Pastor Mark Driscoll
02-09-2003
“...that is not a good place for you to be in opposition to God. It could be done through active rebellion, it could be done through passive indifference, but it is done none the less. Peace is only, Paul states, for those who are friends of Jesus. For those who are not friends of Jesus you are enemy's of Him. And I will say this in the sternest tone, and I will say this with the most serious sense of urgency. Many of you are very lazy about spiritual things. Many of you are very ambivalence and indifferent, and in so doing you are mocking God everyday, and it is indeed a miracle, that He has let you breath this long and tolerated that kind of insolence.
We are talking about the God that made the universe for you to enjoy and we are talking about the God who made you to enjoy. And rather than loving Him and operating according to His decrees, we have given that same God the finger He has made, and we have each done exactly as we want to do, because we believe that the throne He sits on would better fit us. We would like to be god, we would like to say right and wrong, we would like to pick the religions, we would like to pick the god, we would like to pick the sin, we would like to pick teams, we would like to sit on the throne, rule over creation, and if not rule over creation, at least have the freedom to do our own live the way we please without some god butting in, judging us, bossing us around and telling us what to do. “It's the war of the gods”.. Is the real God God, or are you God. And when God invades your space, do you receive that gladly or do you oppose Him violently? Him telling you what to do. Every time you sin you are volleying an attack and an assault toward God who desires peace with you. It is not that God is necessary initially opposed to you, it is you that is opposed to Him. It is no different than if I wanted to love you and be friends with you, but you persisted in violating and assaulting me. By virtue of those actions you will have made yourself out to be my enemy. And you have left me no option, but defending myself and responding in kind. That is what we have done to a holy and righteous God.
Many of you say, 'I don't like this, I don't like this.' you shouldn't like it. That is why you should turn away from it. Many people will tell you that you are the solution not the problem. That you are the hope, and not the desecration. Many people will tell you that you need to actualize your potential, you need to embrace your esteem. You need to climb 'Maslow's hierarchy of needs', and you need to actualize the goodness that is within you. Or perhaps you need to seek within you the goodness that you desire or need. That in fact the world is a broken place, but you are a straight person and you can straighten it out. That in fact you can pull yourself up by your own boot-straps. The bible says you don't even have boots. You are worse that you than you possible imagine. What this means is practicably for each of us we have given God the finger and we have sin violently against him, and it is a terrible thing. Some of you say 'oh, this is the ol' fire and brimstone sermon. Of course it is, of course it is. I'm only warming up. ah.. (laughter) What we are talking about is that God is incredible and God is awesome and God is much to be feared and the fear of that God is the beginning of wisdom. And that it's a fearful thing to fall in the hands of that living God.
Many of you are scared of death, many of you are scared of failure, many of you are scared of poverty, you should be most afraid of God, you should be most afraid of God. And there is no peace for those who insistently declare war against God. Every time you sin you are literally volleying an assault against God and His goodness. Practically what that means is this; every man in this room who drinks too much and is a drunkard, eats too much and is a glutton, bends the truth and is a liar. Every man who is a covetor and wants another man's goods or another man's wife. Every man who lust after another woman. Every man who sleeps with a woman that is not his wife, or every man that looks at a picture of a woman that he wishes that he could sleep with, that's not his wife. Those men are all rebels, they are law breakers, they are enemy's of God fighting against His good creation and fighting against His will for human history. They are all His enemy's declaring war on Him because they want to be God. And for those of you men theat are sitting here saying I haven't done any of those things, you are worse than them because you are filled with pride and self-righteousness. And that is the greatest sin of all and it is the one that got Satan kicked out of heaven. So don't omit yourself from the team. I had the same resume' til the age of nineteen, and I was as moral as anyone in the room, and all that earned me was a front row seat in hell. Good people end up in hell. The issue is not morality the issue is God....”