Rick & Bubba Bible Study Live - July 8, 2020

four three two one well welcome in to the Wednesday Bible study trust all of you are doing well we continue to not be able to meet together in the studio and the numbers that we normally have and so we're going to continue to provide this Wednesday Bible study on our youtube channel on our podcast channel and hopefully we'll get back to all the men returning to this room sooner than later and we continue to try to be good citizens to adhere to what we're being asked to do and we will get to the point to where all of you especially the regulars on Wednesday will be back in the room with us but hopefully all of you are taking advantage of this incredible technology that we should be thanking God that we have you know there was a time that if we couldn't meet together in the same room we wouldn't be able to do any of this and think how long it would have been since the last time we all got together so I'm I'm glad we're able to do this couple of notes speaking of things maybe returning back to somewhat normal I am happy to finally report that there's some man church events coming up if you know we we launched back in March the man church calm and this is a a hub where you can go and implement a complete men's discipleship strategy and we had a lot of you know services set up in person to then start the discipleship discipleship strategy and all of those were cancelled this last spring but some of them are starting to to come back and be rescheduled so let me hit you with a few of those and then we'll pray and get started July the 19th make a note of that hazel green Alabama if you're watching or listening to us anywhere in the North Alabama area Bethlehem Baptist Church I'll be speaking at their man church and we'll be launching the men's discipleship strategy July the 24th if you have to be happen to be watching or listening anywhere around Lexington Tennessee will have man church there at First Baptist Lexington and I'll be there speaking excited about that and we have rescheduled the gridiron Men's Conference our discipleship strategy and materials will be available in the lobby for that big event as well David Jeremiah we'll be there Phil Walter will be there Charles Billingsley leading worship I'll be speaking along with others you can get your tickets now at gridiron gridiron men.com and you can find that link at Rick and Bubba calm that's August 21st 22nd August 29th I'll be at the sportsmen banquet kicking off our men's discipleship strategy there at Grace Baptist Church in West Columbia South Carolina so all those are coming up in the next 30 to 40 days and you can find details about all these by going to Burgess ministries comm and look at events or Rick and Bubba comm same thing look under events so let's open up in a word of prayer and we'll jump into today's Bible study Lord thank you for today thank you for the opportunity to be together and lord I do pray that these gatherings of men that I just mentioned I pray Lord that that it would be in your will that these dates will hold and we can get back to being in the same room and and talking there's just something about being together as you've called us to do in Scripture but I'm also thankful for the technology that allows us to continue to walk through your word even if we do that from a distance there's still you know the the opportunities abound to point people to you all over the world through this technology that you allowed to be created by those you gifted to do so and may this be used for your glory as opposed to the adversary using the same technology for all the destruction that he has used it for we know that it belongs to you and Lord today may we use it to glorify you be with us as we unpack and assess ourselves to see where we stand in our relationship to you and we pray these things in the name of Jesus amen so we're in we're going through a series and this one as I have said for the last several weeks has generated more emails I'm even getting emails from other churches saying that they have people that are contacting them that have been watching this series are listening to it it's called the unsaved Christian this comes from commentary in a book written by pastor Dean in Sarah I an se RA out of Tallahassee floor I've had the chance to interview pastor Dean and and talked to him and we certainly share a lot of the same concerns about reaching cultural Christianity with the gospel as he's laid out and I think it would be difficult to make a case otherwise this is likely the most the largest unreached people group in the United States of America so we have been concentrating on that assessing ourselves first and I Cultural Christian and then secondly if we come to the hopeful the conclusion no then how do I reach the cultural Christian how do I do my part and today is going to have that same feel as we will be concentrating today in Chapter eleven inside the book the moral theist reaching the good person who believes in God now remember every time we we take on you know a chapter this is definitely going to be helpful today to help us do our part to reach people for Christ but at the same time I can't reach anybody for Christ if I myself don't belong to Christ so we also first assess ourselves through all these different chapters is this me we're talking about do that first and then get that right and then if if not then you say no I do believe I'm a devout follower of Jesus and my life reflects that then how do I strategize to reach a cultural Christian because let's talk about the difference a little bit well first of all most of this book really can can can can land right at Matthew seven and for those of you that have been part of our Bible study here on Wednesdays for several years you know that we find our way to Matthew seven over and over again and we're going to find our way there again today and and we usually start at 13 and then we find ourselves ending in 27 of Matthew 7 but I'm just going to focus on you know 21 through 23 because I remember when I was a cultural Christian every time I heard this passage being discussed are taught it always convicted me and it gave me you know it gave me great concern and it should because here's Jesus saying not everyone who says to me Lord Lord will enter the kingdom of heaven but the one who does the will of my father who is in heaven which we always have to hang on to that on that day many will say to me Lord Lord did we not prophesy in your name cast out demons in your name do mighty works in your name and then I will declare to them I never knew you depart from me you are workers of lawlessness and really what Jesus is taking on because he's talking to religious people if works of righteousness are not done and worship of Christ then they are actually works of iniquity now think about that you may have all the best of intentions and you have this great moral code and you may do all these works and certainly you know the Bible talks about works being the result of salvation however if your mindset is these works earn me salvation or if these works of righteousness are not done through worship of Christ then actually I'm trying to bring attention to myself and now it becomes actually works of iniquity not righteousness and that's what Jesus is talking about usually though in in most cases and I thought this was a good adjustment to make it is it true that sometimes this mindset of of I'm doing works of iniquity because they're more about me than they are about the worship of Jesus can that a lot of times be the result of arrogance certainly but most of the time and I know it was in my case not that I wasn't arrogant I certainly struggled and still struggle you know with with pride anybody who says they they don't that's a prideful statement in and of itself but but I'm talking about most of my problem as a cultural Christian it wasn't really based on arrogance it was based on ignorance I was ignorant I honestly didn't know the standard of the Bible I didn't know very much about the Bible and and we talked about this so cultural Christians and this was me remember when I when I teach this I'm I'm a recovering cultural Christian cultural Christians and this is 100 percent correct are trying to meet the cultural standard of Christianity not the Bible standard of it does that make sense the cultural Christian is just simply saying based on the things I know about culture I think I have met the cultures requirement of being called a Christian but that doesn't mean that I necessarily have met the biblical standard of a saving faith I met the cultural standard and can I give you a heads up the cultural standard is not very high because the cultural standard says as long as you're not as bad as fill in the blank then you're probably okay and if you follow these rituals and do these things you're probably great so but that's not the biblical standard of saving faith and then pastor Dean and Sarah begins to talk about how if you're at a church because I've been there I mean I agree if you're at a church and you want to put a testimony up before the congregation you usually do the testimonies of what the down-and-out look the down-and-out look we know because that's what finally saved me is when I became a down-and-out the the damn it out man they're easy to talk to about Jesus you know why they're fully aware that they are wretched and and and they always great for make for a great testimony the guy who's been in prison what testimony the guy who's been a drug addict what a testimony the guy who lost everything because of you know of some adulterous you know affair that he had the men these are incredible testimonies the marriage that broke up because the sexual infidelity and God put them back together and now they're both under the authority of Christ these are outstanding testimonies and and and they should be but the difference between the testimony of the down-and-out is the acknowledgement of wretchedness versus the cultural Christian who is completely the opposite because because when you're fully aware of your brokenness and you know that your best efforts have already led to a life that is a mess and you've come to the conclusion I got problems and I can't fix them well then you can be helped but see the cultural Christian doesn't feel that way the cultural Christian is completely the opposite you know what the cultural Christian says I'm satisfied Who I am I'm good I don't think I'm all that bad and and and my personal level of righteousness has been met hmm see because have you ever noticed the isn't I talk about this a lot especially with somebody who has had to deal with sin and in my life you know later with my walk because what happens is you start out in the beginning I was such a mess in the beginning I didn't have time to mess with the finer points of my life I had to get all the wretchedness turned around first there were so many obvious problems it was like you come to a place where there's been a tornado and you decide to fix it you're gonna pick up a plastic bottle and throw it in the trash no we got a lot more work to do let's go to where all the houses have been destroyed first and we'll work our way back to that that plastic water bottle and so that was my life but you know what eventually when God begins to clean things up guess what he starts taking on then things that you need to get to that it just took some time and for me that was gluttony and we've talked about this my struggle with my weight and overeating and and living to eat versus eating to live and and the balance of that in Scripture and I remember and this is the problem with the cultural Christian on a spiritual level I remember that when I was in charge of how much I would eat or I was in charge of what I was going to eat or I was in charge of how much I was going to work out I found that my self was a really easy boss to myself oh that's enough I don't get carried away so most time the culture of Christian you know what level of righteousness the cultural Christian has met their own our culture's which are the culture which is normally the same thing so it's not our personal level of righteousness that's not the standard it's the Bible's level of righteousness and and what you find with the cultural Christian I was this way there's really no despair over sin at all because you know what you think I'm not that sinful now that's delusional but that's what the cultural Christian thinks so you I would like to see and I think if you but but they're hard to reach I think that really if you want to turn a church upside down and look I'm not against the testimony of the the down-and-out those testimonies are powerful but I can tell you a testimony that I think might rattled most Western churches more is the testimony of a cultural Christian somebody who said I thought I was saved but I was delusional and and so one of the things that we find and we're going now what we're going to do over the next couple of chapters is we're going to take specific versions of cultural Christians and we're going to assess am i one of these and then we're going to talk about what would be some strategy to reach someone that will be in this category if it comes if you come to the conclusion that you're not in this category and the one we're going to deal with today is the one that we talked about when we first started opening up this book and this is the moralistic therapeutic deist you know this is this this is probably one of the major manifestations of the unsaved Christian and we're going to kind of talk about what is a moralistic therapeutic theist and then you ask yourself but uncomfortable question and I won and then if the answer is no then we're gonna talk about how you can reach someone that maybe in your life that meets this standard so here are some here's five things that will kind of unpack that that usually indicate five principles that this person is a moral theist or a moral deist meaning they believe in God you know they're like we said before they're kind of big man upstairs kind of not real personal and we'll talk about these five principles that you need to look at first in your own life and then secondly maybe in the lives of others family members friends acquaintances people in your circle of influence so number one if you're dealing with a a moral theist number one a God exists who created and ordered the world and watches over human life on earth remember we cannot say this enough when you're dealing with any version of a cultural Christian you are not dealing with an atheist you are not dealing with an agnostic what you're dealing with is someone who doesn't have God right they don't have saving faith right they don't have the gospel right but they they absolutely they believe in their version of God okay that's important so the the the the moral deist are theist believes there is a God that created and ordered the world and watches over human life unsaved Christians are certainly not atheist as we said and they proudly believe in God they don't MalK believers of God at all and they probably could share with you some well-known Bible stories the the moral fists usually knows the story of Noah in the ark he's got he or she's got some idea about David and Goliath Moses is not someone who's foreign foreign to them parting the Red Sea so if you sit down for a discussion with the cultural Christian you must remember this he probably thinks or she they probably think that they share the same faith as you do so you're not you you're not going to start out sitting down talking to a moral theist and and it's and they're gonna they're gonna they're not going to call themselves a cultural Christian or a moral theist they're going to think that their faith in your faith if you are a follower of Jesus is exactly the same and that's why I can get a little awkward it can be a little more difficult because they don't have a concept of the difference in the actual beliefs here's what they normally think when they sit down if you're a devout follower of Jesus if you're a disciple of Jesus when you sit down and talk to a cultural Christian or a moral theist what you're going to discover is their their conclusion on your faith is you have the same faith you're just a little more into it than they are that's it a little more radical but they do not think that they have a different faith and that's important to know that so in their minds they believe in the same God that you have given your life to and follow and this is good news this allows you to be an ally and a conversation but keep in mind it can get awkward quickly especially if they feel blindsided by a theological debate so you don't want to come out with the guns blazing rather gate because you want to ease into this but if your ease into a theological debate the cultural Christianity will begin to reveal itself because they'll discover pretty quick as you will that they don't have much theology there's not a lot of depth to to this God that they claim to believe in they understand love the neighbor and you know they understand about you know trying to tell the truth and but but if you love them enough then we have to say so I think this is one of the problems that we have the church has it and when I say these things I'm talking in general there's always praise the Lord exceptions but I think one of the problems that we have and I know I have this problem so remember everything I talked about starts here first I think we have an easier time talking to someone who acknowledges either they don't believe or as we said the down-and-out it's almost like we're willing and I don't know why I guess because it's offered a more difficult it's almost like we're willing to let the cultural Christians stand unopposed and just hope it's going to work out I that's the way it feels to me it feels like the church doesn't really want to take this on in general the Western Church and it feels like Rick mergers included that that a lot of us will even say things to each other where so-and-so is delusional that they're a Christian but we won't say it to them and you don't need to say it in a mean way but you need to if you really love them you need to have the conversation and tell them the truth and that's going to require awkward conversations so one of the things I think is always helpful so first of all you're assessing does this sound like me that I believe in a God that I don't know that much about but let's say you've passed that test now you're saying but I need to talk to people about this I think this is a better way I agree with pastor Dean and Sarah who authored this book he says if you're going to try to reach a cultural Christian don't start out by telling them stuff start out by asking them stuff asking them questions so you can kind of get an idea of what they know and don't know and they'll begin to get and ideas they'll be allowed to flesh out their viewpoints before you know you find a point to drive home usually find this because remember James 2:19 write that down James 2:19 remember this is the conclusion I had to come to in my own testimony is that I had the faith of a demon and James says in James 2:19 it sounds like you believe everything that demons believe great so you believe in this God so do demons you believe in the Trinity so do demons they have a general belief in God's existence but yet they reject the part and then and if you look at the real theology of the Bible the Fallen Angels are not given access to Redemption okay so but they certainly know everything about God but do you know enough to actually have you taken the steps that actually have you redeemed or you just know the basic concepts that the Bible says about God and you don't question them that's not salvation that that's that's the same thing that demons believe and so that opportunity my focus might open up an opportunity to talk about this do they believe enough about God to save them to redeem them so take the time and care to help guide your friends or family members to that understanding so let's write out number one if you're taking notes the moral deist or theist believes that God exists who created and ordered the world and watches over human life on earth and then you're gonna ask some questions to see how much they know does it pass James 2:19 does it pass a demonic faith so your focus of the conversation dealing with item number one the focus of the conversation should be who is God okay so if we will make a note of that I want to have a conversation and I want them to tell me who they think God is and I'm gonna see if it matches up to what the Bible says that God is all right so that's number one number two when you're dealing with the moral theist or if you are one here's what they believe God wants people to be good nice and fair to each other as taught in the Bible and by most other religions so I run into these people all the time I've even had some comments I've removed from this Bible study before when you get a comment every now and then of hey close your Bible and just understand that you know all religions basically say the same thing well they don't that's incorrect they don't so this thing of people people need to just be good they need to be nice they need to be fair to each other sometimes the moral theists and the cultural Christian will think that the ultimate goal in life spiritually is for you to be liked by everybody that the Bible doesn't say that's the goal of the Christian to be liked it doesn't say that cultural Christians believe religion teaches great lessons and can contribute to the common good and helps people become better I'll add that love is usually their primary goal and that they're wrong with that it's just that's not what saves us in fact part of the why they may shy away from our more extreme version of Christianity is they're uncomfortable because they kind of find it exclusive and closed-minded I'm the way the truth and the life and no one comes to the Father is set through me statements like that John 14:6 statements word and you really realize that we've talked about this in the Gospel of John that if you look to the cross for the redeemed the cross means redemption for those who reject God the cross means what judgment and so you know if you try to come to God any other way than through Christ and the redemption he alone provided on the cross and through the resurrection if you're trying to get there any other way then the cross will condemn you to eternal death so they don't like those kind of conversations those kind of conversations make them uncomfortable they kind of like the social gospel do good things be kind to people be nice try to be liked you know let's let's be fair and the problem is worse the standard for fair they're always a little grey on that the reason when they talk about God wants people to be good and fair but they don't understand the reasons because he is good just merciful and has demonstrated this through the gospel of Jesus Christ God created qualities such as love and kindness but only one has ever perfectly modeled those and of course that is Jesus Christ some questions you might want to ask the the cultural Christian would be what happens when your you aren't exhibiting this good qualities are being a good person does God care about that what about when your not being good what about that so you're telling me you're always good so when you're not good does God care about that are there any consequences you may find that many cultural Christians operate as if good deeds cancel out wrongdoings and that's what make God's God happy now saying that now you're starting to get into other world religions that that do this the scales and what you're trying to live your life is to say I've got more on the good side you know that I do the bad side and so every time I do something bad I'd do a couple things good and that cancels it out hey that's not the gospel that's that matter of fact you can find a lot of blasphemous religions that believe that that's not the gospel and so we can't be afraid to say you know that's not really the gospel even Bible believing Christians can sometimes fall into this Christianized version of karma no no the Word of God says that we will reap what we sow which means there's consequences to what we do there's always consequences to sin sin always matters but that's not Karma you know karma is you know if I do this then good things will happen to him if I do this if I don't do that bad things will happen to me that's that's not it because here's where the gospel is so wonderful you don't get what you deserve in that the beautiful thing about the gospel because of Jesus Christ I'm not gonna get what I deserve because what I deserve is to be separated from God forever by the way I have blaspheme him in my life and without the redemption of Jesus Christ I could go out my best and try all I can of all my best efforts to cancel out my sin trying to be good enough and it can't be done that's the beauty of the gospel it is finished how am I made righteous through Jesus he makes me partially righteous righteous know fully righteous and in this new life this new creation comes from his power not my new found code of conduct not trying to do a little bit better that's one of the things that we joke about on the show about her physical health where we try to do a little bit better well that's one thing but you can't live that way with your spiritual life and a lot of cultural Christians say I'm just trying to do better well good luck with that that's gonna be very frustrating that's the reason why you need the power of Christ so God is not tricked or appeased when we throw him a bone and look what I can order you know a water instead of a large coat but if I'm eating my double cheeseburger it's not going to cancel out the calories of the cheeseburger and that's how some cultural Christians live their life I do some bad things but I do some good things too well that doesn't cancel out the bad things you do understand it doesn't the bad things stand you you might be a person who's done some good things and some bad things but the good things don't cancel the bad things Jesus cancels the bad things somebody say Amen so maybe we should consider that cultural Christians may have never been taught about a holy God they've never been taught about a holy God this is why they call him big man upstairs and you know the big force or whatever that's why they do that because if you deal with the holiness of God you were tremble you you know it's it's I love when Adrian Rogers when people start this thing like we're going to get to heaven and there's gonna be some giant grandpa sitting there and he's gonna have a you know his legs crawls to have his foot up on his knee and say well let's do a little Q&A what are some things y'all always want to ask me that I don't know where people have come up with this I don't think we get a Q&A now we may be aware of things we weren't aware of because of his power Adrian Rogers said this to the famous Q&A everybody seems to want I'd like to ask God about this no you know what Adrian Roger said we might spend the first thousand years in the presence of God on our face repeating holy holy holy think about I know I bring this up a lot but it's important because some of you may have never heard it Jobe himself at the beginning of the book of Job he was referred to as a human being is being blameless and upright and God allowed Satan to do horrible things why why did he live state to do those things he killed ten of his children he then took away all of it all of as well all of his livestock but sores on him made him terribly sick and God told Satan what he couldn't couldn't do and God brought Jobe to Satan's attention why did God test job like that whether you I could give you hours and hours of commentary but I'm just going to simplify it for you at the end of it all this man that that the world deemed is blameless and upright job looked good compared to what other human beings but when he finally got to the point that he wanted to hear from God on what was going on and God gave his resume to job job 38 to 42 go read job chapter 38 to chapter 42 you know what I call it God's resume when I went out like I said last week when I was down to Gulf of Mexico one of the days there was a storm coming in and it was ripping and roaring out there and one of the things that God taught Jobe he said did you tell the water where it came he can't go did you tell the sea where to stop do you tell the sea when it sits churning up that's enough of that and it stops well I did and so at the end of this when Jobe through his suffering had been brought in a more intimate relationship with God than he had ever experienced before only suffering accomplished that and then he saw God these are his own words before I'd heard of God but now I see God and now that I see you for who you really are and how holy you really are I despise myself and I repent and ashes and dust I thought this guy was blameless not right well he was compared to other people but not compared to God and that's why we need a Savior that's why we were redeemed because we stand as sinful people and we're trying to get in the presence of a holy God and it can't be done on the best efforts we could ever put together which is why we need Jesus and that's the gospel it may be eye-opening to explain God's standards of perfection I get a pushback on that every time I do it I Rick you got to be perfect go to heaven yes you do who told you that that's the Bible says you better be perfect Wow cuz God's holy you think a speck of sin can walk in the presence of a holy God it can't so yes you do have to have perfection what I'll say a minute ago Jesus Christ went to the cross and walked out of the tomb to make us fully righteous not partially righteous fully righteous so God's standard is actually perfection well right nobody can be perfect that's right but Jesus can't he makes us perfect and then in his perfection and and our devotion to him we begin to see our desire for sin to be replaced by our love and adoration for Jesus and then he sanctifies us to make us more holy throughout our entire lives so God's standard of perfection and sinlessness is only found in the life of Jesus yes we depend on his death to substitute for our death but you know what else and this is a part that seems to never be taught but buddy we've taught it in here haven't we it's not just Jesus's death there was a substitution for our death his life is also a substitution for our life and I think we missed that and the cultural Christian doesn't know that and and so it's important that we do our part to apply that to our lives or if we already have to help others we must understand that Jesus not only died a death that we deserved but he lives he lived a life we could never live so not only did he die the death that we don't have to die he lived the life that we can never live it's all wrapped up in him praise His Holy Name any good thing we do a new creation as new creations we do by the power of the Holy Spirit cultural Christians need to understand why the sinless life of Jesus not only matters it is paramount because their very salvation depends on it only one is truly good and it certainly isn't any of us and certainly and it certainly isn't Rick Burgess so the conversation focus for those who say God wants people to be good nice and fair to each other is taught in the Bible and by most religions the conversation focus for this person must be our sinfulness and Christ's perfection so make a note of that then he gives he gives a pretty funny analogy in here and we all know this guy he's calling him a guy named Danny and he says you know this guy said he's always stepping stepping in to help his wife with housework picks up the kids so she can be present at work or whatever she needs to do he never misses a single kid event he's involved in everything all of us secretly hate him because all of our wives wish we were more like him by all accounts he's a fantastic guy and he said when you think of your lost friends you never think of Danny but honestly he behaves because honestly he behaves better than you did he's a better husband it seems to be a better dad there's no glaring character flaw unlike people who filled their failure and a need for a savior you and you and Danny kind of feel like he's got it covered he seems unapproachable four gospel conversations because neither of you know how you'd get to to the part where Jesus is our only hope you never dare imply that the Danny's of the world are going to help but we have a Bible that includes Galatians 2:20 1 if righteousness could be earned then Christ died for nothing Danny the Danny's of the world can't earn their salvation and and usually the the part of their life we see not their whole life anyway we don't know who they are and there's in the in the secret life so Paul tells us this in Galatians 221 this is a powerful verse he said I do not nullify the grace of God for if righteousness were through the law then Christ died for no purpose Paul didn't know Danny but he said if Danny can do it then Jesus didn't need no cross and so the tricky part of reaching the moral theist is that you're our ability to interpret their eternal state reflects on your convictions about the reality of heaven and hell don't be in denial about Danny the dynamic dead a denial on our part not necessarily his might be the biggest obstacle to reaching him for Christ is the fact that we got to realize that we we need to see that even the nicest people we know if they reject Redemption in Jesus they're going to hell just like the person that we don't like and it's almost like we're not willing to care about them either I love this he said here's some things you got to watch out with the Danny's of the world do you have the tendency to give them an exception because he's such a nice guy do you have to rationalize rationalize that he's a Christian because he's so moral and nice don't let your inner turmoil blind you to his need for the gospel are you mistaking theism for saving faith are you the judge of who is good no but God is who do you why do you think Jesus died do you believe Jesus death was meaningless what is the standard for good do you believe heaven and hell are real if so you can't be in denial about the state of the danny's of the world fight the inclination to view him as an exception ask yourself if you spoke at Danny's funeral what would be your justification for him being in heaven that's good you ever been to those kind of funerals they're awkward I've had to speak at a funeral like that or two it's awkward because you sit down and you start trying to talk to the family and this is somebody that might have been an acquaintance of yours that you didn't know that well maybe you knew them through sports or school or something like that but some he thinks that because they've seen you know I'm not bringing glory to myself but they look at you and say this is somebody that seems to care about their faith so this would be somebody good that kind of knew my husband they could speak at his funeral and then you sit down and begin to talk to Danny's kids and Danny's a fictional character and the wife and you realize there's no evidence of saving faith in anything they're saying they talk about how much he loved his team and how much he liked his hobbies and how he went to every event for his kids and he was you know a selfless husband who who wasn't afraid to help with the housework and but you can't really he can't find a testimony in there and it's an awkward thing so what do you end up talking about not his great impact for the kingdom of God but you begin to talk about his impact for his community that's about all you can do are is one work one worship leader said to me one time and I'll never forget this after that conversation let's not we're going to add some songs because our eulogy for him will be quite short as far as the kingdom is concerned so if we really love the damage of the world and I want everybody to know who may be listening this I realized my pastors name is Danny wood Danny this is not about you this is the word that Dean and Sara the person's name that he chose not me so I don't know buddy go tell my pastor hey Rick was talking about you and said it's not my pastor it's a it's a fictional Danny he's name could be anything so now we moved to the the next category of the moral theist and this is point number three the central goal of life is to be happy and feel good about oneself this one's my favorite this one I have the least amount of patience for the goal of life is to be happy just we just need to feel let's just have some fun and you know what I'm a fun zone guy I like to have fun but our goal in life is not to be happy and feel good about ourselves that that is not it the secular Western world is largely driven by personal fulfillment and you can watch this creep to the Western Church sometimes you would think the church is all about us socializing feel good about herself and and one of my I do not like this term at all and y'all know it buddies of mine are already saying it with me cuz they've heard me say it I don't do life together that that's not the church is not doing life together I love that hashtag blessed all that hate it no the church is working out their salvation according to Scripture with fear and trembling and we lament about sin we despair about the wretchedness of ourselves compared to a holy God and we are thankful and we are grateful for the grace that we have been given but as the Apostle Paul says in 1st Corinthians 15 we live a life that doesn't look like that we've taken that grace for granted or that it was wasted on us and now that we've been afforded grace our goal is to go out now and to worship ourselves until we die and to to go out and feed every inclination or desire of our flesh or of our of our our standard of happiness God just wants me to be happy no God want you to be holy you know if you've read my wife's book you know that was a that was a moment that changed her life forever and because of it being my wife changed my life forever when we had buried our youngest son and we we you know what our life was not perfect before that because no one's life is but for the most part we were pretty much happy and and and she said to the Lord God Almighty you know but lord I can't believe this has happened we were so happy and she heard his clear she could from her holy father but I want you to be holy this is refinement this is first Peter chapter 1 6 and 7 and this you rejoice though now for a little while if necessary you've been grieved by various trials to test the genuineness of your faith we went when you look at first Peter for those that have suffered they have suffered and now they're getting to the point where they're no longer held captive by the desires of the flesh their sinful nature has been refined by the suffering y'all heard me say this before and and I chuckle the times my wife has done it we'll see some young man who's who maybe is stepping up for his first time in the faith or maybe it's a it's a young woman and she's doing something in ministry and they may be given a chance to talk or maybe we're reading something that they wrote and you know my wife will say man they're really gonna be something once they suffer because they haven't been refined yet if you know when someone suffered when you hear there's a there's a spiritual base that comes with it for those that have suffered and have been refined if they didn't reject God if they passed the test if they ran to him and were transformed by it and got in that relationship with it with him to the point like Jobe said that you despise yourself and it's and you want to live out his desire for your life not your own you can hear that in the tone of those who have suffered and we're better for it and so the the moral theist doesn't want to hear about that at all they want to to say that God wants me to be happy and wants me to feel good about myself how does anybody come into conviction if you think the whole goal in life is to feel good about yourself how does that even bring conviction well what changes our life when we're convicted that's when we address things in our life that shouldn't be there when the Holy Spirit convicts us well you're never convicted if all you're doing is saying god just wants me to be happy where do you find that in scripture you may find in Scripture that there's there's a peace and joy that comes with being redeemed sure but again the emotional part of happiness can be compromised by traffic or your order not being wrought you've heard me talk about this so anyway so the problem is the cultural Christian are the moral theist they're not really equipped to handle hard things faith becomes a means to an end of feeling good about oneself and God is just a genie in the bottle helping us to achieve our personal ambition doesn't sound exciting in a conversation but I must be clear that God doesn't promise promise us in Scripture that we'll achieve our dreams you've heard that God wants me to accomplish that goal it's not in the Bible it doesn't say that it says he promises he will always be with us write this down Matthew 28:20 never abandon us deuteronomy 31:6 write that down he will carry us through the completion of our salvation with fear and trembling Philippians 1:6 and he'll use every moment of our lives to make us more like Jesus Romans 8:28 which is often misused and 29 you do know it says that he's working out things for our own good but he says but that doesn't apply to everybody that just applies to those who love God don't miss that little part in in Romans 8:28 you'll miss the whole thing see some people take that verse and they put it up say no matter what's going on according to Romans 8:28 29 it's all gonna work out for good no no not if you don't love God it's not it says for those who love God don't miss that part he will accomplish his purpose for our lives but most of the times those are not the ones that we've dreamed up I promise you and I look at my life this is not the life I dreamed up this is the life he had for me and some of the things that I have brought on myself the repercussions of sin other things it's just God doing what he has to do to get me into his perfect will for my life it's his will that's being accomplished not mine and his will is always right but it's usually not the one we've dreamed up this is not meant to discourage us it's meant to just redirect our ideas of what is fulfillment right when Paul got to the point he says I tell what I figured out he said let me have a lot he's let me have a little he's letting me feel being great health he's let me being bad help I've suffered I've been brought high I've been laid low and I have discovered I found a way to be content in all of it and I've come to the conclusion that here's how my life works if I'm alive it's about Christ if I'm dead I'm with it to live as Christ the dies game I mean I had a guy I'm so so far down the road on this I was praying with a friend of mine this week who thought he might have Cova in nineteen are too lenient are you praying about my death already I said well I mean to live as Christ dies give me maybe God's about to kill you he goes remind me not to call you to pray for I mean it's it's what I just said I mean we don't know I I really don't care under the authority of God I say to God you know Lord certainly my preference would be this but what do we always say but ultimately your will be done hey Reagan do you think you're gonna be here next year I don't know Lord willing I would and if I'm here then I hope to be about his business and if I'm not y'all worry about me because you know what I'm done I've done whatever he needed me to do and hopefully that I accomplished what he said he was able to accomplish through me and I'm redeemed and forgiven for the things that I resisted resisted the moma because of my faith in Christ so what we're really supposed to be doing and this is not popular with the moral theist at all but Jesus is our peace he's our life he offers absolute comfort and joy we experience taste of this here on earth and eagerly await our eternal communion with God in heaven our God confirms us to the likeness of Christ he frees us from the shackles of our idolatry and self-absorption and changes our desires you've heard me say this before that's one of the most profound things that I've learned through my suffering is God said Rick here's where you're incorrect I am NOT sitting on the throne I am not the beginning in the in the end I didn't speak creation to existence I didn't create mankind to give you your desires what I have done coming to you as as 100% God at 100 cent man when I went to the cross to pay for the death that you deserve and I walked out of the tomb and I send him back to my proper place and I now sit at the right hand of the Father with the Father Son and the Holy Spirit all the things that are being done right now they're not being done so Rick Burgess can have his desires they're being done so God can change my desires somebody save him into that he's not in the business of giving us our desires because our desires a lot of times are wrong he's here to change our desires the devoted father of Jesus isn't getting his and her desires confirmed and always fulfilled know what you desire is actually changed man it simplifies life when you get this that's what it's all about CS Lewis said this it would seem that our Lord finds our desires not too strong but too weak we mentioned this one time in the past Bible study but I love this quote we are half-hearted creatures fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea we are far too easily pleased hey we set our goals way too low and what are you fine because you've done that when you achieve your very low goal what are you fine this wasn't very fulfilling at all maybe in the short term only God fulfills for the long time often the process of becoming more like Jesus as anything but chasing dreams or following our hearts it can be painful maturing us through trials write this down James 1 verses 2 through 4 and a difficulties always help us as we suffer for Christ and with him also write this down Philippians 3:10 through all of this sanctification we are never separated from his love Romans 8:35 Romans 8:35 Philippians 3:10 write them both down God is not a means to an end he is the means and the end well said pastor Dean what a joy to be able to share such truth with a cultural Christian so the focus of this conversation should be what sanctification number four God does not need to be particularly involved in one's life itself when God is needed to resolve a problem now the focus of this conversation I'll go into you because we're running out of time the focus on this conversation would be obedience how many times we talk about obedience in this Bible study hmm you know while we talk about obedience a lot this Bible study because the Bible talks about it all the time following Jesus will interfere with your life that that's that's a painful reality sometimes with Christians but not so with the cultural Christian or the moral theist you know why for the moral theist and the cultural Christian God's always available but not in the way that changes anything God becomes a god who conveniently condones things like cohabitation before marriage no-fault divorce a limited local church involvement and then and and they think that God allows for statements like I have my own faith you ever hear this one well yeah but but but this is what I believe so now you're gonna you got something outside of the Word of God we should all hear you've come up with something you've had a rebel on who gave you this revelation but see for the cultural Christian God allows this kind of stuff yeah I'm shacking up with something I'm not married to but but God you know God is a good God and He loves me and he doesn't want me to be denied this I mean you know and and I have my own faith that's a little fallback line Christian Smith explains this type of religion this is good it's a belief in a particular kind of God one who exists created the world and defines our general moral order but he's not one who particularly personally is involved in one's affairs especially affairs in which one would prefer not to have got involved see the culture of Christian that's why the cultural Christian can look at porn and done bother being still go to church on Sunday because they've created a God that would prefer they didn't watch porn but it not upset about it that he would prefer that he wasn't having an affair you know but it's not like he's gonna come down on him about it he prefers that she wasn't disrespectful to her husband and she's a gossip and she's reading Fifty Shades of Grey God would prefer she didn't do that but it's not like he's upset about see this is how the cultural Christian thinks I was one I know so since not that big a deal God would prefer I wasn't like this but he's not going to come down on me and then of course he's gracious so I mean it's gonna be okay and so I don't think God's really here with me all the time so you know the thing the thing that really got me under conviction about my life and it's still going on is when I realized that I believed biblically and I was correct that the Holy Spirit now lives in my life which means the presence of God is with me everywhere including everything I'm watching everything I'm saying everything I'm listening to and everything I'm reading and every conversation I'm having and ever interaction and every thought that comes into my mind no matter how far away from everybody I may be I cannot leave the presence of God so he's involved in everything that I'm doing the cultural Christian does not believe that the moral theist believes that that God is like a light switch that you cut on and off and if you don't want him you know coming in and messing up your day you turn him off now if you need him because you're afraid you're gonna die you flip it back on if you're afraid of covet 19 you flip him on if you're not if you think covet 19 is not gonna get you you flip it back off and go back to doing whatever you want to do that's how the cultural Christian and the moral fish sees God but that's not biblical that's that's actually incorrect what you find is that churches aren't helping with this either you know a cultural Christian likely wouldn't admit that he if usually abused God as a butler or a therapist he may function as though God's existence shouldn't be interfere with his personal decisions and churches never really take so there's a widespread popular church culture right now where the language and therefore experience of Trinity holiness sin grace justification sanctification and heaven and hell appear at the very least to be supplanted by the language of your they've been superseded by language that involves happiness niceness earned heavily reward it's rampant and it can't go unchallenged so the the the cultural Christianity a lot of times the church removes Trinity holiness sin grace justification sanctification there is a heaven which also means there is a hell and Jesus talks about Hell quite a bit and then they say really if you want to grow a church you need to talk more about happiness niceness and really certain types of behavior are really really applauded by God but see that's not the gospel and so we give people a false sense of assurance al Mohler remarks this way we now face the challenge of evangelizing a nation that largely considers itself itself Christian overwhelmingly believes in some deity considers itself fervently religious but has virtually no connection to historic Christianity we've come up with a version of Americanized Christianity if you haven't watched these documentaries the American gospel I highly suggest them there's two of them they're available wherever you you know watch enough search the American gospel Part one and Part two and so the focus of this conversation with the cultural Christian who doesn't believe God's particularly involved in one's life except when needed you got to talk about obedience fifth and final then we'll wrap it up the moral theist believes that good people go to heaven when they die I mean that's what that's way but but how good is good enough most people can't provide that answer ask that question what's good enough funerals reveal that that most thought that the achievement and standard for golden to heaven is just be somebody that we all seem to like he's a good old guy she's a man she's great in cultural Christianity the moral theists gets to the sentimental place called heaven by being good so this simple critical question must be asked of them over and over again to the point of frustration what do you mean by good a gospel presentation that fails to clearly define God's standard as perfection as a gospel presentation that makes the work of Christ confusing and unnecessary if nobody if not everybody needs to cross to be redeemed why do we have the cross at all if all religions are the same then why did God put his son on the cross ask that question this is a troubling thought to a cultural Christian or a moral theist who might have a cross necklace around their neck cross themed art in their home our cross tattoo on their ankle it can begin the journey to understand the gospel that will save them from their damnable good works that this conversation should focus on God's holiness and his demand for perfection good people don't go to heaven redeem people go to hell perfected people go to heaven they were perfected by Jesus Christ I had this conversation with a Jewish man in Israel because I asked an uncomfortable question to this Jewish man I don't mean to offend anyone who may be Jewish watching this I just want to tell you the truth and I was talking to him and he did not believe that Jesus was Messiah and I said well I noticed though that the temple is gone all y'all have is a wall over here I've been to it and we're sticking prayers into it so why isn't the sacrificial system still going where the animal sacrifices he said well we don't do that anymore you know we don't have a temple I said well then how are you redeemed from sin he said we try to do good things and it was just we talk about we try to do more good things than we do bad things we have special days that we set aside for doing good I said well how do you know that it's good enough and there were silence and I said no if if Jesus isn't Messiah and he was not the final Lamb of God then there need to be Lambs of God being slaughtered there needs to be Bulls there needs the blood sacrifice and that sacrificial system should still be going well we try to do good things and then he said to me he said if Jesus Christ comes on that Mount of Olives that we were looking at like you said then I'll believe it I said well what if you die before that happens how do you know you were good enough and that's about the sound of it wonderful man I loved my conversations with him and he was couldn't have been Condor and he'll enjoyed debating as all Jewish people do in talking about it but he had no answer I said the answer is Jesus and he says you know I respectfully disagree but if I see him and he comes through that gate then I'll believe and and that's that's that's the decision he made and I don't know if that decision has ever been different but that day that's how it was left but the problem is we can't be good enough that's why we got to have Jesus so these five principles are before you first of all how do they apply to you how do they apply to me and then if you feel pretty good about that how does it apply to people that are in your circle of influence and are you willing to have these difficult conversations because the cultural Christian in the moral fists will go to hell just like the agnostic in the atheist reaching them with the true gospel is really really important and we must be willing to have these conversation and we must be willing to challenge this false belief let's pray lord thank you for today thank you for this this clarity and thank you Lord for the fact that we are allowed peer righteousness and you Jesus that we we do have access to redemption and what I pray that we follow what you say and that is just to come to you broken say Lord I am a sinner I am richest I'm wretched and even though that the the culture may see me as a good person the culture standard and society standard in the world standard is very low your standard is much higher because your standard is perfection and I know that I'm not perfect so I need perfection so I ask now Lord that that you hear me repent of my sins and you hear me submit to your authority and you hear me Lord and my sincere heart asking for you to make me perfect and forgive me of my sins and then now Lord my spirit will come alive and I'll begin to pursue you so that I'll know you and then when I know you I love you the scripture says when I love you that I obey you and when I obey you the desires to feed my flesh will become less and less and instead of me asking you to always give me my desires I know that because of your power you'll change my desires I beg for this Lord if you're somebody that doesn't have this just just say Lord be sincere in your heart and he'll change you in the name of Jesus we pray Lord amen if I help you in any way maybe you made a decision today you need help working through this Rick at Rick and Bubba comm hey thanks for joining us for this week's edition of the Wednesday Bible study

Channel: Rick & Bubba

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Keywords: bible study, bible study for men, mens bible study, daily bible study, bible study for beginners, bible study tools, bible study resources, bible study lesson

Id: TtOPByxOmPY

Length: 64min 28sec (3868 seconds)

Published: Wed Jul 08 2020