WEBVTT 00:00:00.400 --> 00:00:03.839 Hello and welcome to session two of our Foundations class. 00:00:04.160 --> 00:00:13.039 In this session, we'll be continuing on and asking our second most important question we could ever ask, and that is, what does God think about me? 00:00:13.279 --> 00:00:20.480 You know, the two most important questions anyone could ever ask is what is God like and what does he think about me? 00:00:20.640 --> 00:00:28.079 And you know, last time we saw the essential nature of God and his character and how God has revealed himself. 00:00:28.320 --> 00:00:30.480 He is the God we can know. 00:00:30.719 --> 00:00:34.000 And so the question is, why is this foundational? 00:00:34.159 --> 00:00:38.479 Well, Jesus said it, and we looked at this verse last time in John 4.24. 00:00:38.719 --> 00:00:45.520 God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in in spirit, and worship him in spirit and truth. 00:00:45.679 --> 00:00:48.640 You see, you can't truly worship what you don't know. 00:00:48.880 --> 00:01:01.439 And so we noted several important realities about this last time, that uh God is a God who desires for us to know him, and what you think about God will ultimately determine how you live. 00:01:01.600 --> 00:01:04.560 What I think about God will determine how I live. 00:01:04.799 --> 00:01:12.239 Now in session two, we're going to look at this second question, not just what is God like, but what does God think about me? 00:01:12.480 --> 00:01:15.439 And so why is this such an important question? 00:01:15.599 --> 00:01:21.519 Uh I need to know what God thinks of me in order to rightly relate to Him. 00:01:21.760 --> 00:01:32.400 And when we think about this more deeply, there are really three, and this is not in your notes, you just write this on the margin or somewhere, but the three different perceptions of reality about who we are. 00:01:32.560 --> 00:01:35.120 Uh in other words, just speaking about our identity. 00:01:35.359 --> 00:01:45.920 And uh this should be uh no surprise to anyone, but there is the identity that the the person others see, and we would call this probably superficial uh knowledge. 00:01:46.879 --> 00:01:50.079 Most of us think in terms of what other people think about us. 00:01:50.319 --> 00:01:51.680 Do you think I'm likable? 00:01:51.840 --> 00:01:54.319 Do you think I'm smart, funny, so on? 00:01:54.480 --> 00:01:57.359 Uh do you like the shirt I'm wearing or the car I drive? 00:01:57.519 --> 00:01:58.560 Do I fit in? 00:01:58.879 --> 00:02:01.519 This is the the the person others see. 00:02:01.760 --> 00:02:03.760 Uh that's of superficial view. 00:02:03.920 --> 00:02:09.919 And then there's a second perceptive way of uh thinking about this, the person you yourself see. 00:02:10.240 --> 00:02:14.719 And this in uh some respects is a little bit better, but it's subjective. 00:02:14.960 --> 00:02:23.280 And uh, you know, I used to uh always be concerned when I was a teenager of having uh uh perfect hair. 00:02:23.599 --> 00:02:37.919 I live b back in the the 70s I would always carry, and I guess all the my friends carried a comb in their pocket, and we would always be combing our hair because we uh we thought this is uh made us look a certain way in the eyes of others. 00:02:38.000 --> 00:02:40.400 Uh but it was the way we saw ourselves, really. 00:02:40.479 --> 00:02:42.639 This is the person you yourself see. 00:02:42.960 --> 00:02:47.840 And then the most important really is this one is the person that God sees. 00:02:48.080 --> 00:02:49.360 And this is the reality. 00:02:49.520 --> 00:02:55.759 Sometimes uh the way people that we we uh relate to see us, that's not reality. 00:02:55.919 --> 00:03:03.120 Uh the way we see ourselves is uh subjective, it's not reality, but the way that God sees us, well, that's the truth. 00:03:03.280 --> 00:03:12.960 And uh what God thinks about you outweighs the superficial opinions of others, and it outweighs the subjective picture we often have of ourselves. 00:03:13.199 --> 00:03:22.800 So we're gonna cover this progression of beginning a relationship with God in this this time, and there's really four basic ideas we want to cover uh this time. 00:03:23.280 --> 00:03:26.639 The first one, and I'll just go through these in summary and then we'll go through them. 00:03:26.800 --> 00:03:28.960 Uh the first is man is a sinner. 00:03:29.280 --> 00:03:32.319 The second, man is the object of God's love. 00:03:32.639 --> 00:03:39.360 Third, man is forgiven through Christ's work on the cross, and then fourthly, man is the friend of God. 00:03:39.520 --> 00:03:42.159 And you say, Well, I've heard those ideas before. 00:03:42.319 --> 00:03:43.439 This is not new. 00:03:43.759 --> 00:03:58.479 I would just caution you uh to not pass over these truths too quickly or too uh lightly or with too much familiarity, because I always think God can reveal new truths to us as we even look at the old things that we think we know. 00:03:58.719 --> 00:04:03.680 And so let's just look look at each of these and uh really dig in and ask God to help us here. 00:04:03.840 --> 00:04:06.479 The first one is this man is a sinner. 00:04:06.719 --> 00:04:12.400 Romans 3, 10 through 12 says, as it is written, there is none righteous. 00:04:12.639 --> 00:04:13.360 No, not one. 00:04:13.520 --> 00:04:14.719 Well, that's an amazing statement. 00:04:14.879 --> 00:04:16.480 I won't in fact, uh, do this. 00:04:16.639 --> 00:04:25.279 If you got your pen or pencil uh while you've got your notes in front of you, circle the word none as we go through this, because it occurs four times. 00:04:25.360 --> 00:04:26.560 I'll just give you a hint. 00:04:26.639 --> 00:04:28.000 It's there four times. 00:04:28.160 --> 00:04:29.279 So circle these. 00:04:29.439 --> 00:04:33.920 As it is written, there is none, there's your first one, I'll give you help. 00:04:34.079 --> 00:04:36.000 None righteous, know not one. 00:04:36.240 --> 00:04:45.519 There is none who understands, there is none who seeks after God, they have all turned aside, they have together become unprofitable. 00:04:45.759 --> 00:04:50.480 There is none who does who does good, know not one. 00:04:51.040 --> 00:05:02.240 And so those four uses of the word none kind of hammers home for us the reality of one important truth, that is uh of universal sin. 00:05:02.639 --> 00:05:04.879 There is none righteous, know not one. 00:05:05.040 --> 00:05:07.199 Isn't isn't that an amazing statement? 00:05:07.360 --> 00:05:12.639 Just think of all the nice people you know, and all the nice people you know I would think of that I know. 00:05:12.879 --> 00:05:15.519 And uh think about uh all the people in this world. 00:05:15.680 --> 00:05:17.519 I don't know, several billion people. 00:05:17.759 --> 00:05:21.759 There's no one in the whole world that is righteous. 00:05:22.000 --> 00:05:34.000 That's that's astounding, really, because we know a lot of good people out there, but from God's perspective, and he's the one that gets to call the shots, there is no one who uh measures up to his standards. 00:05:34.160 --> 00:05:37.279 He's uh he's seeing them in relation to himself. 00:05:37.519 --> 00:05:46.879 And so this failure to be righteous in relation to and in comparison with God shows up in our failure to honor and glorify God as God. 00:05:47.279 --> 00:05:51.680 Uh so there's there's uh no one that is righteous, no not one. 00:05:51.839 --> 00:05:55.040 And he then goes on to say there is no one who understands. 00:05:55.279 --> 00:05:57.519 Uh you say, well, understands what? 00:05:57.920 --> 00:06:01.600 Well, no one understands what it means to honor and glorify God. 00:06:01.839 --> 00:06:14.160 People do not understand God, his character, his ways, and uh most people, and uh if they don't know the Lord Jesus, their thinking is is very often clouded, it's confused. 00:06:14.319 --> 00:06:18.720 They think that God is a certain way, or reality is a certain way. 00:06:19.040 --> 00:06:24.560 Think of all the people today who think they've captured the meaning and purpose of life. 00:06:24.720 --> 00:06:29.920 Uh they think their perception, their philosophy of life is accurate. 00:06:30.160 --> 00:06:37.600 Uh you know, maybe they think God is a figment of people's imagination, or or heaven and hell, uh those concepts are just that. 00:06:37.759 --> 00:06:40.079 They're concepts, but they're not they're not real. 00:06:40.480 --> 00:06:48.319 Or maybe why there's uh evil in the world, or that their their truth, their truth is the ultimate truth. 00:06:48.560 --> 00:06:56.639 And uh so in this uh second ideal where God is saying, there's no one who understands what real reality is. 00:06:56.800 --> 00:06:59.680 Uh and so that's part of what he's saying in this verse. 00:06:59.920 --> 00:07:04.480 And then third, he talks about there's none who under s who seeks after God. 00:07:04.639 --> 00:07:06.240 There's none who seeks after God. 00:07:06.480 --> 00:07:09.759 In other words, no one pursues God on their own. 00:07:10.000 --> 00:07:16.319 No one looks for God apart from his grace, which is his favor toward us. 00:07:16.480 --> 00:07:20.240 Uh they're looking for a God, not the God. 00:07:20.800 --> 00:07:25.920 Uh they're not looking for the God of truth and justice who is behind all things. 00:07:26.079 --> 00:07:31.600 They're often creating a God who they make up in their own mind or in their own image. 00:07:31.759 --> 00:07:35.040 And then he says they all have all turned aside. 00:07:35.439 --> 00:07:42.480 And that brings home to this idea human beings turn away from God and they seek other gods to worship. 00:07:42.639 --> 00:07:51.759 And so as a consequence of failing to understand, seek, and follow God, people become useless and do not practice what is good. 00:07:52.000 --> 00:07:53.839 And then he mentions one other thing here. 00:07:53.920 --> 00:07:56.879 He says they have together become unprofitable. 00:07:57.199 --> 00:08:00.879 There is none who does good, no one not no not one. 00:08:01.040 --> 00:08:02.720 He repeats that idea again. 00:08:02.959 --> 00:08:15.439 So I the question I would just ask uh all of us here is just do you struggle with this idea that man is a sinner, that there's no one in in the whole world that does good? 00:08:15.680 --> 00:08:23.439 No one has ever done good in comparison with uh God, um except for one person and his name is Jesus. 00:08:23.680 --> 00:08:36.960 But imagine that there was a camera that followed you around this past week and uh recorded all of your thoughts, and you say, well, there is there is one where I work and there's one at the the camera stop the uh camera at the stoplight. 00:08:37.120 --> 00:08:38.080 There's lots of cameras. 00:08:38.159 --> 00:08:57.759 Well, maybe what if you had one that followed you around and uh recorded all of your thoughts and my thoughts, and now we were able to press a button and on this Zoom call that we're uh you know, maybe on if you're watching this by Zoom, but if you're not, it's probably uh by recorded. 00:08:57.840 --> 00:09:13.840 But if you were able to push a button that would put them all on the screen so that everybody could see it, how many of us would want to be on that uh list or that uh camera shot? 00:09:14.080 --> 00:09:16.960 Uh I would dare say none of us. 00:09:17.120 --> 00:09:20.879 Uh but this is the description Paul highlights in the problem of sin. 00:09:21.039 --> 00:09:24.559 The original Greek word for sin is uh interesting. 00:09:24.720 --> 00:09:26.879 It literally means to miss the mark. 00:09:27.120 --> 00:09:31.360 In other words, all of us have gone outside of the boundaries or laws of God. 00:09:31.440 --> 00:09:39.919 And you can maybe just picture this uh, you know, if you shot an arrow at a target, and the target you never hit the bullseye. 00:09:40.159 --> 00:09:46.960 And say even you were an expert uh in archery, and you could never hit the bullseye. 00:09:47.279 --> 00:09:52.960 In in relation to what God is talking about here, that's the way it is with us in our life. 00:09:53.120 --> 00:09:56.559 We never hit God's target, his standard of righteousness. 00:09:56.799 --> 00:09:58.799 Uh Saint Augustine said this. 00:09:58.960 --> 00:10:08.960 He said, sin comes when we take a perfectly natural desire or longing or ambition and try desperately to fulfill it without God. 00:10:09.679 --> 00:10:15.919 Not only is it sin, he says, it's a perverse distortion of the image of the Creator in us. 00:10:16.639 --> 00:10:24.799 So the reality is that we are totally helpless to save ourselves and restore that image of God in us. 00:10:25.120 --> 00:10:27.120 We all have been created in the image of God. 00:10:27.200 --> 00:10:36.639 We reflect His uh His person in certain ways, but uh there is nothing we can do to make ourselves righteous or restore that image. 00:10:36.720 --> 00:10:44.320 It at the uh the fall of man when Adam sinned, uh Adam and Eve sinned, that image was uh distorted. 00:10:44.399 --> 00:10:48.399 It didn't go away, but it was it was distorted, it was messed up. 00:10:48.639 --> 00:10:55.360 And so this is an enormous problem because what it means is that there's a separation between us and God. 00:10:55.679 --> 00:11:02.080 Uh Leviticus 19, verse 2 says, You must be holy as I am holy. 00:11:02.240 --> 00:11:07.200 And so if none of us are holy, then how can we have a relationship with a God who is holy? 00:11:07.440 --> 00:11:12.399 And none of us uh I don't I don't think like to hear, much less admit that we're sinners. 00:11:12.639 --> 00:11:18.639 In fact, that's probably the last thing that uh that people want to even uh you know hear about. 00:11:19.039 --> 00:11:20.159 But uh what do we do? 00:11:20.320 --> 00:11:23.039 We tend to try and cover our sin, don't we? 00:11:23.200 --> 00:11:36.720 We try to hide our sin, we try to make it where you know our faults and failures and uh things that don't uh measure up to things we know are not right or we don't do what we know we ought to do, we try to to hide those things. 00:11:36.960 --> 00:11:45.840 And none of us wants to agree that, for example, we're all liars, thieves, adulterers, murderers, etc., all at heart. 00:11:46.080 --> 00:11:51.759 But the evidence is pretty obvious, and uh God says we all have missed the target. 00:11:52.080 --> 00:11:53.919 And you say, What's the target? 00:11:54.159 --> 00:12:01.440 Uh well, Matthew 548, Jesus said it, he told us he said, You must be perfect, as my heavenly Father is perfect. 00:12:01.759 --> 00:12:22.639 He said that's a pretty tall order, a radical standard that goes far beyond any moral form of righteousness, and so that the goal that we have uh uh in what Jesus says here is that we uh mature and we grow into the very likeness of God, but uh this is not how we are without Christ. 00:12:22.879 --> 00:12:32.639 And so Jesus came so that we might become the righteousness of God, and he does that through what is uh is a gradual process as we come to know him. 00:12:32.960 --> 00:12:41.679 So this is foundational to know and to admit that I, even on my best day, am morally and spiritually bankrupt. 00:12:41.919 --> 00:12:51.039 To be cured of the problem, then I know that I, and we all have to first admit that I have an incurable disease. 00:12:52.000 --> 00:13:02.000 Bob Deffenboss said this, he said, the gospel is no gospel at all if it does not have as its starting point man's utter hopeless condition in his own sins. 00:13:02.240 --> 00:13:09.519 Those who are lost can be saved, but those who are not desperately ill and dying think they need no cure. 00:13:09.840 --> 00:13:17.919 There are those who think that the gospel should make much of the love of God, but that the wrath of God should be played down. 00:13:18.159 --> 00:13:21.279 This is not the same gospel which Paul proclaimed. 00:13:21.600 --> 00:13:25.440 End quote that Paul Bob Deffenhawney is exactly right. 00:13:26.879 --> 00:13:35.519 So this idea that man is a sinner, this must be personal for us, always personal for us, and not thinking, well, that's for the other guy. 00:13:35.679 --> 00:13:36.720 That's about that guy. 00:13:36.879 --> 00:13:38.320 No, this is about us personally. 00:13:38.399 --> 00:13:46.799 This is the great irony that we have no problem seeing sin in other people, but we struggle to see it in ourselves. 00:13:47.039 --> 00:13:48.080 Uh G.K. 00:13:48.240 --> 00:13:51.840 Kestron said Kesterson said, Uh, what's wrong with the world? 00:13:52.080 --> 00:13:53.840 A newspaper editorial once asked. 00:13:54.000 --> 00:13:54.320 G.K. 00:13:54.480 --> 00:13:57.279 Chesterson wrote in reply, I am. 00:13:57.759 --> 00:13:58.399 I am. 00:13:58.879 --> 00:14:06.639 So uh if you will, take your pen and mark through the words man is and write in the words I am in that verse. 00:14:06.960 --> 00:14:12.000 Man is a sinner and put in there I am instead. 00:14:12.320 --> 00:14:16.639 And uh, you know, if we're really honest, that's certainly bad news. 00:14:16.960 --> 00:14:20.159 But there is good news, and that's the second idea. 00:14:20.320 --> 00:14:23.279 Man is the object of glu of love, of God's love. 00:14:23.600 --> 00:14:32.639 And uh Alistair Begg said one time, at best we are but clay, animated dust, but viewed as sinners we are monsters indeed. 00:14:32.879 --> 00:14:40.559 Let it be published in heaven as a miracle that the Lord Jesus should set his heart's love upon people like us. 00:14:40.879 --> 00:14:59.039 And it really is amazing that God would send his own son to die in our place, to take the penalty of sin for us so that we didn't have to dying a cruel death on the cross, suffering and dying and shedding his blood for us, so we we wouldn't have to do that. 00:14:59.279 --> 00:15:02.320 Uh you know, recently I read a story that reminded me of that. 00:15:02.639 --> 00:15:09.440 It was written by a nurse, and uh it goes like this it was a busy morning, approximately uh eight thirty a.m. 00:15:09.679 --> 00:15:15.519 when an elderly gentleman in his eighties arrived to have stitches removed from his thumb. 00:15:15.679 --> 00:15:20.960 He stated that he was in a hurry and that he had an appointment at nine o'clock a.m. 00:15:21.279 --> 00:15:22.240 that morning. 00:15:22.480 --> 00:15:31.360 Uh she said I took his vital signs and had him take a seat, knowing it would be over an hour before before someone would be able to see him. 00:15:31.440 --> 00:15:34.559 You know, that's kind of how it is with us when we go to the doctor's office. 00:15:34.799 --> 00:15:42.720 I saw him, she said, looking at his watch, and decided since I was not busy with another patient, I would evaluate his wound. 00:15:43.360 --> 00:15:46.240 On exam, it was well healed. 00:15:46.480 --> 00:15:52.480 So I talked to one of the doctors, got the needed supplies to remove his sutures, and redressed his wound. 00:15:52.639 --> 00:15:56.480 While taking care of him, we began to engage in conversation. 00:15:56.639 --> 00:16:02.799 I asked him if he had an adoptor had a doctor's appointment this morning as he was in such a a hurry. 00:16:03.039 --> 00:16:09.200 Um and the gentleman told me no, that he needed to go to the nursing home to eat breakfast with his wife. 00:16:09.440 --> 00:16:16.480 I then inquired as to her health, and he told me that she had been there for a while and was a victim of Alzheimer's disease. 00:16:16.799 --> 00:16:22.799 As we talked and and I finished dressing his wound, I asked if she would be worried if if he was a bit late. 00:16:23.039 --> 00:16:28.799 And he replied that she no longer knew who he was and hadn't had not recognized him in five years. 00:16:29.039 --> 00:16:36.879 And she said, this nurse said, I was surprised and asked him, Are you you still go every morning, even though she doesn't know who you are? 00:16:37.120 --> 00:16:44.240 And he smiled and he patted her hand and she he said, She doesn't know me, but I still know who she is. 00:16:44.559 --> 00:16:46.240 Isn't that that an amazing story? 00:16:46.399 --> 00:16:55.120 And I thought about that story, and then it it sort of hit me in that this is the way God loves us in spite of our condition. 00:16:55.919 --> 00:17:01.360 In spite of us not knowing him, God still knows us and he still loves us. 00:17:01.600 --> 00:17:10.720 Romans 5, verse 8 says, But God he demonstrates his own love toward us in that yet while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. 00:17:10.960 --> 00:17:12.559 That's on your notes there. 00:17:12.720 --> 00:17:18.720 And uh if you would circle that word, take your pen or pencil and and uh that word demonstrate, circle that. 00:17:18.960 --> 00:17:27.039 It's a word that literally means to place in a striking point of view, to place in a striking point of view. 00:17:27.200 --> 00:17:29.519 And where did God demonstrate this love? 00:17:29.680 --> 00:17:38.160 Of all places, on a cruel Roman cross, on the cross, the place reserved only for the worst of the worst criminals. 00:17:38.480 --> 00:17:40.319 God put love on display. 00:17:40.559 --> 00:17:52.160 The one who was perfect, holy, and good and sinless, dying for us, dying for imperfect, unholy, even sinful and evil man. 00:17:52.559 --> 00:17:58.240 Um of the most difficult things to accept, I believe, is that God loves me just like I am. 00:17:58.480 --> 00:18:03.759 Uh we think we have to work to deserve our His love or receive His love. 00:18:04.400 --> 00:18:09.680 God's love, you see, though, can't ever be earned by human effort. 00:18:10.000 --> 00:18:16.799 Uh no matter what your past has been or what you feel right now, God's love has been freely given. 00:18:16.880 --> 00:18:18.000 It's a gift. 00:18:18.480 --> 00:18:23.680 And uh He didn't begin to love us when we received Him into our life. 00:18:23.839 --> 00:18:30.559 He didn't begin to love you when you were, you know, first coming uh to know that you needed Him. 00:18:30.799 --> 00:18:32.960 He did that before you even knew about it. 00:18:33.039 --> 00:18:35.200 He didn't begin to love you when you were baptized. 00:18:35.519 --> 00:18:41.119 He doesn't love you because you come to church or you are attending this class. 00:18:41.440 --> 00:18:47.279 Uh in fact, there's never been a time that God didn't love you and He didn't love me. 00:18:47.599 --> 00:18:53.839 Um God is the initiator then, and we are responders to His love. 00:18:54.160 --> 00:19:04.799 And uh just just uh as before in point one, would you mark through the words man is in this point and write in the words I am? 00:19:06.319 --> 00:19:10.240 Man is the object of God's love. 00:19:10.480 --> 00:19:14.720 Mark through that and write in I am the object of God's love. 00:19:15.200 --> 00:19:20.000 Man, thirdly, can be forgiven through the work of Jesus Christ. 00:19:20.319 --> 00:19:31.759 Colossians 2 13 says, and you being dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, he is made alive together with him, having forgiven you all trespasses. 00:19:32.000 --> 00:19:37.680 Now I'm using uh having you use your pen a lot here, but I want you to uh really pay attention. 00:19:37.759 --> 00:19:40.240 Uh the reason I'm asked to ask you to do this. 00:19:40.400 --> 00:19:41.599 And so here's another one. 00:19:41.759 --> 00:19:45.599 Circle that little word in the last phrase of this sentence, the word all. 00:19:46.480 --> 00:19:46.799 All. 00:19:47.599 --> 00:19:57.279 And uh that word all means all my sin, all that I know of, and all that I don't know of, all that's been forgiven for all time. 00:19:57.759 --> 00:20:08.720 And so we think about all means all, all in the in terms of past, all uh sin that maybe you committed today, your present this week, and even future sin. 00:20:09.119 --> 00:20:14.960 Uh God has forgiven it all, and the forgiveness Christ gives us is uh is radical. 00:20:15.680 --> 00:20:16.799 It's extraordinary. 00:20:16.960 --> 00:20:29.920 God placed the sin of the world, all sin, past, present, and future, where on the cross with Jesus, and he took the sin of the whole world and he paid for it there on the cross. 00:20:30.079 --> 00:20:33.839 He took it and and delivered us, forgiving us of our sin. 00:20:34.160 --> 00:20:38.640 The power of sin over the life of the Christian then died there with Christ. 00:20:38.880 --> 00:20:39.839 And that's the truth. 00:20:40.000 --> 00:20:52.880 The act that Jesus uh did for us on the cross, it secured for us the certainty of salvation, for the certainty of forgiveness and certainty of restoration with God. 00:20:53.119 --> 00:20:58.240 See, the issue of of man's sin then has been dealt with once and for all. 00:20:59.200 --> 00:21:05.920 And now would you mark through the words man can be and write in the words I can be? 00:21:06.480 --> 00:21:11.119 Uh man can be forgiven to I can be forgiven. 00:21:12.319 --> 00:21:31.839 I want to stop here and say if you've not ever received Christ, if you've never truly trusted Christ and placed your faith in him and his work on the cross to save you from your sin, and then to to to go on into a into a a personal relationship with him, you know you can do that right now. 00:21:32.079 --> 00:21:34.160 Uh and I I just want to pray this prayer. 00:21:34.400 --> 00:21:35.200 You pray this prayer. 00:21:35.279 --> 00:21:40.000 If you've never done that, uh just encourage you to pray this prayer with me right now. 00:21:40.319 --> 00:21:42.960 And uh just praying together, just say it out loud. 00:21:43.119 --> 00:21:46.799 Dear Jesus, I know and admit that I am a sinner. 00:21:47.920 --> 00:21:56.960 I know there's nothing good in me, and I believe that uh you died for me and paid my sin debt for me on the cross. 00:21:57.440 --> 00:21:59.200 Uh Lord, I know that you love me. 00:22:00.799 --> 00:22:06.880 Would you just now come into my life and be my Savior, my Lord, and my friend? 00:22:07.119 --> 00:22:13.359 And I ask you that by faith in your holy name, because that's what you said, and I believe it. 00:22:13.519 --> 00:22:15.519 In Jesus' name, amen. 00:22:15.839 --> 00:22:20.720 You know, if you prayed that prayer in sincerity and in faith, guess what? 00:22:20.880 --> 00:22:26.079 You can know you have eternal life and have entered into a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. 00:22:26.319 --> 00:22:36.640 And the last part of our lesson today is really the best part, because after we come to know Christ, we can say that number four says this man is a friend of God. 00:22:37.599 --> 00:22:42.400 John 15, verse 5 says this, and this is Jesus talking. 00:22:42.480 --> 00:22:50.160 He says, No longer do I call you servants, for a servant does not know what his master is doing, but I have called you friends. 00:22:50.640 --> 00:22:51.440 What is a friend? 00:22:51.599 --> 00:22:56.480 Well, the book of Proverbs gives us uh several things that reflect the qualities of a true friend. 00:22:56.960 --> 00:22:58.480 Let me just give some of these to you. 00:22:58.559 --> 00:23:00.160 It's uh reality. 00:23:00.240 --> 00:23:02.559 We all know a friend loves at all times. 00:23:03.279 --> 00:23:06.240 A friend sticks closer than a brother. 00:23:06.640 --> 00:23:10.079 A friend reproves and rebukes when he sees a need. 00:23:10.559 --> 00:23:14.000 A friend is known by his good and faithful counsel. 00:23:14.240 --> 00:23:19.519 All these things and and many, many more are uh true when God becomes our friend. 00:23:19.759 --> 00:23:29.119 You know, uh in Exodus 33, we talked last time about how Moses wanted to see God and God sort of hit him in the cleft of the rock. 00:23:29.279 --> 00:23:53.440 And as Moses developed his relationship with God and he led the people of Israel through the wilderness as they came out of the uh of the land of Egypt and moved into the promised land, uh Moses became their leader, and one of the uh instances was where Moses would go up and uh he received the Ten Commandments, and he would come down and he would he would go into the tent and he would speak with God. 00:23:54.319 --> 00:24:03.119 And uh the Bible says in Exodus 33, verse 11, so the Lord spoke to Moses face to face as a man speaks to his friend. 00:24:03.359 --> 00:24:12.799 And that was an unknown, that was an extraordinary thing that people saw it, and yet Moses uh really revealed that God uh wanted Moses to be a friend. 00:24:13.119 --> 00:24:16.799 So what does it mean then to be God's friend? 00:24:17.039 --> 00:24:23.519 And I think friendship is defined as one whom we we love and we esteem more and above other people. 00:24:23.839 --> 00:24:45.359 Uh we can think of a person who we impart and give our thoughts to, our mind, uh, more freely than we do other people, telling them things we don't tell other people, and sharing thoughts and and uh concerns and uh just uh fears and all these things with uh with one that we trust. 00:24:45.599 --> 00:24:52.319 And this is the intimate relationship God desires with us, and uh we can have that, all of us can have that. 00:24:52.640 --> 00:25:01.759 God desires it for us, and we I know uh would be blessed if we uh find that our friendship with God grows as we follow Christ. 00:25:03.119 --> 00:25:13.519 Now, I want you to mark through one other place here, and uh this is what we've been looking at here this idea of the word man, man. 00:25:14.240 --> 00:25:15.920 Man is a friend of God. 00:25:16.319 --> 00:25:35.359 And if you agree with God that you are a sinner, that you uh have by faith responded to Christ's work on the cross and received his love and forgiveness, would you just write over to the top of that word man is there and uh and just look at it and put in your name. 00:25:35.680 --> 00:25:39.279 Um put your name over the word man. 00:25:40.720 --> 00:25:43.359 What does it mean to be God's friend? 00:25:43.519 --> 00:25:46.640 Well, it becomes personal when it's you and it's me. 00:25:46.799 --> 00:25:58.240 And I just pray as we pray, let me finish our prayer, uh prayer for us to to this uh lesson we've talked about today, that uh we would come into these truths in a deeper way. 00:25:58.480 --> 00:26:06.720 And uh so, Lord, we thank you for your truth today in this second lesson of what you think about us. 00:26:06.960 --> 00:26:08.640 And Lord, we know that you love us. 00:26:09.039 --> 00:26:15.680 You proved it by giving your son to us, dying for us, and so that we can uh be forgiven. 00:26:15.759 --> 00:26:17.839 But more than that, Lord, we can be your friend. 00:26:17.920 --> 00:26:24.880 And we pray, Lord, as every person who is uh taking this class, uh that you would just reveal these truths in a deeper way. 00:26:25.039 --> 00:26:28.079 For we pray in Jesus' name, Amen.