by uniting them to Jesus Christ through the Holy Spirit's work. Take a breath, just relax. I'll explain it to you in a minute. So that they are Justified— that means forgiven and counted righteous— then sanctified— changed— preserved means kept— and finally glorified or made whole, all received by faith alone and not earned. I'll say it one more time. Salvation is God's free sovereign grace rescuing sinners by uniting them to Jesus Christ through the Holy Spirit's work. So that they are justified, forgiven, and counted righteous, then sanctified, changed, preserved, and finally glorified, all received by faith alone and not earned. So what I want to do is I want to break that statement up into 2, and I want to outline some key components. Now, for some of you who have been to church and it's all a matter of put my hands up, have a cry, walk in order, call I'm saved— okay, that's great as a starting point, but that's just the starting point. And the problem is we don't understand the beauty of what Christ has done for us in its totality and how it can totally revolutionize your life forever. And that's why we've got to spend a little bit of time understanding some of these things. So there's 2 parts to this statement that I want to unpack for you. Number one, salvation is God's free sovereign grace rescuing sinners. You get this, you understand the rescuing sinners. And you understand uniting them to Jesus Christ through his Holy Ghost. You got that. The part we get stuck on is salvation is God's free sovereign grace. So salvation, free and gracious gift of rescuing sinners—that's you and me—and what we're rescued from is the consequence of life choices and actions that God never subscribes to, never agrees to, and never wants us to do. He has some things that he knows as our creator aren't good for us, and he says, listen, don't do that stuff, it's going to muck your life up. And we do those things, and he goes, that's not cool. So we do that, and what we need is to be rescued from the consequence of those. So how do we earn salvation? You don't. You can't earn salvation. There is no— nothing you can do to save yourself. It's a gift of grace. That means it's free, and you did nothing to earn it. So what does salvation do? It makes you righteous. What does righteous mean? Stay with me. What does righteous mean? It means you're right with God. That's all. To be righteous means that you're just in right standing with God. So when you're saved, you come from being in bad standing. Now. To being in good standing with God. Self-righteous means you're a dick, and that's a different thing altogether. So you don't want to get into self-righteousness. You just want to stick with God's righteousness that you can't earn. You can be earned being self-righteous dick yourself. So salvation is God's free sovereign grace rescuing sinners by uniting them to Jesus Christ through the Holy Spirit's work. Here's the next part. Ready? So that they are justified, forgiven, and counted as righteousness. So salvation justifies you. So justified—it's the name of a really bad streaming program. But what does justified actually mean? Justified means just as if you'd never sin. Justified. I am justified. I am made righteous. I am. When God looks at me, it's just as if I've never sinned, that there's no room for improvement, that I'm perfect. Now that is a concept, that when you are saved by the free gift of grace, the Holy Ghost does a work in your life through the actions that Jesus took on the cross, that when God looks at you, he doesn't see you as a sinner but sees you as a perfect, perfect Okay, got it. Let's assume so. That's the first part of it, right? Part two of the statement: Salvation is God's free sovereign grace rescuing sinners by uniting them to Jesus Christ through the Holy Spirit's work, so that they are justified, then sanctified. Okay, so we're saved. And then justified. Now that's instantaneous. That's the moment that you pray a simple prayer and acknowledge that God is who God is, and you ask him into your heart. That is what it means to be both saved and justified. It's instantaneous, and an internal spiritual transformation starts to take place. Now the starting of this process, although it was instantly saved and justified, there's a starting of a process called sanctification. Where— and this process means that you're sanctified. Sanctification is a process that happens over time. Sanctification means transformation. Easiest way to get your head around it. So you're saved, and then you go through a process of being transformed. So transform— transformation or sanctification takes a lifetime. This is where God changes you from the inside Out. He helps you by the Holy Ghost turn away from sin and grow to live more like Christ, little by little, in real-life choices, attitudes, habits on a daily basis. You got it? Salvation, justification, sanctification, which is a slow transformation. So we've got salvation, justification, and sanctification. Then the last part that we talked about in that passage is preservation. Now, preservation is an act of the Holy Ghost, and that means that God keeps you. He holds you and never lets you go. Now, that's important. Preservation means that he saved you and you can't fall away from him. He commits to protecting your faith. He commits to bringing you back when you drift away. Important, because we all drift away. And make sure that you endure to the end. But notice that preservation happens after salvation, justification, and it's part of the process of sanctification. We're sanctified, and in that process, God preserves us. Now finally, there's glorification. So the work of salvation is complete when you live forever with him in a perfect body and a perfect soul. Now, if anybody tells you that happens this side of heaven, they're idiots and they're charlatans, and I would suggest you run away from them. And think Jonestown, Heaven's Gate, and the Dave— the mob at Waco. Smell Manson family, smell cult. You don't ever make it to perfection this side of glory. So if you're sitting there saying, man, I'm not perfect, congrats your bloody latians. No one is. The only perfect fella was crucified on a cross, so that didn't work out too good for him. So I'm not going to do that. I'm going to be happy being a bumbling sinner running towards him as fast as I can. I'm quite comfortable with that. All right, so let's talk about you lot. You and me. A lot of men suffer with this issue because they suffer with a feeling of being guilty. Now we've all made mistakes, many, often, repeated, repeatedly, and we think that this disqualifies us from a relationship with God, and it means that we are in some way unsaved. We make these mistakes, and instead of going, oh, you know what? I'm the— I'm growing and slowly being transformed. We say to ourselves, I must be a dirty sinner, therefore I've got to go back to the very beginning and be saved. And that's just not the case. Salvation and justification are a one-time deal. What you're dealing with is the process of sanctification or daily transformation in your life. If we think we— that our sin and our action disqualifies us from a relationship with God and that we're unsaved, We feel we should keep on paying some sort of price because we do dumb stuff. Whipping ourselves, beating ourselves, repeatedly praying the sinner's prayer, not sure if we're heaven-bound, always feeling that we're disqualified from God and his grace. We don't talk to God because we feel we're dirty and unworthy, which we are all the time. You're not special. It's called being human. Kanye West said in his song Jesus Walks, The only thing I pray is that my feet won't fail me now. I don't think there's nothing I can do to right my wrongs. I want to talk to God, but I'm afraid because we haven't spoken for so long. And most of us as men feel that we understand that stuff's going on in our life and we have a challenge with it. And it's like, I'm just going to give up, you know, I'm not going to get this right. You never will get this right till the glorification part, which happens in the other side of glory itself. We feel like sin is— our sin is particularly bad, like we've got some sort of corner on the market. And it disqualifies us from his presence and his intimacy. Now, that would be true if your salvation was based on works, but it's not. And we've already established that it's a free gift of grace through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ. So take a breath. Have a sip of coffee. Shake your head because it's eight o'clock on a Saturday morning and you just had theology. Bloody hell, John! Couldn't we have done little felt pictures and little puppets or something like sock puppets? Do that sock puppet thing. All right, so have a little break, have a little coffee, relight your cigar, and I want to unpack these three scriptures for you. So go to your Bible, Romans. Little tag, open it. If you're looking for the book of Romans, it's in the index, or it's after Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, Acts. Romans. Romans 8:15. And I want to focus on verse 16, but I want to read verse 15 and verse 17 to you as well, because context is very important when you understand the word of God and you're studying the word of God, because People often, unfortunately, some people can take a scripture out of context and that perverts its entire meaning. Often I like to read verse before, verse after, and chapter before, chapter after, so I get a full slay of what's happening and what's going on. So verse 16, why do I like context? Because of Jonestown and Heaven's Gate, because those boys screwed all that up. Killed a lot of people. The Spirit himself— verse 16. Let me read you the whole thing first, then we'll go back to verse 16. For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, Abba, Father. Are you supposed to understand that? Not really, because it's a Roman translation from the Aramaic, and there's a whole bunch of cultural stuff in there you don't get. In West Texas, and I'm going to explain it to you in just a minute. The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God. And this will— this might sound confusing, this verse 17, for you, but it's okay. It's actually not. If children, then heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him. So verse 16, and I don't want you to worry about this part where it says Provided we suffer with him. Because to be honest, we— there is not good teaching out there about what this particular verse means. And a whole bunch of people go, oh look, I've got to suffer to be a Christian, so I'm going to beat myself up. That is actually not what that scripture means, either in this context or in most other contexts. Take up your cross and follow me does not mean you nail yourself to a tree. So let's just— we'll get back to that if we need to. Verse 16: The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God. Now the big point here is that God's Spirit, the Holy Spirit, is trying to tell your spirit that you are his children. And so the Holy Ghost is talking to your spirit and saying, hey, listen, you really are a child of God. You've been saved. You're a child of God. I want to work with you on this bit. And that is where most of the wrestling happens within us once we've given our life to Christ, is the Holy Ghost is saying you're his And you say, I don't act like it, or I don't live like it. And the Holy Ghost says, yeah, we need to do something about that. But regardless of that, you're still his. And you say, yeah, but I'm a bit of a dick. And the Holy Ghost says, you might be an a-hole, but you're not a total dick. Quoting Star-Lord. The Holy Ghost often does that to me. So you know this between— to be true. How do you know that's true? Because you've got kids, and kids are stupid, and you still love them. It's exactly the same. They'll do dumb stuff, and you will strive with them to get them to where you want them to go and be. So that leads us to the second half of this verse. The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, offspring, that we're born to him. Okay, so down into verse 17, and this will make sense in just a minute. Just come with me and I'll wrap it all up. And if we— and if children, then heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ. So heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ. So again, what we see is this concept of once we're saved, we actually become heirs or children of God. We are heirs. It's very important. This word heirs is very important because it ties back into Abba in verse 15. And we, this fellow heirs saved by grace, we're made children of God. He's not going to throw us away. He doesn't reject us. We're not slaves. We're sons. We're brothers. We're more than friends. We're brothers, Christ said. So now go back to verse 15. For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the spirit of adoption. Big word, big concept. Big concept, the spirit of adoption, by whom we cry Abba Father. So in first century, now this is huge. We sing these songs, the Abba Father, and they're normally really slow, like syrupy songs, and you think that's dumb. I've got no idea what that means. And Abba, it's a Swedish rock group. What on earth does this mean? So in first century Roman society, the term Abba means father, but And it's got a huge caveat on it. It was commonly used by children to express a close and personal relationship with their fathers. In Roman law and custom, the distinction between natural-born sons, slash, adopted sons, and slaves was significant. Often we see ourselves through the lens of being slaves to sin. That's why we can't understand God the Father. Only legitimate sons, those that were born or adopted, have a legitimate standing to call God Father, and it's a place of honor and intimacy within the family. Slaves, on the other hand, did not have this relationship and were never allowed to use this term. So what Paul's saying in 15 is your relationship has totally changed with God the moment you understand what Christ has done for you. The moment you're saved, the moment that you are justified, just as if I hadn't sinned, your relationship has instantly changed. And now you're a son in the house. And his job as the Father and the Holy Ghost is to help you through a process of of transformation that will make you a proud son within that family. And that process of adoption is led by the Spirit. And that means that you're going somewhere in this journey, that this journey isn't static. This journey is an ongoing process. This journey is something that he is drawing you towards and drawing you for. Very important, because what you have a challenge with in your heart when you feel like, I've got to go down on an altar call again, is you're not having a challenge about being drawn to salvation, because that's a one and done. You're having a challenge of being drawn into sanctification, which is ongoing transformation. So my takeaway from this is, if you are struggling with the question, am I saved? Am I a Christian? Will I go to heaven? This answers it. You have— if you have ever acknowledged Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior and you're trying your best to live for him and failing miserably, because we all do, then the answer is yes, you're saved. What happens when you go through times? The Holy Ghost is wrestling with you and pulling you onto the right path. This is not an issue of salvation. This is an issue of sanctification. If you've ever faced a trial and cried out to God, help me, it means you're saved. Why? Because a slave would not cry out to a master. Only a son has the right and the ability and acknowledges that the father is there for him. This is why living like a slave and acting like a son are 2 totally different things. So here we go. You ready? Here's your homework. You got to answer 3 questions. Now you don't have to yell them out loud because you're all on mute, so it's probably a bit difficult, but I want you to answer these 3 questions to yourself, and this is going to put it to bed once and for all. I've given you theology for it. Now I'm going to ask you soulless questions. Question number 1: Do you love Jesus perfectly? That's it. It's a yes or no. Just write it down. Do you love Jesus perfectly? If you answer yes, go back and see my statements about Jonestown and Heaven's Gate because you're wrong. You don't love Jesus perfectly. Question number 2. Question number 1: Do you love Jesus perfectly? Answer is no. Do you love him as much as you ought to? If your answer to question one is no, then your answer to question two is going to also be no. So, do you love him perfectly? No. Do you love him as much as you should or could? No. Then third question: Do you love him at all? That's it. I just want to know. Ask yourself: Do you love Jesus at all? Now, if you Answer no to that question, then that's when theology kicks in, and it's important, and you need to go after this and wrestle with God and have a chat to him until you get to a place where you acknowledge him as Lord and Savior. Do you love Jesus at all? If you answer yes to this question, then again, this is where your theology kicks in. You love Christ But the Holy Ghost is wrestling with you. He's drawing you. He's challenging you to act like a son of God and not live like a slave to sin, a slave to your flesh and desire. So, in conclusion, let's put this thing to bed. In conclusion, if you answer, "Do you love Jesus at all?" If your answer is, I am trying and failing, but I'm trying, then the answer is you're saved. End of story. Don't ever go on an altar call again. Don't ever pray a prayer accepting him into your heart for the very first time again. Your prayer should be different because you're a different man. You've got a different issue and a different walk. That feeling you have in your stomach. Isn't condemnation. It's the Holy Ghost saying, come on, son, come walk with me, and together we will watch you grow into everything you've ever wanted to be. That's not condemnation, that's wooing. It's calling of a loved one. It's the whisper of heaven drawing you to himself. So condemnation is totally different than conviction, and condemnation has no part or role in a man's life who surrendered to Christ. It's a tool of the devil to bring you back to the beginning, whereas you're not back at the beginning. You've started this process, and you are where you are. So I'm going to open it up for questions. Let me pray for you now. If you're sitting here. On Instagram, TikTok, Substack, or Zoom, and you've never given your heart to Jesus Christ, I want to pray a prayer. I want to pray a prayer for you, and I want you to email me after this, and I want to send you some resources to help you. So let me pray a prayer and just pray this prayer in your heart. Either say it along with me, or just at the end say, that's me, God, in your own space. You don't have to walk down an altar. You have to do nothing because heaven watches you. The Holy Ghost is drawing you, and he's doing something in your heart. So let's pray. Father, I thank you for everybody gathered here. I thank you for these men and their desire to know you. Let's pray this together. Lord, I've heard some things today that make sense for the very first time. I can't remember ever praying a prayer and asking you into my heart, and that's often caused confusion. So today I want to acknowledge you as Jesus and the sacrifice you've made for me. I want to acknowledge that you died for my sin. And I want to ask you to come into my heart and cleanse me of sin and all unrighteousness. And I accept the fact that the miracle of the instantaneous and free gift of grace happens. And from this moment, for all of eternity, you look at me and you see me as just as if I'd never sinned, and I'm going to do my best, Lord, every day going forward to be transformed more and more into your likeness. In Jesus' name, amen. All right, I'm going to ask my admin assistant to unmute us, and we'll have a chat, fellas. And if you're on any of the social programs, I think there's places to write messages. If you want to write a message, feel free to. I'll try and get to those as well. So there we go, boys. Thoughts? Prize of heresy? Questions?