[Nabeel]<i> I was raised
as a very devout Muslim</i> <i> in the United States.</i> And the fact of the matter was,
every time I connected with a Christian, I realized that they didn't know why they believed
what they believed. The Christians who
were around me wouldn't share
the gospel with me, and I never realized why. I concluded either they didn't believe
the gospel was true, or if they did believe it, they didn't care
if I went to hell. [Paul]<i> It is a pain to know</i> <i> that there are people
who do not know Jesus.</i> It is a greater pain to know
that oftentimes Jesus and Christianity
is being distorted. Who told you you can't
accomplish your dreams? [Costi] I think
around the world, they know the phrase,
"The American dream." [Joel]<i> Your destiny
is calling out.</i> <i>It's time to start living large.</i> [Sean] We are exporting
the very worst of what Christianity
has to offer. I declare you debt-free today,
saith God. [Paul] So that many people
harden their heart against a Jesus, a Christ,
a Christianity, that is not
the true version of it. It's as easy to get healed as it is to get forgiven. [Emilio] I live in Texas. We are considered the buckle
on the Bible belt. Around here, everybody thinks
they're Christian simply because they live
in a conservative region of the nation. [Michael] You can grow up
in a church, hear a gospel about freedom, and still work your tail off trying to maintain the image
that you're a good person. [Jared] I had my Jesus
on Sunday mornings and Wednesday nights
at youth group, and the rest of the week,
I was chasing after worldly things
that made me happy. I saw nothing to like about God. [Dr. Horton] You have
an increasing number of people that were raised in churches that didn't take
the gospel seriously or took it for granted. [Jared] Wow, like Jesus died
for my sins, that's so convenient for me. I don't have to go to hell, but I'm gonna go do
my own thing. [chuckles] <i>[Dr. Horton] And surprise, surp,
they don't know</i> <i> what they believe
or why they believe it.</i> [Matt Chandler]<i> We're assuming t
people understand the gospel.</i> I think it was Christian Smith
who said that what we're seeing nowadays
in the American church is the rise of what he calls
"moralistic therapeutic deism." How to make people moral. You know, I look like
this perfect golden child, but I was so dead. [Dr. Kim]<i> A place to go to feel
better about themselves.</i> I'm asking you to feel good
about who you are. [Dr. Kim] And so as a result,
we're seeing a church in America that's becoming
ultimately Christless. So if we're following the gospel
thinking it's all about us, we've missed
Jesus' words entirely. [Emilio]<i> The fact that
we were raised Christian</i> <i> doesn't make us a Christian.</i> We have to have
a supernatural rebirth. I went from somebody
who hated Jesus to a guy that loved Jesus and spent all his time
at church. Why? When you come in contact
with Him, you change. Like there is nothing
that I could have done to make this happen. Like He literally gave me
a new heart. And when the heart changes,
everything changes. [Jonathan] If this is true,
this story is so captivating. All I knew is that I had
severely overlooked something. I opened that word,
and nothing was ever the same. [dramatic music] [Dr. Chapell]
There was a time in my life that I thought
the goal of preaching was to get people to do
what they don't wanna do, which... which by the way
is a terrible profession. You know, that my goal
was to somehow arm twist or browbeat people into doing
what they don't want to do. I don't believe that anymore. I don't believe that's
what the Bible teaches. [Phill] One of the biggest
turning points for me happened while I was
a youth pastor at a church. And it's kind of sad thing
to look back, like I'm a pastor,
I'm teaching the Bible. But I didn't know
what it meant to teach the gospel and the Bible because I wasn't really
telling people the good news about Jesus. I was telling them
to be a passionate, zealous, committed, radical Christian. I was very passionate. In a lot of ways, my church
put emphasis on things that scripture didn't put
emphasis on. I don't think Jesus
was the center or the gospel was the center, it was more so what we do,
what we can do. And so as a new believer, I never really knew that
the gospel was a big deal. And I was realizing
how Christless preaching was, and I can remember a sermon
from the Sermon on the Mount, and it was "Ten Tips
on How to Be Sexually Pure." And I remember that day,
like that being a turning point in my journey to say, "I never want to be a pastor
or preacher like that." Like, what are you doing
to earn God's favor? Have you tithed enough?
Have you given enough? Have you prayed long enough? Have you laid hands on anybody
in the last week? Have you spoken tongues? If not,
then you're not a believer. In fact, I think the thing
most common among unbelievers when they think
about Christianity, is they think
about Christian moralism. What we believe about sex,
what we believe about money, what we believe about them. The most common misperception
about what Christianity is, is that some sort of
moral betterment program. And it is about being good. And that's what
all religions are about anyway, "be a good person." There's few things as damning
and devastating to the human spirit than...
than that message. We want to, first of all, say there's nothing wrong
with preaching morality. We certainly don't wanna preach
the opposite, immorality. [Dr. Chapell]
But moralistic preaching or sometimes
identified as moralism, is preaching the commands
of scripture or the morals of scripture
and nothing else. Just pretty much
saying to people, "You be a good person
and God will love you for that." And while we do not intend it, that is not just
a sub-Christian message, it's actually
an anti-Christian message. [Phill] I was hearing
from the Sermon on the Mount from Jesus, "Here's how not to be
sexually immoral." But then I'm thinking
about the passage in the Sermon on the Mount,
and the whole point is to try and tell us, "You're not sexually moral." Your righteousness should exceed
that of the Pharisees, and you think that it's about keeping these list of rules
and the Ten Commandments, "Well, I say to you," and he takes it to the heart,
and he says, if you have lust in your heart,
then you're falling way short. And he concludes that section
in Matthew 5, by saying, "Be perfect as your
heavenly Father is perfect." But that's not the sermon
that was preached. It was, "You can be pure,
you can be sexually moral, and here's your ten tips." You're giving them a goal that
they'll never be able to attain. Period. The messages that just say
"be good" damn people to their pride or to despair. There are really only two
possible human responses. One response
to a "be good" message is, "Been there, done that,
checked off that box." The person will believe
they can attain it, be the Pharisee, um, and work, and work,
and work, and work. Or be the Mormon,
and work, and work. Or the Muslim, or the Jehovah's Witness.
All of them. [laughs]
You'll try to earn salvation by trying to be a good person. Why do I have to,
you know, repent? Why do I have to ask
for forgiveness if you're not making mistakes? I work hard,
I'm an honorable person. Jesus is walking down
the road one day, and a young man comes up to him, and says, "Good Teacher, what must I do
to inherit eternal life?" Now, it sounds like
a very safe question, it's actually a landmine. "What must I do
to inherit eternal life?" Already, it's about performance. "What must I do
to inherit eternal life?" And Jesus responds
with great wisdom. He says,
"Why do you call me good? Only God is good." And then he says,
"You know the commandments." But, Joy, then what... But what
is the standard of goodness? Be good to your neighbor. -Don't cheat on your husband.
-Okay. But it's-- -Don't steal.
-But in the... Don't lie, don't steal. Gives them the list
of the commands. But in the Bible, God's standard
is the Ten Commandments. I'm good on that, too. <i> [Dr. Chapell] And the young man
immediately says,</i> <i> "All these I have kept
since I was a boy."</i> Jesus just said, "Only God is good." And two seconds later,
what does the young man say? "Me too!" In which case,
he gives himself the status and the stature of God. It's just pure pride. And by the way, breaks
the very first commandment, "You shall have no other gods." You've never told
a lie before? Ever? Oh, what? Is that one
of the commandments? It's a commandment. -It's number nine.
-Never mind. [Jackie]<i> Jesus is like, "Okay,
sell everything you have."</i> <i> Dude walks away.</i> So you're not good. [laughs]
You can't be good. And Jesus already lays out
the foundation that only God is good because he defines
what goodness truly is. I try and lead a life where I don't have to ask God
for forgiveness. [Ray] If you have a proud heart, and most people
are very proud of heart, and the way to find that out is just say, "Do you think
you're a good person?" Oh, I know I'm a good person.
I don't... I don't really lie,
cheat or steal so... [Ray] You don't lie? You know what, never mind. I take that back. I don't...
I don't tell huge lies. I tell white lies. I believe I'm a good person.
I'm very-- -You do?
-Yeah. How many lies have you told
in your whole life? Um, I can't count them.
[chuckles] [Ray] You ever stolen something? Stolen something before?
Yes, I have. I think the misunderstanding
is that God's law was given as a standard for us to live by. Well, try and live by it. [Dan] Well, the law is a mirror. It's just simply meant
to reflect what God thinks, who God is, how He wants you to live. And then you get to look
in the mirror, and you get to go,
"How do I fit that standard?" [Ray] You know, "Love God
with your heart, mind, soul, and strength.
And love your neighbor as much as you love yourself," because that's the essence
of the law. We can't do it. Have you ever used
God's name in vain? Accidentally, I'm trying...
I'm trying to get rid of that. -[Ray] So you've done it?
-Yes. It's called blasphemy.
It's very serious. [Dan] I've never known
anybody in my whole life that has looked in a mirror and said, "I have something
in my teeth," and then taken the mirror
off the wall, and tried to pick
their teeth with it. Now Jesus said, if you look
at a woman and lust for her, you commit adultery with her
in your heart." Have you ever done that? Yes. I'm not gonna lie, I did. [Dan] And you don't take the law and then try
to fix yourself with it. You take the law and say,
"I'm in need of help because something is wrong." If we don't understand
who God is, then the gospel does not make
much sense. You see, the great issue here
is that God is holy, and God is just. And that man is unholy,
and man is not just. [Paul] Man is unrighteous,
man is a sinner. So, Eduardo,
I'm not judging you, but you've just told me
you're a lying thief, a blasphemer,
and an adulterer at heart. And that's only four
of the Ten Commandments. [Marshall] We can look
at others and go, "Well, I'm not as bad as them, and I didn't do all of that,
but... So I'm not that bad." Well, that's a lie. You're bad compared to Christ, who is altogether lovely,
who is holy. We pale in comparison. So a person needs to really take
a good look at Jesus, and then you know who you are. My problem of sin
goes far beyond my actions. It goes to who I am as a person. I have a nature of sin.
That is my essence. The human heart
is predisposed right now to love everything else
besides God, to love self more than God, to love wrong more than right. The heart is totally opposed
to God. Conceived in iniquity, born in sin. <i> 99.9% of people
are not bad people.</i> <i> They may make poor choices,</i> <i> but deep down,
they've got a good heart.</i> You and I are naturally rebels
to God. [J.D.]<i> So how do you fix</i> <i> the broken part
of the human heart</i> <i> that loves the wrong things?</i> The Bible says that we are dead
in trespasses and sin. Ephesians 2 verse 1
immediately comes to mind. To be dead in sin means that we are physically alive, but that we are morally unable to respond to God. What can a dead man do? And the gospel
not only addresses my behavior, my actions. It addresses who I am by promising to change me
at the core basic level of personhood. [Dr. Lawson]<i> Therefore,
God must perform a resurrection.</i> So if God judges you
by the Ten Commandments on Judgement Day, are you
gonna be innocent or guilty? By the guidelines,
I'm going to be guilty. [Ray] Heaven or hell? I'm assuming hell. In that case,
everyone would be a bad person. [Ray] Yeah, that's what
the Bible says. It says, "There's none good," because good in God's book
means morally perfect. [Dr. Chapell] So, if all we didy
to people is, "Be good," the other human response is, wait, what does it mean
to be good? Does it mean to be as holy
as God is holy? Never lie? Never be selfish? Never in any way do things
that are contrary to God's law? Oh, my. I'm... I'm in despair now. What you're doing is,
you're revealing in the hearts of your people
their shortcomings and failures. So to just leave it
in their hands and their effort puts a weight on them
they can't bear up under. I felt like I was walking
on eggshells all the time because it felt as if
at any moment I can go to hell because I'm not doing enough. And that's where you see
a lot of people who grew up in churches where the gospel
might not have been really fleshed out
where they become atheists because it's like, I can't do
enough to please Him anyway. So, why? Why trust Him?
Why believe in Him? I'm still the same person. I'm still wicked.
I'm still sinful. Well, what if
I have failed sexually? [Phill]<i> If I'm a man</i> <i> sitting in a church service
at that moment,</i> <i> I have no hope as I walk out.</i> I'm just told, "Here's ten ways
that you should try harder." [Dr. Kim] We're damning people
to those twin possibilities of pride on the one hand,
or despair on the other. And this is why
the gospel is so important. Because the gospel comes in, in the middle of both of those, and says, "Yeah, you're right, you aren't good enough,
on the one hand, but Jesus was good for you." How can sinful man be reconciled
to a just God whose justice demands
that they be punished? Do you know what God did
for guilty sinners so we wouldn't have
to go to hell? Any idea? [Paul]<i> The answer is found
in the person of Jesus Christ,</i> <i> the historical person.</i> <i> God intervening
into human history.</i> And this Jesus of Nazareth lived
the perfect life that you and I could never live. Have never lived. And then, He goes to a cross. We owed a debt to God
because of our sin. And that debt was suffering
eternal punishment. But on the cross, God Himself,
He took our place. Bore our sin and suffered the wrath of God
that we deserve. He extinguished it.
He put it away. On the third day
he rose again from the dead, then he ascended up into heaven, and this Jesus, the son of God sat down
at the right hand of God. <i>[Paul] And now the Bible teaches</i> <i> that Jesus is the way,
the truth and the life,</i> <i> that no man comes to the Father
except through Him.</i> That there is one God
and one mediator between God and man,
the man Christ Jesus. And if you'll repent
and trust alone in Jesus as your savior, God will remit your sins,
dismiss your case, and grant you everlasting life
as a gift, not because you're good,
but because He is rich in mercy. In many ways
the defining doctrine of true biblical Christianity is justification by faith alone
in Christ alone. Justification is God
declaring us righteous even though we are guilty
of sin. We see in Ephesians 2:8-9. <i> For it is by grace you have
been saved through faith.</i> <i> It's not of yourselves,
it's the gift of God,</i> <i> not of works,
so that no man may boast.</i> And so this is
the great dividing line between biblical Christianity during the Reformation
and the Roman Catholic religion. [Mike]<i> The official position
of the Roman Catholic Church</i> <i> on justification</i> <i> is that they believe
that you are justified</i> <i> by faith plus works.</i> <i> In fact,
at the Council of Trent,</i> <i> which people refer to
as the Counter-Reformation,</i> they actually issued
an anathema. <i> If anybody believed
that they are justified</i> <i> by faith alone,</i> <i> they are condemned
under the anathema</i> <i> of the Council of Trent.</i> [Nate] And so
the Roman Catholic Church actively was opposing
and cursing those who were holding
a biblical gospel. If is often called
the "plus religion," because Catholicism teaches
that you are saved by faith plus works, by grace plus merit, by Christ plus other mediators, according to scripture
plus tradition, and for the glory of God,
as well as the glory of Mary and other saints. When you look at the Roman
Catholic plan of salvation, it is a salvation of works
and sacraments. In the Roman Catholic plan
of salvation baptism cleanses an infant
from original sin. <i> [Mike]And that is the sacrament
of regeneration</i> <i> as well as justification.</i> [Nate]<i> That it starts them off
on this plan, on this track.</i> <i> Along the way, however,</i> <i> they can commit
these small sins, venial sins,</i> <i> which plunges them back down.</i> <i> And heaven forbid,
they commit a mortal sin,</i> <i> which knocks them completely
off the plan of salvation.</i> And he must now
receive sacraments. He must confess his sins
to a priest, which is the sacrament
of penance. And then he must be rejustified
by doing good works, by doing penance. And once he is rejustified, then he must maintain
his salvation through sacraments. And if, in the end, if they have enough people
praying for them, and if they do enough time
in purgatory, they might
possibly get to heaven. How they get to heaven
is based on what they do rather than
what Christ has done. [Nate]<i> But the Bible teaches,</i> <i> "There is therefore now
no condemnation</i> <i> for those who are in Christ."</i> <i> That when you put your faith
in Jesus Christ</i> <i> the work has been done.</i> <i> He saves you totally,
completely, perfectly.</i> <i> And even though, yes, we sin
and can repent,</i> <i>the sacrifice of Christ has paid
for those sins.</i> <i> And so there is assurance</i> <i> that He has saved you,</i> <i> he has plucked you
out of the world,</i> <i> you're in the palm of His hand</i> <i> and nobody can pluck you
out of His hand.</i> [Mike]<i> And so,
that's why the Reformers</i> <i> cried the five solas.</i> <i> That we are saved
by grace alone,</i> <i> through faith alone,</i> <i> in Christ alone,</i> <i> according to scripture alone,</i> <i> all for the glory of God alone.</i> That message has
always found opposition. [R. Scott]
And the Jerusalem Council, that we read about
in the book of Acts, actually addressed
this very same issue. The rabbis and the Judaizers
were saying to the Christians that God will accept you
by His grace through faith and your keeping
of the ceremonial laws. Being circumcised,
washing your hands, keeping the food laws. And the entire church agreed, summarized by the apostle
Peter's statement, that that is not the good news. That's not the gospel. Jesus didn't come to
make salvation possible for those who do their part. He came to accomplish it and to give it freely
to all of His people. The question is, "Well,
how do we know if faith is real if there is no works?"
Doesn't the Bible say, "Faith without works is dead"? "And so, don't we have
to do works to be saved? Isn't that the argument?
Isn't that we have to be doing?" But there's two
understandings of that, and one's biblical, one's not. [Nate] So the Roman Catholic
view of salvation, and really any works-based
system of salvation, takes works
and puts it at the root, and says that works plus your faith in Jesus
is what produces salvation. But the Bible teaches
that it's not the root, it's actually the fruit. That your faith alone in Jesus,
that is what saves. And then a life
that has been saved, a sanctified, regenerated heart produces fruit,
the fruit of good works. And so, you know
a person has been saved because of their fruit. But the fruit is not the reason
they're saved. They're saved by God, by grace, through faith
in Christ. You see, the Christian
is the only person, the true Christian, who can say
that they're going to heaven without being self-righteous. Why? In other religions,
how do you get to heaven? You get to heaven by being good,
by earning it. In Christianity, you're not reconciled to God through your own virtue
or merit, but you're reconciled to God through the virtue
and merit of His Son. [Ray] Does that make sense? It makes absolute sense. [Ray] So, Augusto,
if you were to die today, -how old are you?
-Nineteen. If you were to die at 19,
and God gave you justice, you'd end up in hell,
there are two things you have to do to be saved, you've got to repent
and trust in Christ. When are you gonna do that? Almost immediately. [Ray] You're serious? Yeah, I'm serious. [Dr. Horton]<i> Euangelion,</i> the Greek word "gospel,"
is taken from the good news that a runner would bring
as a messenger, coming to announce
in the capital that victory had been achieved
on the battlefield. And everyone would cheer,
it would transform the lives of everybody in the city to know that they hadn't lost the war,
they had won the war. But of course, they weren't
the ones out there in... in... in the trenches. In the same way Jesus says, "I have accomplished salvation." Not, "Come help me
save the world." But, "I have accomplished this." The law, basically, is do. The gospel, basically, is done. The gospel isn't
"What would Jesus do? Now go and do that." The gospel is,
"What has Jesus done? Now believe that." This distinction between the law
and the gospel really is the most important
thing to remember. And it's one of the things
that we're forgetting. [Dr. Chapell] That pattern
of God always making sure that we know that relationship
comes before obedience. That we do not have
a relationship with Him because we obey. We obey because He has made
a relationship with us. That is made clear over
and over again in the Bible. God says before
He ever tells His people what the commands are, "I'm the God who brought you
out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage.
Now, obey me." Now it's critical we understand
He didn't say, "You obey me,
and I'll let you out of Egypt." No, He said,
"I have redeemed you. Now here's the safe path
for you to walk on." It's the order not just
of the Old Testament passages. I mean, all the epistles
of the New Testament basically follow
that same order. In general, the first half
of the epistles of Paul, of John, of Peter, kind of say, "Here's what
God has done in Christ. Here's how He has saved you." The last half of the epistles, "Now here's what you should do
in response." The moral commands
that we should obey are like the railroad tracks
for the train. That as the train is going, this is the way that the train
is supposed to go. [Phill] But the gospel
is the engine and the fuel that makes the train
actually move. And so it does
a Christian no good, and it does
a non-Christian no good to just continue telling them,
"Hey, here's the tracks, now go." But if they have no fuel,
if they have no engine, they're just gonna be
a train stuck. And there's a lot of Christians,
I think, today that are just trains sitting on tracks
being told, "Go forward," but they're not being given
an engine or any fuel to move them forward. [Dr. Kim] There are some pastors
out there that assume, I think, incorrectly,
but understandably, that everyone in their church
understands the gospel. [Paul] I remember years ago, I was asked to address
a group, a large group, but they told me that
they were mainly Christians. And they said, "Well, what
are you gonna preach on?" And I said, "Well, I thought
about preaching on the gospel." And they said,
"But we just told you that these...
Most of these people, we know them as very devout
and sincere Christians." And I said, "Well, first of all,
I appreciate that, but I can never assume that everyone there
is truly Christian or has come to a biblical
understanding of the gospel. That's number one. Number two, the gospel is not just
for lost people. The gospel is for Christians." [Seth] God, being three in one, eternally existing,
Father, Son, Holy Spirit, in His great love, He... He made creation
to share His love with. Not that He needed to,
but He wanted to, and in that He created us. And in creating us,
we fell into sin. And sin is something
that separates us from God. It's something
that is not of God. It's something
that's against God. [Jared] On Saturday nights,
during the summer, we host worship nights
at our house usually starting at about 6:30. You know, we'll play basketball, we'll throw the football,
frisbee around, and we'll just talk
and hang out outside. And then we'll gather
in the living room, and there will be
a time of worship. <i> ♪ Jesus paid it all </i> <i> ♪ All to Him I owe</i> [Chris] In our community,
we've made it a practice that every week we try
to have meetings where the gospel is at least
presented one time. [Seth] And Jesus
being fully man, fully God, walked on this Earth
and lived a life without sin, without blemish, and lived a life
that we were called to live, and lived a life
that we should have lived. And in our place, He died
the death that we deserve. Three days later, He rose again
after that death on the cross. And one of the things
we do stress is that even believers need it,
even people that hear it a hundred times a month
still need that. And we do have hope,
because any kind of judgment from that sin has been
dealt with by God... The gospel is not something
that you graduate from. It's not something that
you ever move on from. The gospel is central. We're constantly prone
to forget the gospel. We're prone to forget
who He is, who we're not, what He did for us. [Dr. Horton]
Preaching the gospel all the time, every week means that from Genesis to Revelation, you realize the whole Bible
is one unfolding story of God's love and saving grace
and mercy towards sinners in Jesus Christ. Jesus said in Matthew 5, that the whole Bible
is about Him. [Dr. Kim] And Luke records for s
that Jesus taught them all the things
concerning Himself. From the law, the prophets
and the writings. Which were threefold way
of describing the whole Hebrew Bible
of the Old Testament. Now either He was
a megalomaniac, or He is who He said He was, and the whole Bible
is about Jesus. Well, I don't know about you
but if I'm a follower of Jesus, I wanna follow
Jesus' understanding of the Old Testament. Therefore,
if we explain any text in isolation from Him, we fail to say the very thing
that He said it's about. He said it's about Him. If you're preaching about Daniel
and it's "Dare to be a Daniel," it's not about Jesus. If you're preaching
the book of Revelation, and it's about Israel
and Russia, then it's not about Jesus. Though Jesus isn't the content
of the whole Bible, He's the center of it all. In other words, not every story, every little
thing is about Jesus, or can be an analogy for Him. And yet, it all points
towards Him and His work. He's the pinnacle. [Mark]
So the message of the Bible is that God will save
His people. So any point you drop
into Habakkuk or second Timothy, you know, any point you drop
into Isaiah or Deuteronomy, it's gonna be connected somehow
to this main trunk road of the good news of what God
is doing in our world. [Phill] Whether you start
in Genesis 3, and you talk about God
making a promise that he would crush the serpent
through the seed of the woman. Well, what's the rest
of the book of Genesis? It's the story of that seed,
through the woman. And that's why so many people
get bogged down by genealogies. And they're like, "What
are these genealogies about?" [Phill] That's why
the New Testament opens with a genealogy and showing you that the seed
has come in the person of Jesus. And so if you can't
see the cross in the story of Joseph
telling you, "What you meant for evil,
God meant for good." I mean, that's the cross
right there in a metaphor. Well then, you're really missing
the whole unity of the Bible. And I think that's probably,
if you wanted to put it, what we're denying,
what's one of our problems, is that we're missing
that the Bible was written by one author, and that therefore, the author has a unified story
that He's telling. Even though there's
different human authors, they're all inspired
by the Holy Spirit. God is not a supporting actor
in my life movie. The Bible's not about you. I have been cast as a player in His unfolding story
of redemption. And we've got that
reversed today. Here's what...
You'll keep infusing yourself into the stories of the Bible
like you're the hero. And so a way
of reading the Bible that always makes man the hero and not the acts
of God the hero, I think if you mess that up, then you're reading the Bible
entirely wrong. Because the Bible wants
to consistently get your eyes off of you and onto a God
who is able. So it's not you that are able,
it's God that's able. [Matt] And so, I think David
and Goliath, you're right,
is just a perfect story for it. That anytime you hear
the David and Goliath story, you're hearing about
how you're David. Yeah, I wanna be straight.
I love you enough to be straight.
You're not David. [Matt]<i> So I'm David
and the Goliath is my debt,</i> <i> or it's my difficult marriage,</i> <i> or it's my boss at work.</i> I'm gonna grab
the stone of faith, and I'm gonna sling it at my
giant of this boss at work, and I'm gonna slay him.
I'm gonna hold up his head. And that would be
a very narcissistic way to read the Bible. But in a Christ-centered
hermeneutic, we're gonna approach the Bible
and go, "Okay, what's going on
in this very true story?" [Matt] It appears here that there's something
that is terrifying and that on the surface, it looks like
it cannot be killed. And yet, it's overcome
by this man, who by faith, killed
what couldn't be killed. And now we're on
to a threat, right? Like, who... What's more
undefeatable than sin and death? What David was doing
was enacting the justice of God on the enemies of God for the victory and salvation
of God's people, who did absolutely nothing
but be afraid and terrified to approach the enemies of God. You know who conquers
our giants? Christ conquers our giants. It's not me
that conquers my giants. Like the great giant of my life,
sin and death, cannot be conquered by me picking up a stone of faith
and throwing it, but by the finished work
of Christ, who conquered death
with a single shot. [Dr. Kim] David was one
of the men in the Bible that, that God said, "He was
a man after my own heart." What a tremendous way
of describing King David. Yet here is also a man
who committed murder so that he can sleep
with that man's wife. He's a murderer.
He's an adulterer. [J.D.] Abraham, the father
of our faith, we always, you know, say, Abraham's a guy that lied,
and threw his wife under the bus not once, but twice. I mean, this is not a husband
that you wanna emulate. Do you see that the Bible
takes care to tar virtually every
biblical figure but one? [audience laughs] It's almost important
to remember that the Old Testament is an Eastern book
more than it is a Western book. It's not just dealing linear,
going A, B, C, D, rather, who Christ is, what He must do,
is being defined by what He is not
in the Old Testament. And, you know, you take a
figure like Samson in the Bible. [Dr. Chapell] You know, there
was a man who had great strength and great cleverness. And if you know the story, when Samson had long hair,
he was strong. When he had short hair,
he was weak. Now, what's the message there? Well, it's obvious
we should have long hair, so then we'll be strong. No, that's not the message. The message was
no matter how strong or clever you are, you are not your own savior. You are not your own redeemer. That's a dead end if you're gonna depend
on your own strength and your own wisdom. Think about the way an Eastern thinker
sometimes represents truth is not saying this thought leads to that thought,
leads to that thought. But rather speaking
around a truth, so that you get the truth. <i> [Dr. Chapell] The people of God
are given the law,</i> <i> but they break the law.</i> <i> Sacrifices are provided,</i> <i> but the priests
who begin to offer them</i> <i> become themselves malevolent
and not helping.</i> <i> Then the judges say,
"Well, just do what's right</i> <i> in your own eyes."
That doesn't work.</i> <i> All right, pick a king,</i> <i> your tallest, strongest,
handsomest guy.</i> <i>Well, that king becomes selfish.</i> <i> Well, we'll give prophets
to the kings.</i> <i> And the kings will learn
what to do from the prophets.</i> <i> Sounds great, except the people
kill the prophets.</i> <i> And you begin to understand</i> <i> that through the course
of millennia, God is saying,</i> <i> "We need a better law keeper.</i> <i> We need a better judge.</i> <i> Better sacrifice,</i> <i> better prophet, better priest,
better king."</i> <i> Not this, not this, not this,
not this, not this.</i> <i> But this.</i> [Paul] The gospel,
the more we know about what God has done for us, in the person of Jesus Christ, the great cost of our atonement. What the atonement
has purchased for us. The more we understand that
as Christians, the more we're gonna grow
in sanctification, the more we're gonna grow
in worship, devotion, delight in the person of God. What is the only reason that sin has any power
in your life? The answer is... because you love it. If the sin did not attract you, it would have no power. The reason that we sin
is because we love it. And as hard as that is to hear, it's actually
a wonderful understanding. Because it means that power
over that sin is a greater love. [J.D.] The goal of a lecture is that you leave
with information. The goal
of a motivational speech is that you leave
with action steps. The goal of a gospel sermon, the goal of teaching the Bible is that you leave worshipping. [Dr. Horton]
If people and churches are out of control morally, it's probably that they don't
understand the gospel. [Dr. Chapell] What the Bible
is actually teaching is that the goal of preaching is to have people
profoundly, deeply, love the Savior,
so that there is a consequence in our hearts and lives. Jesus said that in John 14:15. He said, "If you love Me,
you will keep My commands." And what makes us
want to do that is a heart that loves the Savior because we've perceived
how great is His love for us. Because when people
are filled up with love for Christ, the love for the world
is pushed out of their hearts, and the power of Christ
is now in their lives. [Phill] So as long as we sin, unless we have a doctrine
of sinless perfection, and that you no longer
sin anymore, which I think that's been known for quite some time as a heresy, then as long as you're a sinner,
you need the gospel. If you sinned yesterday,
then you need the gospel today. Because the gospel
produces faith, and faith produces love, and love produces
the fruit of good works. I think the gospel should be
preached in every sermon. [Mark] If I've got somebody here that I've been trying
to get here for three years, they're my next-door neighbor, and the guy preaching today is just telling me about
the joys of motherhood. You know, I'm... I'm in favor
of motherhood. But if that's all this visitor
that I bring hears, that's just a shame. If your sermon could be preached
in a Jewish synagogue, then it's not
a Christian sermon. Foremost, in my life, whenever I have
a chance to preach, it's, first of all,
going to be the gospel, and then build upon
that central message. Because if someone doesn't have
a right view of the gospel, they don't have a right view
about anything. [Matt] So, a type
of reading the Bible where I'm always the hero, I'm never the Pharisee. I'm never the scared Israelites. I'm never the ones who
are gonna worship a golden calf just a few weeks after
I was led through the Red Sea, is a misreading of scripture that makes man the champion
and not God. And it's unhealthy,
and it's broken, and it leads to man trying to manipulate and control God
like He was a genie in a lamp. [Seth] We need to check
ourselves and check our heart. Oftentimes, we find ourselves
sitting in pews or even coming to church in order to get something
from Jesus but not get Jesus Himself. It is a pain to know that there are people who
do not know Jesus. It is a greater pain to
know that often times Jesus and Christianity
is being distorted. [Osteen] Who told you you can't
accomplish your dreams? I had no clue what
the gospel was- I had never really heard it. You know, God
wants you healthy! I worked for my uncle Benny Hinn
who's a famous faith healer As far as I knew, He
died and rose again so that I could
have a prosperous life! But what was going through
my mind at the time was that this was real! Charlatans and
snake oil salesman have been doing this trick
for decades! People think basically
that religion is there to boost your ego, make
you happy, make you more successful,
make life go well. And as I got older, I really
started to question God and how He could
send people to hell. Scripture says that
we make the mistake of thinking God was like us. And what you do is, you
create a God who only wants to give you all
the desires of you heart. Money! Cometh! - To me! [Joel Osteen]
You're destiny is calling out. It's time to start living large! We stayed in hotels upwards
of 20,000 dollars a night! Nobody wants to die!
Nobody wants to be sick! And nobody wants to be poor All the things that
Jesus says we have to be willing to set
aside to follow Him- they take all of those
things, and they make that the attraction of the gospel. We are exporting the very worst of what Christianity
has to offer. I'm strong! I'm healthy,
I'm blessed, I'm favored!
I'm a victor, not a victim! I'm going to live
a long, productive, faith-filled life! In terms of biblical
Christianity, Christianity is about dying. How can I just continue
to live my life as if this isn't true? So I abandoned my version
of the American dream and I said, "I will
do what I can to take the gospel
to the nations." With itching ears, I bought into this American
dream, motivational religion. And since it masked
itself as Christianity I thought myself to be a
Christian the whole time. When really it was nothing more than
moralistic self-help. Which is crazy to me now
because I understand this is the opposite of the
Christian message! We can't help ourselves! We have no hope
but Christ alone! I want to talk about the
impact of the documentary American Gospel. I just wanted to say how
grateful and thankful I am for the "American Gospel:
Christ Alone" film. My cousin who is a pastor up
north posted- via Facebook - the trailer, and I just had
to see this movie! So I was so excited when I saw
the trailer for American Gospel So I already knew it was going
to be something great just from the trailer alone. And as soon as it was available
to rent I rented it on Vimeo, I watched it, and I was blown away! We were blown away. As a filmmaker myself, in terms of production quality
I thought the film was awesome. I myself have been churched
for over thirty years and have seen
a lot of material. And this documentary I would say is the best I've seen. It thoroughly lays out the true
biblical gospel- proclaiming the whole truth
of God's word while pinning it against
and exposing so many of the lies that are being spread
in America today. Lies that I bought
into myself. I grew up in the prosperity,
Word of Faith movement type churches. I was one of those con-artists.
I was one of those businessmen. I myself bought into it many
years ago. And I despise
the prosperity gospel. I became this very egotistical, arrogant,
self-centered, selfish guy. And everything was about me! It displaces Jesus, and places
in His stead, an idol. And here's the
reason it is so horrible. When was the last
time that any American, African, Asian ever said,
"Jesus is all satisfying, because you drove a BMW."? Never! [Sean Demars] And I just thought
"This guy doesn't know anything! I thought this guy was the man! This guy doesn't know anything-
he's an idiot!" [John Piper] They'll say,
"Jesus give you that?" "Yeah." "Well I'll take Jesus!" That's idolatry!
That's not the gospel! The Jesus who is going
to help me pay my taxes at the end of the year. The Jesus who's going
to correct my wife's genetic disorder- I'll take that Jesus!
That Jesus sounds great! But what that is is idolatry- it's an elevation of the
gift above the Giver. I■m so thankful for this
resource because through the powerful
illustrations and interviews, it kind of encapsulates my
testimony in a sense. I came out of a church that
taught the prosperity message and did not teach biblical Chri And it's been
incredibly heartbreaking to see people that I care about fall into this false teaching- and it is literally everywhere
where I live! The idea that if you just had
enough faith, bad things wouldn't happen. Or you can speak
things into existence- the power of positive thinking. I am young,
I am beautiful, I am attractive! Remember, what
follows the "I am" is going to come
looking for you! The new age practices
that I was practicing as a non-believer- they're putting it
into the church. And I've had lots of family
members hurt by this movement. By God's great mercy I left the movement twenty-nine
years after I entered it. And I was able to
get out of that church about ten years ago. I was able to get
out of that church and get to
a biblical church. But during that time I had to know what
the Word was saying and the difference between the
real, true gospel, and the true Christ
in the Bible, and what was
being taught there. And that's what
this movie does! For people who are in, or have been in it
and made it out- it's our story! I'm actually a student at Bethel School of
Supernatural Ministry. And I attend Bethel church
in Redding, California. And Bethel Church is one of
the biggest churches with the deepest involvement in the Word of Faith,
prosperity gospel, New Apostolic Reformation
sort of movement. The Word of Faith movement
is the term that's given to a movement that's more
commonly known as the "health & wealth gospel", the "prosperity gospel",
"name it and claim it gospel". This teaching that it is
always God's will for a Christian to be wealthy,
it's always God's will for a Christian to be
physically healed, we should never be sick. Believe me when I tell
you, I never get sick. I was as sick as a
sick dog with a cold. Yeah, yeah I get sick too! Or if we do get sick
we can be healed as long as we have enough faith. We can attract positive
things to ourselves through positive thinking. And Norman Vincent Peale-
the great Norman Vincent Peale was my pastor.
The Power of Positive Thinking. And the Word of Faith
movement is lead by people such as Benny Hinn- the world's most
famous faith healer. Kenneth Copeland, Creflo Dollar
Joyce Meyer, Joel Osteen, Joseph Prince,
TD Jakes, Andrew Wommack. These are just some of the
more prominent leaders of the movement. But what has
happened is that the United States of America has created this false theology, and has now exported it to the rest of the world
to the point that now the face of Christianity
in most of the world today is Word of Faith. When they present the
Word of Faith movement they're not being harsh. They're not being harsh at all.
It's being fair. It's what I believed! And from someone who is
still here at Bethel who's still at Bethel's
school of ministry I can attest to the fact that they are preaching
a false gospel. That they are preaching
a false Christ. And a Christ and a gospel
that cannot save. The misunderstanding here
is the incarnation is not simply a matter of the
Spirit of God dwelling in a man, or in a human being. [Osteen] You see Jesus was man,
until God touched him and put the Spirit
of the living God on the inside of him. [Bowman] The incarnation is God
Himself uniting Himself with human nature
to become one of us. It is the union of
the two natures- the nature of God and the
nature of man in one person. One of the most well
known, mainstream, Word of Faith preachers today is Bill Johnson
from Bethel Church. But one night a critic of mine- who's actually
now one of my friends- sent me the film American Gospel
and asked me to watch it. And originally I had actually gone into watching
American Gospel to completely rip it to shreds! To tear it apart,
and to refute it. And so I sat and
I watched this film and by the end of this film the Holy Spirit had taken
ahold of my heart, to the point where I was so
deeply convicted over my sin, I was so deeply grieved by the
complete heresy and blasphemy of this movement, that I was sick to my stomach and I didn't sleep
for three nights! From that moment on I decided that while I am
here in Redding, California, while I am here at Bethel School
of Supernatural Ministry, I am going to preach the gospel,
the true gospel of Jesus Christ in hopes that some
people may repent. I knew after watching the film
that I wanted to share it with as many family members as I
could, and I have! Including sharing it with my mom
who has, in the last few years, gone through a
lot of sufferings, including the death
of my pre-born sister. I went over and
watched it with her and within the first five
minutes we were both crying because my mom- I believe God used
the movie to show her that her sufferings were
not meaningless, and exposed her
to the true gospel. I just really appreciated answering the hard questions,
going to the dark places. And people's
testimonies of cancer. [Katherine Berger]
I'm not any better physically, but I am so much happier! Because I have Jesus,
and He's right here! Two exciting things happen
every time I share the movie with somebody. And actually every time
I watch it myself. The one is I want to
give glory to God for the wonder of the gospel! It both humbled me
and inspired me! I really have prefaced it as something that's so beneficial
no matter where you are in your walk. First of all it was well done! We thought it was
really balanced. It touched on
very important issues that are going on
in the body today. And for us, this is something
we talk about frequently. And so it encouraged us about
the convictions that we have, and the things God is
placing on our heart about the faith, and truth and what matters about
sound doctrine and teaching. It was just such an
encouragement and such a refreshing thing to watch. And challenging for me too,
you know to just be reminded of those essential truths. And I find myself going back and listening to
the first hour or so of this documentary over,
and over, and over. Why? Because I haven't... I haven't heard the
gospel presented for years! The second thing that happens
is I'm inspired by the clarity of the gospel and I share the gospel
more as a result of watching
this documentary. And the first thing
I wanted to do was share it with
everybody I know! They had to
watch this movie! And so I have
been prayerfully showing this to a lot of my
brothers and sisters- many that know the Word and-
grounded in truth, and some that, you know, follow some
false teachings. I had watch parties here. Watch party here with my wife,
my niece, my sister. They watched it, we all
watched it together. And they had questions.
We had to pause it. I was taking notes, rewinding,
pause, rewind, pause. “What did he say? I need
to get that written down!” I have a friend that I've been
trying to witness to, and to disciple, and she watched the film
this weekend and loved it! And not only has it
changed my life but it has changed the lives of
so many people that I know! And God has used this film to soften hardened hearts,
to open blind eyes, to open deaf ears. And to show people
who He really is! There's so many distractions
in the church, and it's become about so many
other things than Jesus and the work
that He has done for us. I thought I was good! That I just needed to work
harder, and be moral, and God will help me to
achieve my dreams. All the while I didn't truly
know Him and serve Him, and I was hardened to
the biblical gospel. But by the
grace of God, through true gospel proclamation- like what's in
this documentary- God opened up the
eyes of my heart to see my sin against Him. And he gave me a heart to
hate it, and empowered me to turn from it to Christ! Who lived the perfect life
that I could not, bore my sin and the
wrath that I deserved, so that by His blood I could be right with God and
know Him and enjoy communion with Him forever. It's not about all this other
worldly stuff. Out eternal hope
is in Christ alone. I just want to say thank you! Thank you to all of the pastors
and the teachers, and the people with
their testimonies for contributing to this film. And it's just truly amazing to know what this
movie is going to do. This is truly a life changer! This is a movie that every
Christian in America must watch! Because if it was possible
for God to take me- someone at Bethel church, someone at Bethel School
of Supernatural Ministry. If it was possible for Him to take me in the midst of
my deepest deception, and open my eyes to the truth
of what the gospel actually is, He can take anyone out of their deepest
pit of deception if they're in this movement- if they're believing
in a false gospel. We're looking for more of this! We hope that you guys get to
work and bring more of this because a lot- many, many more
people are going to be blessed by it. It's a great movie.
Can't wait to see the next one! Can't wait to
share the next one! And I look forward
to seeing more! Thank you guys for
making this movie! I'm concerned that people today
don't know who God is. “And the Lord passed by in front
of him and proclaimed The Lord, the Lord God,
compassionate and gracious slow to anger, and abounding
in lovingkindness and truth.” “Keeping steadfast love
for thousands, forgiving iniquity,
and transgression, and sin." But... “He will by no means leave
the guilty unpunished.” How does that go together? Why would you want
to worship a god, if you could imagine
a better god? Did God kill Jesus? Yes. I don't think God killed Jesus! [Rob Bell] That's a sick god
and a sick story! In fact it even says, “It pleased the Father
to bruise Him.” John MacArthur might
be right about Him. That's not a God
worthy of my worship! It makes God the author of
a terribly unjust system! This is the doctrine
of Christianity! This is the doctrine that
separates Christianity from every other
religion in the world! [Voddie Baucham] Did Jesus go
to the cross unwillingly? No.
If you haven't watched it yet it's a solid cut of the full doc!
Watched it with my high school students. They loved it.
Was thinking of watching this together with my college small group. You run into a lot of different Christians at university and run into a lot of prosperity/word of faithy stuff
THIS (And its full version) IS JUST PHENOMENAL.
I listened to this on my drive to work today. A couple thoughts- I hope the full length film presents a complete and clear Gospel presentation as this 1hr cut talked about many of the misrepresentations churches tend to make with the Gospel and there were lots of key words and phrases about the Gospel thrown around but if I am hearing the Gospel for the first time, I still don’t really understand what it means to follow Jesus. Granted, someone in that spot would probably be invited by and watching the film with a friend who is a Christian and could help tie it all together and answer questions.
Secondly, the format was tough for me to follow. I had a hard time with the combination of so many different speakers. It felt like I searched #gospel on twitter and just went through and read everybody’s tweets in succession. I think this is a good tool though and I’m sure the full length version would at least somewhat allay both of these concerns.
"If your message can be preached in a Jewish Synagogue, it's not Christian." ooooooF