What is Jesus' response to him? Is it: yeah, but did you pray the prayer? Prayer, what prayer? Oh, I know, I sent Baptist missionaries to your village, but unfortunately their car broke down on the way there, and you didn't - please tell me you said the prayer before you died? Oh no, I didn't know, whatever, I'll do whatever You want me to do now.
Oh unfortunately, it's just too late - there's this torture chamber I've built for most people, and you're just going to have to go in there, because you have to. Really? Really? Really?
Is the Mongolian kid's response to God just as valid as yours? He's doing it with the light he's been given, are you kidding me? Is God allowed to do what He likes?
What they believed in Jesus' day was: one sacrifice, per family, per year. That's what gave you forgiveness. Jesus shows up and says: one sacrifice, for the whole world, for all time. How many of you were here last year when I preached a message called The Goat Has Left the Building? Yeah, okay, that was the one sacrifice, per family, per year; so Jesus comes in and goes: ah no, don't worry about that, we'll just do one sacrifice for the whole world for all time. That'll do it, that'll be good. Would you have followed Him, or would you have run from Him?
Jesus is amazing. I find Jesus so amazing, and to be a disciple of just Jesus requires us to have views of God that are bigger than what we thought. Maybe, just maybe God is nicer than what you think.
So two questions: one, does God have the right to do what He wants to do? Can I get an amen on that? [Amen!] Alright, so if we've established God can do what he likes, then our problem must be number two: are we envious because He's generous?
N if you don't believe God can do anything He wants, then keep working on number one; but if you believe God can do anything He wants, and you have a problem with God giving others the same wages He gives you, even though they've done less work, then the problem is that we are envious because He's generous.
What about - and this is where I had to stop, because I firmly believe God can do what He likes; like I have no trouble with God saving a Mongolian kid through a vision in a star. I have no problem with that at all, and here's why: I just think God does that, number one.
Number two, there's this passage in 1 Corinthians, it's either 1 or 2 Corinthians, Chapter 10; Paul is telling the story of the Exodus to Corinthian people, and he says: there's this one time where Moses got water out of a rock, and the rock was Jesus Christ. So is there ever a moment where Jesus can take the form of a rock in the desert? And if He can take the form of a rock in a desert, what else could He take the form of?
I have no trouble with God appearing to people. I have no trouble with God working in the hearts of people. I have no trouble with Him doing it outside the Bible. In some ways, I think that might be easier. I'm serious, there's no bias, there's no - you have a vision of a heavenly being, it's a bit more compelling than an intellectual argument. I have no trouble with that at all.
Oh, you want to hear something cool that I experienced recently? I don't have my iPhone but trust me, I have it on a picture. I went to the Smithsonian Institute, and in the Museum of Natural History they have a mummy exhibit.
What they explained to us, was that in those days in Egypt, that they believed that if you died for instance - and let's say that we were your pastors - that we were supposed to write what kind of life you lived, on the inside of your coffin; and on the other side God would open your sarcophagus - we'll just say coffin, because sarcophagus is just ridiculously long to say.
So God would open your coffin, and He would read what your life was like, and go: okay, you're alright; or okay, you're not; and so it was based on what we wrote about you, right? And so then we were held accountable by God to being honest, because if He lets a jerk into heaven - that would just be terrible right?