Tag, You’re It

0:00:01                  Hey, I’m so excited for you to hear the podcast today from More Faith, More Life. Tag you’re it. That means there’s a way to get God to tag and pick you out of everybody else. I’m so excited. Don’t miss it.

0:00:13                  You were made for more than the status quo. I’m Pastor Steve Gray, and this is the More Faith, More Life Podcast. This podcast is for Christians with an ambitious heart who want to be more for their family, do more with their career, and see more of God’s promises in their life. I’ve spent many years as a worship, artist, minister, nonprofit leader, bold, truth speaker, and most importantly, father and spouse.

0:00:38                  When I was in my early forty s, I was craving more. More from God and more from life. I’d done everything I was supposed to do. My life was good, but it wasn’t good enough. So I spent the following years diving into the word of God and searching for the biblical principles that would bring me closer to God and help my purpose and life flourish. That’s what I want to share with you. In every episode you’ll get practical tools based on real life experiences that you can put into action to redefine your faith and ultimately your life.

0:01:12                  So if you’re ready to do more, subscribe to More Faith, More Life and hear an unfiltered biblical truth every week, it’s time to be and experience more.

0:01:26                  Hello everyone. Welcome to another More Faith, more Life podcast. Today is really, really important and so important. I’ve got a Bible in my hand and usually I don’t make this a Bible study, but I’m going to a little bit today because it’s so important. The funny thing is, I happen to pick up my wife’s Bible and this thing is huge. It’s such a big Bible. I’m trying to lug it around, but I like the translation of it and I like the way this one is written, how they translated this scripture. So anyway, we’re going to talk today about how tag you can be it. You can be tagged by God, and there’s nothing finer than that. Let’s think about that. Just a minute. If God would pick you, just pick you for something, pick you to be whatever, your life is going to get a whole lot better. And so I want to bring that point of faith, of choosing something by faith today and what that’s going to mean to you. All right, but let’s back up with the story. All right? It’s a great story. Oh, and I need to mention, first of all, everybody in the audience for this is Jewish, okay?

0:02:26                  We don’t want to do a theological mix up and say, well, this group was Jewish and then these groups are speaking to Christians. That’s impossible. There were no Christians at the time. They’re all Jewish people learning their way through things here. It’s just a parable. A man has two sons. Real easy, right and Jesus wants to know what they think about this. All right. Now, who are the they? Well, certainly his disciples are there the names. Some of them you can know John, Peter, but it’s right after the story follows right after in the Gospel of Matthew, right after he goes in and clears out the temple, because it’s just a marketplace, it’s just going crazy and it’s corrupt, as we’re going to see in this parable.

0:03:24                  And so he cleans it out and he declares certain things, and then he comes out and gives this parable. So there are Pharisees, there’s Jewish people, there’s Jewish leaders, there’s regular folks, and then his group of disciples, okay, what do you think a man with two sons told the older boy? He said, this son, go out and work in the vineyard today. This son answered no, I won’t go. But later he changed his mind and went anyway.

0:03:54                  Okay, first son, no, go work for me. All right? And then he said, no, I won’t do it. All right, that’s one. Then two says, this happens. Then he said to the other son, the father told the other son, you go. And he said, yes, sir, I will. I’ll go do it. But he didn’t. And then the question, which of the two obeyed the father or did his father’s will? All right. And of course, they answer the first. So did you get the story?

0:04:23                  Son won go work for me. No. Then he changes his mind and he does it. Second son says, yes, I will, but then never does. Obviously, the first son did what his father asked and what his father needed. Okay, that’s the setup. But the story then is, I tell you the truth. Listen to this. Corrupt tax collectors and prostitutes will get into the kingdom of God before you. What? He’s talking to the super spiritual, intellectual, theological leaders of the Jewish city of Jerusalem, and that’s pretty high up.

0:05:04                  And they’re there, and he’s talking to them, and he’s right to them. Imagine doing that. And he says, corrupt tax collectors have prostitutes, and he’s trying to go as low as possible in their culture, right? Like they’re going what, they’re going to get into the kingdom of God before you do? That has to be a shock. I mean, this is a crisis moment when everybody’s listening, everybody hears, and he’s just really telling them the truth of how it right.

0:05:32                  But here and here’s the reason why for John the Baptist came and listen and showed you the right way to live, but you didn’t believe him while tax collectors and prostitutes did. Now, let me explain this to you. The tax collectors, corrupt tax collectors and the prostitutes, it doesn’t mean that they’re perfect or suddenly they got all this listen, here’s the clue. It doesn’t say the corrupt tax collectors and the prostitutes got it and started living it and start doing it, and they’re outdoing you Pharisees or you church leaders or whatever, you temple leaders. They’re really outdoing you.

0:06:19                  They’re really serving God. It doesn’t say that. Listen to what it says. It says the corrupt tax collectors and prostitutes will get in the kingdom of God before you. Because John the Baptist, you’ve heard of him, he told them the way to live, the way they’re supposed to live, and they believed him. Doesn’t mean they lived. It doesn’t mean they started living. It doesn’t mean that they’ve turned over a new leaf or they’re super spiritual and all. It doesn’t say that.

0:06:51                  It says they believed that that was the right way to live. And that’s where your faith comes in. And if your faith comes in, then you’re going to get more life. More faith, more life, right? Because it says they heard how to live. They heard how John the Baptist said, this is the way we need to live, and they believed it. This is what you need to do. This is how we live, and they believed it. That doesn’t mean they weren’t perfect at doing it. They may have barely, obviously barely even started doing it.

0:07:19                  And yet he says they listened, they heard, and they believed. What do they believe? You’re right. That’s the way we should live. But remember, there’s corruption in the leadership, too, not just tax collectors, in the religious leaders. And even when you saw this happening, you refused to believe in what he was saying, okay? And turn and do it, right? So there you have the setup, right? It’s all Jewish at first.

0:07:52                  Leaders, Pharisees, theologians, great leaders, up people in the temple. There huge, big, and it’s in Jerusalem, right? And that’s a center of religion for more than one religions, right? So it’s very, very important that we see that. And then Jesus talks to them about two brothers. One says, no, I won’t do it. Then he did. The other says, yes, I will do it. But he never did. Okay? So it’s a description of religious people. I’ll just be honest with you, and you may not consider yourself religious at all, or you are a churchgoer and you don’t like that term.

0:08:29                  Like, I don’t want to be religious. I want to be spiritual. But that’s what religious people do, centuries of it. And the church is just the same today. But that’s not the audience. It’s not a church audience, but it still applies for today. Religious people say, yeah, I’ll do it, and then they don’t do anything different. Listen, I ought to know, too. I’ve preached thousands and thousands and thousands and thousands of sermons all around the world, and I get how the church folks learn to sit in church and just sort of nod.

0:09:00                  Now, there is even in our church, you’ll occasionally hear somebody say the Amen, or yes, sir, that’s right. You’re allowed to speak out and agree in our church, but in a lot of churches, you can’t but you can’t say even amen. But that doesn’t matter. There’s still that feel that as you’re speaking, people are nodding their heads. They look affirmative to what you’re saying, at least the majority. So they give the ideas, they nod their head.

0:09:26                  I may have mentioned before, you ever seen those bobble head baseball players, football players, and you put them in the back of your car, you just have on a desk, and every time you move their head just bobbles. Well, it’s a bobble head religion is what it is. So it gives you the idea as the speaker, like, man, these people are getting it. They’re going to run right out as soon as this service is over. They can’t wait to get out there and do these things and live these things and be these things, right?

0:09:50                  But that’s not the case because they’re like the second brother. They say, yes, but you’ll find out if you do get around it. And this doesn’t mean you shouldn’t get around it, because you should. You should get around religion. You should go to church. You should get involved, especially if it’s a real Bible preaching. Now, a lot of churches say they’re Bible believing, but when you hear the sermons, there’s very, very little Bible ever mentioned.

0:10:13                  It’s more life talks or like Ted Talks. Find a Bible preaching church. It really talks Bible. But anyway, help me change this. Let’s change it together, all right? Let’s not just say, well, as I tried on my mother when I was 21, 20, whatever, and I came to her one night, and she was trying to talk to me about religion and stuff, and I said, well, the church is just full of hypocrites anyway. It’s all full of hypocrites anyway.

0:10:43                  And it was funny. She didn’t disagree with me. She said, that’s right, it is. And then she looked at me, and I’m not going to church or anything. I’m not a Christian, I’m not a believer, not a follower. But she looked at me, I said, It’s full of hypocrites. She says, that’s right. It is. Why don’t you be the first one to change that? I never thought of that. I never thought we could change this whole thing. And I’ve been changing it ever since after I became a Christian when I was 23.

0:11:11                  And so I’ve been changing it ever since. All right? So get this. The prostitutes and the tax collectors are getting in before all the religious people before them, because they heard also everybody heard John, okay? Everybody here heard John. And the ones who were considered corrupt and prostitutes in the low lives, they believed when he said we ought to live this way. And you know what they said? You’re right that we need to do that.

0:11:38                  And then we’re assuming they’re going to try, but it doesn’t mean they’re perfect people all of a sudden. But they’ve been picked because they were willing to believe the right way that was being told to them. But the others, the religious, the already religious people that would yeah, yeah, we’re going to do everything right. And then they don’t do it. Then they got corrupt. As you know, the leaders in that city and around loved money. I mean, this is Jesus talking, not me. Loved money.

0:12:05                  Loved to be seen, of know and be admired, and then loved to get the best seats. I think it was the restaurants or in maybe the theaters or whatever, they get all the best seats. Okay? They get in quick and they love that stuff. But they didn’t do when they heard John, who was speaking for God, they didn’t say, you know what? He’s right. We need to make some changes and anybody can do it. But they didn’t do it.

0:12:32                  Now, what does this mean to you? Because you weren’t there. You didn’t hear John. But he does say the right way to live. Okay, first of all, of course, especially the Gospels, well, all the New Testament, particularly, but the whole Bible shows us the right way to live. All right, but listen, you can get down deep in your heart and just have a short connection with God. I mean, time wise, doesn’t have to be long, short. And you know what? You’ll come away almost instantly. You know the right way to live.

0:12:58                  You know that you should put God in the center, Jesus in the center, have a religious, spiritual life that’s important, that you nurture, that you’re interested in, that you’re not ignoring anyway. That’s right. And then it’s going to spread out to everything else. No reason I said, Tag, you’re it because you are it. You are it. We got millions of religious people today packed into churches that are not going to change a thing.

0:13:28                  It doesn’t matter. I know it sounds crazy, but you can go into churches, which I have all kinds of churches, and you can read a scripture and preach on it, and it’s absolutely right, and they know it’s right. And they’ll nod their heads, like I said, and bobble on it. Bobble their heads, but they’re not going to do anything different. Okay? One of my favorite examples is it’s just real easy is the Bible says, lift up your hands in the sanctuary and praise the Lord. Or bless the Lord. Okay, there you go.

0:14:01                  It’s okay. Maybe you didn’t grow up that way. You know what? I didn’t either. But I see that. I go like, you know what? I think there’s something that God likes about just kind of lifting my hands to Him and praising Him or blessing Him or whatever when I’m in church, and I think I should do it. And so we’re a church that does that. Anybody can do it. You don’t have to do it, but if you want to do it, we should do it.

0:14:25                  And then I could go into a thousand churches, a certain kind of churches read that scripture to them because it’s right. The Bible says do it and they’re not going to ever do it. They will not do it and they will frown on you if you do it. They might even ask you to leave. They’ll certainly ask you to cool your jets, stop lifting your hands, stop it. And there it is. So that’s the point. You can be tagged by God, you know what? Simply because you are wide open to listening, learning and then agreeing. Now, you still need to try to do it. You’re going to have to get to the doing sometime. But that’s not the point.

0:15:03                  You can be picked by God, by agreeing with God. That it’s, right? You say, that doesn’t seem that hard. That’s right. It’s not that hard until you match it with people who are not going to even think about it. They have no intention of doing anything differently. As they’re hearing a sermon, reading a scripture, something that doesn’t fit their personality or their religious experience or whatever it is, they’re not going to believe it as necessary.

0:15:29                  So what does God do? He lets and allows those. Maybe, hopefully you’re not a corrupt tax collector, but he lets those the down and out. The ones have never been chosen. The ones that maybe even ignored him. The ones who are not paying attention. The ones that I would never choose and you would never choose. The church would never choose because they just don’t give any sign that they would be picked. A prostitute or somebody drug addict. You just name whatever you want to name.

0:15:55                  And yet God says they’re going to get in because when they heard it, they said it was right and they believed it. They believed it. They believed it. That’s your faith. Put your faith on it. Believe it. Read your Bible, just even a little bit. Check into it, take an hour and say, you know, I’m going to open this book, I’m going to crack it open. And maybe don’t start at the beginning at Genesis, it’s good, but it’s a little more difficult.

0:16:20                  Don’t go to the back of the New Testament, which is revelation, it’s difficult. Just go to Gospel of Mark or something, that’s the shortest one, and read it. And when you see something, whether you’re doing it, not doing it, whatever, when you see it there, believe it. That it’s, right? Believe it. You may say, I don’t know if I can do it. That’s not the point. God will tag you if you believe it and you’re willing to be open to it. And then let Him help you become it or do it or be strengthened in it. There’s all kinds of things he’ll do to help you, but you first got to believe it. Listen, when you do that, you get tagged as it.

0:16:59                  Because, as I said, millions of religious people have no intention of changing anything. No matter what they read, what they hear, they have a religion that is based on who they are. Right? Get this. They’ve created a god. They believe in God. Yeah. But the one they created, they’ve created in their own image. In other words, God loves everything they love. He likes everything they like. He likes the same shows on TV or movies. They like every habit they have.

0:17:29                  He’s okay with it. He likes what they like. So we’ve invented a god that’s not scripturally correct but is emotionally or personally correct with us. So that makes us really sort of the God figure. We create our own gods, and that’s what they used to do. They carve them, make little animals and stuff. And they created their own gods. Well, we’ve created our own God, only it’s in our image. So that we’re comfortable with everything about God because God is just like us.

0:17:58                  So crack open the Bible, read a little bit, get it or get some sermons. You can get them online. Hopefully you’ll get some real Bible ones and not life coach ones and get those and listen to them and then believe that it’s right. And you can be tagged by God because, Tag, you are it. Isn’t that wonderful? You’re not left out. You can get in, in, inside or in. And we need you. If you’re a person that believes it’s, right? When you hear something and you’re willing to open your heart to it, maybe even try it, ask God to help you.

0:18:39                  You’re the exception. You’re the exception. Isn’t that great? So tag with God. You’re it. I hope this helped you today and made great, great sense. And you’ll pick up on it, believe it, read your Bible, and let’s do it. All right. Till next time. Bye.