The Plate Never Changes | Why People Hate God’s Word

People don’t hate God’s Word because it’s unclear.

They hate it because it doesn’t move.

In baseball, home plate never changes size. From Little League to the Major Leagues, the standard stays the same. Spiritually, God’s truth works the same way.

In this sermon episode of the Ain’t Quiet Podcast, Pastor Drew Papasan walks through how culture constantly tries to redefine truth while Scripture remains unchanged.

This message challenges listeners to stop measuring life by shifting opinions and start building on the unchanging truth of God’s Word.

Scripture: Matthew 7:13–29 (ESV)

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“Faith that speaks when the world stays silent.”

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Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:18

Hey everybody. Welcome back to the Ain't Quiet Podcast. This week's episode is a little different. Honestly, I was a little behind on producing a normal episode, but after preaching this message you're about to hear, I really felt like I needed to put it here because I think it's one of the clearest pictures of what's happening in our culture right now. In baseball, home plate never changes sizes. It doesn't get wider because someone's struggling. It doesn't shrink because someone's super talented. The standard stays the standard. And the more I thought about that, the more I realized that that's exactly what our world is fighting against spiritually. People don't hate God's word because it's unclear. They hate it because it doesn't move. Culture wants to redefine truth, redefine morality, redefine sin, but God's standard hasn't changed. So this episode is actually a sermon I recently preached called The Plate Never Changes. And I really believe this message will challenge you, encourage you, and maybe even make you think differently about truth, culture, and what it means to build your life on God's Word. So wherever you're listening from, I'm glad you're here. Let's get into it. Matthew chapter 7, we're going to talk about this. And I'm going to be real, this is this is neat. This is why the Lord is so great and things. I have thoughts leading up into like series and things I want to preach on, things that I feel the church needs to hear from the Word of God to move forward and things. But then sometimes you're just sitting at baseball practice listening to 13-year-old kids argue with me about strikes and balls on batting practice, where it's we're no matter what swing. And if you don't know, I helped coach a baseball team and I'll give a shout-out so I can send him this clip later. John Paul Davis, his dad was a pastor at First Baptist Russellville for a very long time, and he's a great man of God. We've even come this last week to realize we line up scripture theology a lot more than I thought we did. And that was really cool to have a conversation about. But we try and teach baseball. We both have a heart and a passion for baseball. I think it's one of the greatest sports to teach you about endurance because it's a designed sport for you to fail. There's a man by the name of Juan Soto who's getting paid over three quarters of a million, no, three-quarters of a billion dollars. Okay,$765 million contract, and his batting average sometimes touches 300. That means he fails seven out of 10 times, and that's worthy of being paid almost a billion dollars. But you have to find success in pushing through. So this morning, if you don't mind, this is gonna be a little more fun. This is gonna be a little more going. You can see the picture. We're gonna talk about home plate. Because as I'm sitting there listening to 13-year-olds argue with me over and over again about something right down the middle, and they're mad because they couldn't hit the ball. They're mad because they swung over it, and they're mad because they couldn't hit a home run. And in batting practice, where we're throwing it real soft, I was like, man, the plate never changes. And you know that in the picture are dimensions, and I'll give it to you. 17 inches wide, eight and a half inches, comes back at 12 inches. The depth to the back of the box officially is supposed to be eight inches. That's the dimension for a little league plate and an MLB plate. So you can be little league and having the time of your life and and and watching butterflies in the outfield, or you could be getting paid$765 million and everything, and the plate doesn't change. The skill level doesn't adapt. It doesn't make a difference what level you're at. The plate doesn't change. It's a standard that's set to measure against for all of baseball. Well, this morning, we're gonna talk about the plate, the word of God, the standard that does not change, the standard that is absolutely not going to adapt or go to anything that we want it to. So here's the deal with this this morning. I'm gonna tell you this. In baseball, sorry, I lost my thought there for a second. And in baseball, and we've got two that retired from doing it. I've done it for a little bit. I don't know if anyone else did it in their seasons with their kids or anything else, but but I've umpired. And it takes a it does take a very special person to endure and do umpiring more than one game. Everyone could do it one game. Takes a very special person to come back the next game. It is not easy because a lot of people measure their kids' success and failures on your opinions, on judgment. So it doesn't the the plate is 17 inches wide, and the umpire doesn't widen it because a pitcher is struggling. He doesn't shrink it because the batter is getting paid a lot of money. The standard stays the standard, and when the umpire stops calling the plate correctly, chaos follows. People yell, you get called things. If y'all remember a police officer in Danville by the name of Burl Boyd, he was best friends with my grandpa. They worked together. Burl, when I umpired, was always at the Danville Park because he he would look out for me because of my grandpa. And I'd call Burl come down there, and he carried that big old long revolver that never came out of that holster. And but he'd come down there, and you knew he was a pretty tall fella, even at his older age, and escort people out. Chaos came because people didn't like the standard that was set at 17 inches. Well, here's what we get to this morning. Here's where we're gonna get to. So join me in Matthew 7, and I'm gonna tell you this real quick. The chaos that comes from the umpire not changing, from the plate not changing. Well, that's the world we live in today. And I and I made this list of things. Here's what the world's constantly trying to widen the plate about sin, redefining truth, marriage, salvation, holiness, even Jesus Christ Himself. But God doesn't adjust the plate. And the Bible's not gonna change, it's not gonna evolve with society. Truth is not up to a vote, it is measured against the word of God. So his standard doesn't change. So join me. We're gonna go through verses. You know, I like to go through passages, but we're gonna be in Matthew 7, 13 and 14 is where we're gonna start. So I want to I want to just read that passage there, pray, and then let's let's get to work here through our text. And here's what the word of God says Enter by the narrow gate. For the gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many. For the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few. Dear Heavenly Father, I just pray this morning that through the fun, getting to talk about two things I love, baseball and your word, that that we leave here with a clear, clear understanding of the standard you've set that you're not gonna change, and that we have to measure our life, our decisions, our thinking, and everything against. Thank you for Jesus and the cross. May we just dive into this time of worshiping in your word together. Amen. So here we go. In our text, enter by the narrow gate, for the gate that is wide is easy to go through. Everyone gets through it. Well, it immediately gets to something. Jesus immediately destroys the modern idea that standards in the world should widen, they should change. Everyone should get a participation trophy. Your pastor does not like participation trophies, it doesn't teach character, it doesn't teach that life's hard. It gives everyone everything's good, and then you go get a job, cost is tough, and then you're like, oh my goodness, where's my participation trophy? No, life's hard. Now you can you can teach that at a different level to a six-year-old, just as a six-year-old, I want you to be able to put the glove above your face so you don't take a baseball to the face. And if a great ball comes, I want you to do whatever you want to do. If you want to lay down and stop it with your body, and I'm coaching you at six-year-old, I don't care. You stop the ball. Great job putting effort into it. If you're a 13-year-old and you're playing and there's two outs and a guy on third, and you lay down just to stop the ball, that's a different conversation. We evolve, we grow. That's what I love about baseball is it's it you never, ever, ever get great at it. You can be good enough to get to the next level and the next level and the next level and the next contract and the NIL and everything that's going on right now, but there is no one that's perfect at baseball. There's no one perfect at life. Ever. So, what does Jesus say in our text right here in 13 and 14? He he says, Hey, I there is no widening the plate. The gate is narrow. Enter by the narrow gate. This isn't because God's cruel. This isn't because he's a mean God with a magnifying glass and you're the anthill, but it's because truth is specific. There's very clear points on how I should be as a pastor. There's very clear points as how a man should be to his wife. There's very clear points of how a wife should be to her husband, very clear points of how we should reach the city of Ola with the gospel message. And it doesn't change based on how you're feeling that day, or how I'm feeling, or if it was a tough week and you didn't sleep much. The standard doesn't change. So he says, hey, look at this. Enter in the the narrow gate for the the one that's wide is easy. Everyone goes through it, everyone goes to it, but it leads to destruction. And those who enter it are many. There's a lot of people that are wanting to take the easy way out, and God's saying, I'm not rewarding the easy way out. He's saying there's a standard, there's a thing, and I'm gonna hold you to it. And we're at that right now with these 13-year-olds. Okay, we started the season out winning two games over like three tournaments. Not very good, especially for the standard. If you ask my oldest son, Colt, that is not the standard with his competitive nature. So then we played a tournament, played teams way bigger division than us. And we were so close, what they call them baseball errors. We they didn't win the game, we literally handed it to them. And it was tough, but they tried their hardest. They played as hard as they could. Then we played the next tournament, played teams in our division, and they finally, finally something grasp. No matter who the opponent is, no matter what life's doing, I now know the effort I have to give at third base. I now know the effort I have to give as a catcher, as an outfielder, as a battery, as a teammate. And the last tournament, it finally clicked for a bunch of knucklehead 13-year-old boys. If we play to the standard and the effort that we know we are called to do, we're gonna win. And they went from winning two games in a tournament to now they they won the entire tournament. We were at a place all day on a Saturday because they decided to set the standard. We didn't have to, well, I can't go play for them. My baseball days are done. My other coach, he he he got drafted by the the Cardinals and the Rays. He was he got up in the divisions. He he had a great baseball career. His career's done. The standard came set, and the boys had to go to it. Well, that's the very same thing here. God is not going to say, hey, you know what? You showed up, you showed up to church, you showed up to the ball field, you got your uniform, it may not even be tucked in, you may not be in and whatever. I'm good with it. You're in. No. He says in verse 14, for the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life. And those who find it are few. Few people find success in baseball. Statistically, even with the MLB teams having a lot of teams, and then you got all these minor league teams and farm league teams and Savannah Banana Ball and all the fun things. How many people start out playing baseball at six, seven, eight, nine, and ten years old? How many make it to one of those places is like 0.01%. So not even a percent of people get a baseball career. But they push and they push and they push, but like, hey, we're just gonna participate, we're gonna do the standard is set. And he's saying, hey, that when life gets hard, when things go, that's what leads to life. Why? Because if the word of God's the standard, then we have to measure ourselves against it. And if he's saying few find it, he's saying there are people who find success in life, but they're the ones who enter through the standard of the word of God. They don't sit here and say, okay, the plate's 17 inches. Well, there's a gap between it and the batter's box. There's some room back here. Why is the why is home plate not that entire open space? It's because that's the standard that's set in baseball, just like in the word of God. So jump down to verse 24. Love this, this teaching, this story. It's a very popular story. If you've been in church more than five minutes, you're gonna know this parable story. And here's what it is everyone then who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock. And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat on his house, but it did not fall because it had been founded on the rock. And everyone who hears these words of mine and does not do them will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand. And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat against the house, and it fell, and the and great was the fall of it. See, notice, notice something here, okay, and in this story and this in this teaching, this parable of everything, because I love how Jesus teaches, he's the greatest teacher that ever lived. Notice what he says. He didn't say, he didn't say, not people who heard culture, not people who followed feelings, not people who meant well, but people who built their life on his word. See, the rock is not an opinion, the rock is obedience to Christ. And people try today wanting a moving plate to adjust it. They want these things: holiness without repentance, Christianity without surrender, heaven without Jesus as their Lord, and forgiveness without transformation. But here's the deal today as the plate never changes, the word of God doesn't change, those things don't go together. So the plate never changes. Why? Because God's already spoken. Let me give you two verses here. Malachi 3:6, for the Lord do, for I the Lord do not change. Therefore, you, O children of Jacob, are not consumed. He doesn't want you to go back and forth, swaying back and forth to the standards of the world, because one day the world's gonna say, as it has, as we grew up at one point where the society of the United States was a Christian society, and now today it's not the normal. Church is not the place to go to, and Jesus Christ is not the guy to give your life to. Another verse, Hebrews 13:8, Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever. Wow. The plate never changes. The standard is set. But here's the other part of this. Because God's standard is set, it's fixed. But here's point number two this morning. The world wants to enlarge the plate. A pitcher who misses outside wants the umpire to stretch the zone. Why? Because when standards are set, it exposes something. Your failures. Humanity does the same thing spiritually. Instead of repenting, culture wants to change definitions. They want the plate to be widened, to move, to get a participation trophy, for everyone to be accepted, for to say everyone to claim and say that everyone's going to go to heaven. There's no way a God would not let someone into heaven. And they miss the very definition of grace, but also the very definition of sin. Isaiah 5.10 goes on to support this. Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter. We now live in a culture where it's offensive to speak the truth. Feelings are authority, emotions are more than facts. People celebrate sin and biblical conviction against world definition is called hatred. And I knew this, I've learned this, but even here lately, as I've I've kind of jumped into the world of online content making and posting biblical truth, not even my opinions, people don't like the truth because it's not easy. Because when you hear the truth, you're put against one place, the narrow gate, and you have a choice. Am I going through a narrow gate or am I gonna get comfy? Because everyone's going that way. And man, does it look easy and it looks fun? And I can hear the music and the strobe lights, and they probably have recliners to kick back, and it's awesome. And it just looks so fun. But man, when the narrow gates pass through, you realize the only reason that gate's open is through the blood of the Lamb, through Jesus Christ. So the world's gonna say this the plate's too small, the standard's too much. There's no way a God would call out marriages that are not biblical. There's no way God would say, hey, it's okay to do this because you're not as bad as people. And we and people want that. They want that. The world wants you to adjust the plate to say, I'm not measuring myself against the word of God. I measure myself against what society says is okay. But we've already proven as people trying to get away from taxes and religious freedom and liberties came to America and set the course of what became a Christian society, has already been lost and changed to the society we live in now. The world's going to change day by day. It's going to take a newsacre, a celebrity, a movement, something fixed, something false, something to change the definition to fit what the world wants. And it changes. And if you try to keep up with it, well, your neck's gonna hurt because of the whiplash. But God says this the plate isn't too small. You've just missed the standard. The standard can't be your feelings, the standard can't be sin. The standard standard can't be that that the Bible causes hatred. The standard is the word of God and the completed work of the cross. So the problem isn't isn't that scripture is not clear, the problem is people don't like clear scripture. That that sinners naturally hate God's authority. But what about point three? Go to verse 21 through 23, because this is this is where it really goes. Okay. And we get this. And we played a coach the other day, not gonna name him. And we've played him several times. And I think as soon as he walks in the gate, he's gonna start arguing with the ump. A call hadn't even been made yet, game hadn't even started, and I think he's just gonna argue with the ump, just in his nature, and and going, well, batters get in there and they argue, and I've seen it from our own players. I'm sitting at first, I normally coach first base, sometimes I'm coaching third, and and I'll see a pitch just right down the middle, and I see him in practice hit that thing a million times, and they just watch it go by for strike three, and they'll make this face, they'll do this. Or the one that you really see the wrath of God come out in me is and slam their helmet and throw their four or five hundred dollar bat that they could just you know give to us if they're gonna get rid of it. The thought isn't the batter argues all this, the coach argues and says, Oh, I thought it was a strike. That felt a little outside. You're not being fair. Oh. But here's the thing about the plate is why we can compare it to God's word. Neither one cares about your feelings, they care about facts and the truth. The standard is set. Look at verse 21 through 23. 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. On that day, many will say to me, Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and cast out demons in your name and do many mighty works in your name? And then will I declare to them, I never knew you. Depart from me, you workers of lawlessness. That hurts. That's almost as bad as as later on in the Bible when Jesus says, I'm gonna spit some of you out of my mouth. I'm I'm not I'm I'm done with some of y'all. Both of those, as a Christian, if you're trying to, if you're seeking Jesus, if you're hunting Jesus, if you're trying to figure out this this whole thing called Team Jesus, those things should hurt you at your core. And as a Christian, they should hurt you at your core to go. Here's what he says. Here's what Jesus says in those verses. Let me summarize it for you. You can sound religious, you can do religious work, you can claim to be a Christian, you can attend church. And still be lost. Why? Because the standard is not, do you feel spiritual? Did you attend church? Did you tithe in the back? Did you fill out a welcome card? Did you get a free bath? The standard is do you truly know Jesus Christ and obey him? Can we say it? He said it earlier. It's become a phrase. It's even a phrase that's made it on t-shirts. If you're gonna get one thing right, it's gotta be Jesus. See, look look at this. This is look down to look up, I'm sorry, to verse 17. Let me get through this to you. You get to verse 17. This is where this is all it because Jesus didn't come to remove the standard. He didn't come to change the rules. He came to fulfill them so that the standard is set. It's hardened like the best concrete in the world. It's not falling apart. There's no potholes coming up out of it. This is the truth. This is the standard. And it's not try harder because every one of you has missed the place sometime in your life. Romans 3 23, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. Everyone falls short. Everyone doesn't get everything over the plate. Everyone questions what's going on. Everyone questions the call that's made. But God is the umpire with the strike zone that is his standard and his word. We are all sinners and followers of it. But Jesus lived perfectly according to the standard that we failed to keep. Look at verse 17. Look at what the word of God says here. So every healthy tree bears good fruit, but the diseased tree bears bad fruit. Sorry. Sorry. Scratch that. Because I'm my notes and me are getting off here. Okay. Matthew 5, 17, not verse 17. Do not think that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets, I have not come to abolish them, but to fulfill them. I'm good to make a mistake. See, the standard's the word, not your pastor. That if that's not exhibit A, that you're not measuring yourself against the pastor and his standards, then you've missed it. Because that's not even the first time I've done that. I've done that where I told y'all to go to a whole nother book, and I'm sitting here reading another book, and you're at another one. It happens. The standard's not your pastor. Please, please don't put me to that. But at the end of Matthew 5, 17, I have not come to abolish them, but to fulfill them. Christ is fulfilling the standard of God's completed work. That he went to the cross for sinners who missed the mark. And the gospel is not this. The gospel is not all of a sudden, if you accept Jesus Christ, that means the plate's widened. That means the strike zone's easy. That means everything's a strike, everything's a soft toss. Just swing away. No, the gospel is Jesus met the standard for us. And now salvation and eternity is all through repentance and faith in the one that made it possible, Jesus Christ. So in baseball, this would look crazy. This would be hilarious. I would love to see this. No one gets to carry their own plate where you get to go up and say, okay, this is a great pitcher. And he is on. We all, if you grew up for five minutes of baseball, you got a pitcher that you loved. Pedro Martinez, Nolan Ryan. I had some guys that I absolutely loved even watching old highlight reels of. My favorite player of all time wasn't a pitcher, but one of the best, to me, the best hitter of all time, Ted Williams. Love watching old Ted Williams stuff. But imagine you're those guys, or you or anyone, and you got to carry your own home plate. And every batter, you get to go change it. So this is a terrible pitcher. He's throwing stuff right down the middle. Well, I want a bigger plate and I want to put my toes right on it, and I'm about to hit a home run. Or this is a pitcher getting paid a lot of money to try and strike people out. I want a plate about that wide. And I want to put it right here. We call it a cookie. The standard, if people got to carry that around, imagine that chaos. Everyone would want to change the shape of the plate. They'd want to change everything. And this is exactly where I believe culture is trying to do to you spiritually. Everyone wants their own truth. Oh, Jesus of the Bible did this. There's no way. There's no way I'm not getting in. Jesus of the Bible, there's I'm so much better. I'm I haven't murdered. Jesus of the Bible, I repented of some sins. I got a free bath. I can live my life the way I want to. Because he was a saving grace for a moment, not my savior for life. But heaven doesn't operate by your opinion. Praise God. God's word is the standard, the plates not changed. So the question we have today is this are you going to submit to God's standard? Are you going to spend your life demanding that he changes it for you? He ain't gonna. The entrance, the the requirements to heaven aren't getting changed just because you go to the gate. They're the same for the people back then, for your grandma or grandpa that you love dearly. They're the same for you, and they're gonna be the same for your children, your grandchildren, your neighbor, anyone. You're gonna get up there and it's gonna be do you know Jesus is your Lord and Savior? And if you get this one thing right, and it and it does, and I'm gonna tell you something. This is what people miss. It's not a moment, it's not a ceremony, it's not a thing. Yes, if you come up here today and say, Pastor Drew, I am professing my faith in Jesus Christ, he's my Lord and Savior. I'm a sinner in need of a savior, and then we get all excited and we sit up and we feel this baptistry, and we dunk you, and I hold you a little longer to make sure we get it all good, and we bring you back up, and then you go right back out, same sin that you're doing, you missed it. You missed the standard. You tried to change the plate so that you could just get a cookie. Cookie's not the standard. The word of God is. See, the person that comes to truly surrender to meet Jesus Christ, the Lord and Savior who can beat addiction, he can beat financial trouble, he can beat all these things. He can be with you even in the struggles. When you meet that Jesus, you can't leave and be the same. And when people do that, I'm I'm just one to just straight up be honest with you. You're probably not saved. Because you didn't meet Jesus of the Bible, you didn't meet Jesus of the gospel, you meant the Jesus of your opinions, your standards, and your wants and needs. He didn't go to the didn't go to the cross for your wants and needs. He went to fulfill the standard of what the Word of God willed, called for, and was completed through him. So you've got to stop this. Stop comparing yourself to others. Stop trying to say you're better than most, you're good enough, your church attendance, you're trying your best. The standard is perfect righteousness that you can't obtain. And only Jesus Christ has met it fully. So this morning, as as we come, as as Kella comes up to to do, we've got a song, we've got a time. This morning, here's what it is. If Jesus Christ is the standard to fully meet for perfect righteousness because you can't meet it, because you're a sinner, you're depraved, you're a lost person, then this morning of any time, repent. That means turn and admit to the sins in your life and struggles and turn and leave them at the cross. Believe the gospel that the standard hasn't changed, and only through Jesus Christ can you be saved. And then build your life on the rock before eternity proves the standard never changed. Because when you get to heaven, there is no extra time, there is no extra season, there is no overtime, there's no extra innings. There's nine innings of life. And when it's done, you're done. And you better have gotten Jesus right because you're gonna come to realize him as your savior, or you're gonna spend eternity in a place called hell because you tried to change the plate that God had set and established and is not going to move. So as we get to this season and this time, if you need to pray, if this is a time you need to come repent of something, you need to talk something out, this is your time. There's nothing magical about coming up here, but I can trust and tell you from experience, if you take the first steps to say, I'm going to go out of my way today, I'm not gonna stay in this seat where I'm comfy. I'm going out of my way to pray, I'm going out of my way to repent, I'm going out of my way to make a change. That Jesus is gonna meet you right there where you are, and he's gonna say, Great job, faithful servant. Now let's go to work and spend the rest of our life measuring everything against the standard of the plate, because the plate, the word of God, does not change. Dear Heavenly Father, as we go through this time, as we go through this, for someone that needs this today, may they repent of what's going on in their life. May they measure against the standard of what you have for them, the word of God, of Jesus Christ and the completed work. And may we all submit to that, not for a ceremony and a free bath, but for eternity. I thank you for Jesus and the completed work of the cross. In Jesus' name, amen.