I was messing with my granny once. I said granny, let's get you - it was her birthday. I said let's get you all made up. Let's get you some jewellery, get you some make up, get you a nice hair do, get you a good outfit. She said oh no babe, I'd hate to send myself to hell [laughter] and maybe someone else too. I said how would you send somebody else to hell? She said well I'd hate to give a man a lustful thought. [Laughter, applause] I was like lustful thought! No worries there! [Laughter] Like nothing's in the right place. [Laughter] When you create a system that binds a woman to guilt around having a lustful thought from a man at 90 years old, you have created slavery! [Laughter] And the whole point of salvation was setting people free. It was not forgiving sins. Forgiveness of sins was the start. The finish was that sin won't have mastery over anyone any more; that salvation to a Hebrew person was not about getting to go to heaven. It was about being slave driver free today.
You know whose hands are in that? Us, and it has to do with our yoke. Do you realise that the world around you looks at how you live and determines binding and loosing from that, like what's okay and what's not okay. As teachers if there are any pastors in the room, there's double responsibility because what we say actually binds people to certain things and looses them from it. Let me give you an example. Is it a sin to go to the movies? Is it a sin to go to the movies? Most people are saying no, but the answer to that is it depends on what's been bound to you. Is it a sin for my grandmother to go to the movies? Absolutely yes, because if she goes she'd be being rebellious to what's been bound to her. Is it a sin to cut your hair? No, but to my grandmother it is because she'd be going against what has been bound to her; that our yoke actually binds people to certain things. Do you realise the power that's on your life to free people up or bind people up?
We need to be asking the question: do we bind people to what Jesus binded them to, and loose people from what Jesus loosed them from, and just trust that His way is the best way for our life? Are we replications of Jesus? As a culture in the church we've become so hard. Stuff that Jesus would allow we don't even allow. Do you realise that there are churches in that according to their constitution and bylaws would never have David preach in their pulpits? As a matter of fact I had a pastor once in a pretty big city at a pastors meeting stand up and say this out loud: If King David was coming to preach in my city I would stand against him because of what he did. I had to refrain from calling him a fool lest I be in danger of Gehenna. [Laughter] It's binding and it's loosing. What are we as a church - I assume most of you go to church here. What are we as a church binding people from and loosing people to?
Are we loosing people to act in such ways that is destructive and bringing Gehenna? Are we binding them to things that Jesus would never bind them to, because this creates faith, what we can believe for. There's this pastor in America that gave this illustration that helped me so much about faith. I want to end tonight with it and then we'll pick up with this tomorrow okay. But this helped me so much and if it helped me I'm thinking it might help you, but this pastor in America, when he did this I was like that helped me so much with faith. Let me share it with you okay? [Silence while drawing illustration 00.28.08 to 00.28.16] This is Joe and that's Sally. Joe and Sally are stuck in a two dimensional world. They live in two dimensions, and in a two dimensional world what is that? It's a rectangle. What's that? A circle - so that's a rectangle and that's a circle. In a two dimensional world it cannot be both. It can't be both. It's either a rectangle or a circle. It has to be one or the other. You can't - that's a rectangle, that's a circle.