Bob: This morning we're continuing our Summer in the Scriptures series, and as if you've been with us for August, you know we've had a number of guest speakers, although this morning's speaker is not necessarily a guest, but he's going to be our speaker today.
Bob: Johnny Graves is our Director of Youth, Young Adults, and Production Ministries.
Bob: He's very gifted.
Bob: God is doing some work in the teen ministry, and so Johnny's going to bring a little bit of that.
Bob: He even brought his table from next door, so a little bit of the teen ministry right here on the platform.
Bob: And we're We're excited to hear what he has to share with us today.
Bob: So I'm going to turn it over to Johnny.
Johnny: All right.
Johnny: Thank you, Pastor Bob.
Johnny: Excited to be here and to preach from God's Word this morning.
Johnny: It's been an awesome summer, week in, week out, getting some different guest speakers in from our church and some from outside the church.
Johnny: And it's just been a blessing to receive God's Word those few weeks.
Johnny: And for myself, when I was thinking about what should I preach on since we were able to kind of just speak on whatever's been on our hearts.
Johnny: And I was getting ready a brainstorming some ideas what the Lord wanted me to preach on and something that came to my mind is I was hanging out with some friends a few weeks ago that don't attend church don't know the Lord and we were just talking about life talking about life and they're very respectable of me and the path I've chosen to walk down and the you know the job I have here at church the way I'm raising my family my faith in the Lord they say I love that I love that I'm so glad about that for you and I'm really glad that works for you but I'm not there you know my friends would say you know I'm not there I don't believe in that.
Johnny: I'm a little more progressive.
Johnny: I'm a little more open.
Johnny: And when I hear that word, I'm open, it's kind of suggesting that someone that maybe goes to church, someone that follows the Lord is maybe not.
Johnny: So I was trying to think through that.
Johnny: What does that mean?
Johnny: Because I think there's some depth into that statement, especially as a Christian, when you hear something like, I'm open.
Johnny: So I was wrestling with that, thinking through that a lot after having those conversations.
Johnny: And I figured it'd be cool to kind of talk this out with you guys and It's going to be a little philosophical today.
Johnny: Hopefully it makes sense.
Johnny: If it doesn't, I think Pastor Dave's back next week preaching.
Johnny: So hang with me for a little bit here this morning.
Johnny: And I know school is starting soon, so I figured the kids in the room would appreciate a little whiteboard session, get our minds ready for some teaching.
Johnny: So let me explain how this is going to look.
Johnny: Yeah, is this working?
Johnny: Let's see.
Johnny: Yeah, it is.
Johnny: All right, cool.
Johnny: I can now preach.
Johnny: So I'm open.
Johnny: That's what we hear.
Johnny: But from a You might hear that in a different tone.
Johnny: And for us, we would say, all right, well, if I'm not open, that means I would be.
Johnny: Let's see if this works.
Johnny: Here we go.
Johnny: There we go.
Johnny: Very cool.
Johnny: All right.
Johnny: So here's like a rectangle or a square, whatever shape you want to say that.
Johnny: It's closed, right?
Johnny: It's got four lines.
Johnny: There's no opening here.
Johnny: And as a Christian, we would say, you know what?
Johnny: This is actually true.
Johnny: We would say, this is what is good.
Johnny: This is what is life.
Johnny: Ten Commandments.
Johnny: Sermon on the Mount.
Johnny: Jesus did give us a way.
Johnny: Sorry, the handwriting is horrible.
Johnny: I'm a lefty, and I can't really blame smearing on an iPad, I guess.
Johnny: But hopefully you can read that.
Johnny: It says good.
Johnny: It says life.
Johnny: Matthew 7.14 says, For the gate is narrow, and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few.
Johnny: So we would say the Lord did give us instructions on how to live.
Johnny: And anything outside of this, anything over here, if you did these, what you would call evil, we would call sin, and so on.
Johnny: John 14.15 says, If you love me, you will keep me.
Johnny: So as a Christian, we believe that this is actually true, that the Lord did give us a way to live our life.
Johnny: But people's response to this may be different than how we respond to this, that there's one way to live.
Johnny: Because others would look at this and say, well, that's kind of judgy.
Johnny: That's kind of restrictive.
Johnny: That's not very open-minded.
Johnny: It's very closed.
Johnny: In today's world, some may say Christianity is actually the opposite of freedom.
Johnny: The Christian life is just a life avoiding all these things.
Johnny: You might hear things like that.
Johnny: And the last thing you want to be today is someone who judges, someone who restricts somebody from living their life, telling them what they can and can't do.
Johnny: We never want to prohibit anybody from how they should live their life.
Johnny: And this has become a new belief that we see.
Johnny: Conversations I'm having, I'm sure maybe you're having as well, I'm open.
Johnny: And I think what this mindset is trying to believe is that there are no walls, no restrictions.
Johnny: That is what freedom is.
Johnny: That's how we all want to live our life.
Johnny: I'm so glad that works for you.
Johnny: Good job.
Johnny: Awesome.
Johnny: I'm happy you are where you want to be.
Johnny: I think this was pioneered by a Canadian philosopher, Charles Taylor.
Johnny: He says this, he says, let each person do their own thing and one shouldn't criticize the other's values because they have a right to live their own life as you do.
Johnny: The only sin which is not tolerated is intolerance.
Johnny: The only sin Maybe you've witnessed this.
Johnny: The belief today is that freedom is the highest good for any individual.
Johnny: And freedom today means no boundaries, no limits.
Johnny: And I've been spending a lot of time reflecting, thinking about this belief, thinking about these comments, and really trying to figure out what does this really mean for me?
Johnny: What does this mean for you?
Johnny: Because I think if we dig deep, we'll realize that this actually is probably a major impossibility.
Johnny: This freedom of self-assertion, the absent of the constraint of choices, is not actually workable.
Johnny: So for instance, if somebody wanted to eat whatever they wanted, whenever they wanted, however much they wanted, to have the freedom to do that.
Johnny: If you live in this mindset, you'll quickly realize that freedom has now limited you and other freedoms in life.
Johnny: It'll impact your health, it'll impact your ability to move, to play, living longer.
Johnny: So you would see, actually, to have freedom in one area, you would might have to sacrifice freedom in other areas.
Johnny: Tim Keller speaks about this in one of his books, and he gives another example.
Johnny: The question is not then, how can this man live in complete freedom?
Johnny: The proper question is, which freedom is the more important, the more truly liberating?
Johnny: So do I want to practice my instruments so that one day I can be part of a band that tours around the world this afternoon and every afternoon after this?
Johnny: Or do I want to play video games with my friends?
Johnny: If I don't have the...
Johnny: decision-making to practice every day, I won't have that freedom to later be a skilled musician to tour and enjoy that freedom.
Johnny: You can't have both.
Johnny: A couple years ago at youth group, we had a Jets player, Bryce Hall.
Johnny: He now plays with the Buccaneers.
Johnny: He worshipped, actually had a church down the road from here, and he came and spoke at our youth group.
Johnny: And he spoke about pre-season, getting ready for a whole season in the NFL.
Johnny: He was a great player, a cornerback, played defense.
Johnny: And he told us what it was like preparing for a season and what they all had to do as they got ready.
Johnny: And he said they would literally have to consecrate themselves.
Johnny: They would live in a certain environment, eat in a certain environment, think in a certain environment.
Johnny: Everything was in this controlled environment for the purpose of having the freedom to play football in the NFL at a high level.
Johnny: And if they didn't prepare their minds and bodies in such a way, they might not have that freedom to play the sport that they all love.
Johnny: So we see this mindset of freedom may not necessarily work out.
Johnny: This freedom of having having no boundaries.
Johnny: So I recently started a coaching season.
Johnny: I coach high school sports, I coach volleyball, and I coach soccer.
Johnny: And our soccer season just recently started.
Johnny: And I was thinking about this, I was looking on the screen here, and I was thinking, you know what, if I add a few lines to this picture here, right here, it can quickly look a little messy, but it can quickly look like a soccer field, or a football field, depending where you're from.
Johnny: And I've been coaching for a few years and I can say with confidence, I've never ever had a player come up to me after a scrimmage, after a practice or a game, come up to me and go, coach, I just want to say I'm really upset with you because you put lines out there on the field.
Johnny: And that's just, that's not me.
Johnny: That's not how I play.
Johnny: I need the freedom to go wherever I want, to do whatever I want.
Johnny: I want that freedom to go play.
Johnny: And I really want to use my hands sometimes and I want to tackle somebody.
Johnny: I just don't like these rules.
Johnny: You're constricting me from being who I am.
Johnny: Like, no, I've never received that ever.
Johnny: We actually, this is ironic.
Johnny: So most of the summer, we didn't have lines on our field when we were getting ready for the season.
Johnny: And we would put up maybe cones and such.
Johnny: And when there weren't lines out there, there were more arguments.
Johnny: Did the ball really go out?
Johnny: I couldn't really tell, right?
Johnny: So when the lines got blurry, it actually caused more confusion.
Johnny: So when the lines out here in the soccer field are painted, we just got them painted for tryouts.
Johnny: And every Everybody knows their agreement.
Johnny: Everybody loves playing the game of soccer around the world.
Johnny: And people use this as an outlet.
Johnny: They have so much freedom when they're playing the sport.
Johnny: But the lines were helpful.
Johnny: The boundaries were helpful here.
Johnny: So we see freedom, true freedom, may not necessarily be ones without boundaries, ones without walls.
Johnny: And I think if someone were to ask questions to somebody who says, I'm open, I think we'd find quickly that it's actually not boundary-free freedom.
Johnny: that they believe they are living in and even that they believe.
Johnny: So what I want to do is I want to play this out a little bit and just see how this is true.
Johnny: See how that I think a majority of people in this world do actually believe in a life that has boundaries, that has limits.
Johnny: So we'll go through a couple different arguments or a couple different topics you might find yourself with in discussing this topic with people.
Johnny: So the first one we'll talk about here is consuming.
Johnny: What can we consume?
Johnny: alcohol could we consume drugs who consume other things like this and the sense of hey I want to party this weekend I want the freedom to do whatever I want I want the freedom to consume whatever I want however much I want so let's just put we'll just put drinking in here and we'll discuss okay well you want freedom to do whatever you want let's see how that plays out for you or plays out for me as a believer I believe Ephesians 5 18 says and do not get drunk with wine for that is debauchery but filled with the spirit anything that alters your state of mind drinking substances etc I want to party on the weekends, freedom to do that.
Johnny: So let's say I started living in this mindset.
Johnny: I start doing this every weekend.
Johnny: I start doing this during the week and I become to the point where I'm an alcoholic.
Johnny: I lose my job.
Johnny: I get kicked out of my house.
Johnny: I lose my wife.
Johnny: I lose my kids.
Johnny: I have the freedom to make these choices.
Johnny: I have a very strong feeling and a hopeful feeling that everyone in this room, all of my family, all of my friends would not come up to me and be like, yes, bro, you're living in freedom.
Johnny: You do you.
Johnny: That's amazing.
Johnny: I'm so glad you You found yourself.
Johnny: Good for you.
Johnny: I would hope and pray none of you would say that to me if that is what took place.
Johnny: Right?
Johnny: And I think a majority of my friends who don't even know the Lord, who don't go to church, would probably not say that as well.
Johnny: I think they would say, we need to talk about your life that you're living right now.
Johnny: I think what we would find is they assume that, well, I want freedom to do whatever I want.
Johnny: But I think if I started doing certain things out here, they would quickly say, you know what, actually?
Johnny: It's ironic that the majority of beer ads say drink responsibly at the end, right?
Johnny: And I think what they're saying then is there's limits.
Johnny: There's limits.
Johnny: Regardless of if you follow the Lord or not, I think we can agree that this absolute freedom is not good for you.
Johnny: There's a line.
Johnny: There's a limit.
Johnny: Let's do another one here.
Johnny: So we'll try another topic that Christians are supposedly boxed around.
Johnny: Let's talk about marriage here.
Johnny: So marriage...
Johnny: people would view, that's not even how you spell marriage.
Johnny: There's an A somewhere.
Johnny: I'm pretty sure I wrote it.
Johnny: There we go.
Johnny: I think it's that.
Johnny: I think it's something like that.
Johnny: So marriage here.
Johnny: We believe that scripture says in Matthew 19, four to six says, he answered, have you not read that he who created them from the beginning made them male and female and said, therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife and the two shall become one flesh.
Johnny: So they are no longer two, but one flesh.
Johnny: What therefore God has So we believe that God created marriage as a special holy union between a man and a woman, and anything outside of that is not good.
Johnny: And what we hear today is, well, love is love.
Johnny: Love has no boundaries.
Johnny: And I think what that's trying to say is, well, marriage has no boundaries.
Johnny: So that means all this stuff out here is good.
Johnny: Love is love.
Johnny: Love has no boundaries.
Johnny: That's what we are hearing.
Johnny: That's what we are being preached on.
Johnny: So we move all these boundaries.
Johnny: And I think if we started asking questions, we might see that a lot of people might actually do have boundaries.
Johnny: So let's say your best friend is married, but he also wants to love five other women.
Johnny: I have a feeling most people would say, well, actually, okay, let's actually not allow that.
Johnny: That's probably not good.
Johnny: All right, well, what if a 50-year-old man wanted to love a five-year-old girl in marriage?
Johnny: I think most people in today would say, okay, well, okay, maybe not.
Johnny: Maybe we'll have a boundary with that too.
Johnny: Well, what if love between a man and a woman wasn't consensual?
Johnny: All right, well, I think we figure out quickly that most people, I think, probably do have boundaries within this belief.
Johnny: So this love has no boundaries, I think, is not a true statement by people making this.
Johnny: Your boundaries are just different than mine, right?
Johnny: They just have a different set of boundaries.
Johnny: So I think the point I'm trying to make here is, is there a way to live?
Johnny: Is there a way to live?
Johnny: way to live?
Johnny: I think the answer is yes.
Johnny: There is a way to live.
Johnny: And I think the secondary question we have to start asking is, well, all right, we've come to the conclusion, we've gone through some of these philosophical thoughts here.
Johnny: There is a way to live.
Johnny: But how do we determine that?
Johnny: That's the next question is, well, how do we determine this way to live?
Johnny: Is it politics?
Johnny: Should we just use that to figure out how we should live and find life, find out what is good, because I think what we will find quickly is how do we determine this way to live?
Johnny: We're all going to have a variety of opinions on that.
Johnny: Recently, I joined the Colson Fellows Group, along with some of you that are here, and it's been an incredible journey so far, only a month in, and we've been learning a lot about worldviews, morality, what is good, what is right, and a few of these views we've been reading about recently are the theist view, the naturalist view, the postmodernism view, the transcendentalist and dentalism view, and this is how people decide, well, this is how we are going to decide what is right and wrong.
Johnny: This is how we are going to decide how to live.
Johnny: What is the good life here?
Johnny: Let me give a short summary of some of these.
Johnny: So naturalism, naturalistic morality contends that ethical truths are reducible to natural properties and discoverable through empirical investigation with moral behaviors understood as evolutionary adaptations for survival and flourishing.
Johnny: Naturalism is very hands-on, I can see it, I can test it, I can touch it, and so on.
Johnny: Postmodernism says ethics rejects the possibility of fixed universal moral truths, viewing morality as cultural, historical, social construct created by discourses that reflect the interests of dominant groups.
Johnny: And then Transcendentalism posits that moral truth transcends empirical proof and is known through subjective intuition rooted in the inerrant goodness of people and nature and the divinity of individuals inner compass so at large i think we might see some some major problems these views can have right is right or wrong based upon what is for my personal benefit or what is good for the community at large because those might not always align well if the world was created by accident with no purpose wouldn't that mean our theories our existence our decisions are also meaningless with no purpose well what if my inner moral compass that we hear about?
Johnny: What if it's different than yours?
Johnny: And then we have conflict over which one's right.
Johnny: Which compass is actually right here?
Johnny: If right and wrong are relative truths, which is a self-refuting statement, aren't I also just a product of my current time period and geography of where I live?
Johnny: And I think most of these views struggle with one question.
Johnny: Why?
Johnny: Stephen Hawking said this.
Johnny: He said, when I was 11, I wanted to know how and why the universe works.
Johnny: Now I know how, but I still do not know why.
Johnny: Why?
Johnny: So let's take a look at a current event that I heard about last week on the Colson Fellows journey of listening to these Breakpoint podcasts, and this is what the podcast was about.
Johnny: Quote, recently a history teacher from Littleton, Colorado went viral for praising the way the Incas, her favorite empire, sacrificed children.
Johnny: She also reprimanded white-edged for wrongly teaching generations of Americans that this practice was bad.
Johnny: I'm not making this up.
Johnny: After noting that human sacrifice was common within most ancient civilizations, the teacher clarified that the Incan version of offered victims from the upper class because they were closer to the gods.
Johnny: Also, the Incas drugged children before leaving them to die of exposure on top of a mountain.
Johnny: Objections to this cultural practice, she continued, are primarily due to a white perspective which focuses on the negative aspects End quote.
Johnny: So this teacher's praising the Incas and their child sacrifice, but it was kind of okay because maybe they gave them morphine before they sacrificed.
Johnny: And this was actually a good thing.
Johnny: Now again, we're seeing the worldviews are very different in how they can collide and create arguments and debates over is this actually good or is this actually bad?
Johnny: So naturally, should treatment of the children be done for the personal benefit or for the greater good of the community.
Johnny: So if sacrificing this child actually means a year of blessings for the crops, for the whole community, wouldn't that be worth it based off of that point of view?
Johnny: Or as long as this group and this society constructed and created and voted on a law that said this is good, how can we refute that if it's a socially constructed way?
Johnny: Or if the parents' moral compasses are in agreement that this is good, how can a subjective truth be denied?
Johnny: This is where we find ourselves.
Johnny: These are the news articles that are popping up another one really quick was the euthanasia industry in Canada is contributing to 1 in 20 deaths now doctors say they can't keep up with the demand so if we can't come into agreement if we can't come to an absolute truth of the sanctity of all human lives if we can't come and agree on what does it even mean to be human no wonder we will find ourselves in debates over topics like these that we probably didn't think would ever be debated about but it's nothing new This is nothing new.
Johnny: Judges 17.6 says, In those days there was no king in Israel.
Johnny: Everyone did what was right in his own eyes.
Johnny: So do we see what is going on here?
Johnny: We are trying to determine for ourselves what is right.
Johnny: Something we've seen from the beginning.
Johnny: Something that's at the root level of sin which we'll talk about.
Johnny: When we try to redraw the lines that God wrote, we are trying to assume the role John MacArthur says this, he says, To be like God as the serpent tempted Eve.
Johnny: Basically, I think what the serpent was doing, what the enemy was doing, was handing Eve a pen and say, you can decide.
Johnny: You can decide what is right, what is wrong.
Johnny: You can know good and evil.
Johnny: You can choose.
Johnny: And I think what we see here on the screen is when we get to decide what is good and what is life, if we make that box a little bigger?
Johnny: Well, I'm actually not that bad.
Johnny: I'm actually not that bad.
Johnny: I'm actually, I'm good.
Johnny: I'm not that much of a sinner.
Johnny: All right, Martin Lloyd-Jones puts it this way.
Johnny: He says, you will never make yourself feel that you are a sinner because there is a mechanism in you as a result of sin that will always be defending you against every accusation.
Johnny: We're all on very good terms with ourselves and we can always put up a good case for ourselves.
Johnny: Even if we try to make ourselves feel that we are sinners, we'll never do it.
Johnny: There's only one way to know that we are sinners and that is to have some dim, glimmering conception of God So if I add all these things to say, well, this thing over here, actually, I know someone in my family that does that, so that can't be bad.
Johnny: Let's include that.
Johnny: Or this thing over here, well, I actually want to do that on the weekend, so let me make sure that's included in here.
Johnny: And all these things are good.
Johnny: This is what we've been trying to do, I think, for centuries, is try to justify, try to make us seem better.
Johnny: And this is what I was thinking.
Johnny: If we establish what is right and what is wrong, Does that make sense?
Johnny: If we establish what is right and wrong, and we make more things right, I don't appear as wrong.
Johnny: Thus, needing no one in my life but myself.
Johnny: Slowly pushing God out of the picture.
Johnny: Because if I'm good, why do I need God?
Johnny: And I think we've been seeing that take place, right?
Johnny: Over the years, seeing just slowly pushing God out.
Johnny: We don't need him.
Johnny: I'm actually naturally good.
Johnny: And that's the belief we've been seeing take place recently.
Johnny: But this can't be it.
Johnny: This can't be the good news, right?
Johnny: The last one we didn't touch in was theism.
Johnny: Theism says this.
Johnny: It says, ones that are absolute, ones that are final.
Johnny: Whatever God speaks is so.
Johnny: Isaiah 55, 11 says this.
Johnny: So my word, so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth.
Johnny: It shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose and shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it.
Johnny: We have a way to live and a way not to live, all coming from God himself.
Johnny: And none of that can be changed.
Johnny: None of that can be edited.
Johnny: or manipulated by mankind.
Johnny: It is God's word, and God's word is final, and God's word does not change.
Johnny: God's word does not, well, it's 2025 in America, so let's make that box a little different, or it's the 15th century France.
Johnny: Let's just change it a little bit.
Johnny: God's word doesn't change.
Johnny: God's word is final.
Johnny: It is absolute.
Johnny: There is a way to live.
Johnny: And I think when we see that, we see there's right and wrong, we see there's a way to live, we might quickly look at that and realize something is, wow, well, I struggle with a lot of those things on the outside.
Johnny: I do those things a lot.
Johnny: I wrestle with that.
Johnny: I don't know if I can possibly live out these Ten Commandments or when Jesus was preaching on the Sermon on the Mount, he really made it seem really challenging to live in such a way.
Johnny: What if I fall short?
Johnny: What if I can't ever do that?
Johnny: When we were on our mission trip a few weeks ago in North Carolina, we had a great time.
Johnny: We had about 40 of us going down there and still lots to do from the Hurricane Helene disaster.
Johnny: And so we're doing lots of debris cleanup.
Johnny: We were using chainsaws.
Johnny: We were fixing up some houses and so on.
Johnny: And one of the houses we went to, one tree, I guess, fell over and it went across like two houses.
Johnny: And they got the tree all cleaned up and gone from before we got there.
Johnny: But they still had this huge stump that was there.
Johnny: Huge stump.
Johnny: And it was just, it was very, very gross.
Johnny: Just tons of stuff around it.
Johnny: And I think it was just a It was just a constant reminder of just that horrible storm that was there.
Johnny: And so while we were at this house, we were doing some other things, getting some things cleaned up, trying to make it better, and we had this one last thing we had to do, which was to remove this stump.
Johnny: And we had some very smart people with us, we had some very strong, we had some wrestlers with us, and we were like, all right, let's tackle this, let's do this, and we'll be on our way here.
Johnny: And we start going, we had axes, we had chainsaws, we had other sharp tools, we were trying to get this stump out.
Johnny: Couple hours goes by, and we definitely made some progress.
Johnny: There was a point, I'm just standing there, I'm looking at this thing.
Johnny: It's a huge stump.
Johnny: When the stump falls over, you kind of see some of the roots.
Johnny: And I'm looking at this thing and I'm like, guys, I would love to finish this project.
Johnny: But I don't think we're going to be able to do this.
Johnny: I don't think we could possibly finish this project with our own hands.
Johnny: This is going to be needing of a very large machine that will drive in here with wheels and take this thing out of the ground.
Johnny: Some of it was still in the ground.
Johnny: I don't think a few teenagers and myself from New Jersey are going to be able to tackle this stump.
Johnny: And I think what happened in that moment is we realized our humanity and we realized our shortcomings.
Johnny: We're very much showing in that moment as much as we wanted to finish that project.
Johnny: And I think when we look at this, we also realize, I don't think I can do this.
Johnny: Like, I'm fallen.
Johnny: I'm weak.
Johnny: I'm broken.
Johnny: I don't think I can do this perfectly.
Johnny: Romans 3.23 says, For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.
Johnny: My sin, my brokenness, it runs deep.
Johnny: It has drastically changed me.
Johnny: And it's changed me so much that I feel such a need to fix it.
Johnny: Well, if I change these laws, if I change people's minds, if I change things about me, if I try, maybe it'll work.
Johnny: But we'll only realize we have still fallen short.
Johnny: Any person would look at this and say, you know what, give me 10 minutes.
Johnny: Give me a day.
Johnny: Give me a weekend.
Johnny: I'm sure I won't be able to follow this perfectly.
Johnny: John MacArthur gives us his short definition of sin here.
Johnny: He says, Where do I go for this good life?
Johnny: Where do I go to live this life that I need to live?
Johnny: And if God is the one who placed this, if God is the one who formed this and spoke this into existence, how could I possibly go to him of all people?
Johnny: The one who created it, I have to go to him and say, I broke it.
Johnny: And I think the reason a lot of us struggle with repentance, I think the reason a lot of us try to change things here instead of going to him is because we place our humanity upon the Lord.
Johnny: We believe God is up there, his hand on his head, asking for an aspirin, saying, ah, you did this again?
Johnny: All right, or we might believe after we've sinned, God is up there just tapping his foot, going, about time you came to me.
Johnny: Or believe God is up there with a list saying, yep, here you go.
Johnny: Remember all this stuff you said you weren't going to do?
Johnny: You did it again last night.
Johnny: You did it again this week.
Johnny: But that's not God.
Johnny: That's not the heart of the Lord that we we read in scripture.
Johnny: And if that is who we believe God is, no wonder we're not running to him.
Johnny: No wonder we're not repenting.
Johnny: No wonder we're trying to change things to make ourselves look better.
Johnny: So that's not good news if that's who God is.
Johnny: But the good news is that's not who God is.
Johnny: So if I fall short, I should run to him.
Johnny: The good news is all of this stuff, all of this sin, all of this brokenness is the reason Jesus came.
Johnny: Dane Ortlund says, it's what gets him out of bed in the morning.
Johnny: I love that.
Johnny: That's who our Jesus, that's who our Savior is.
Johnny: All this sin, all this brokenness is what gets Jesus out of the bed, and he's like, I got something to do today.
Johnny: 1 John chapter 4, 9 to 10 says, in this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only son into the world so that we might live through him.
Johnny: In this is love, not that we have loved You see, what may turn us away in disgust is what fills Jesus with compassion.
Johnny: What may draw us to shove away is what draws Jesus to embrace us.
Johnny: We see here the absolute beauty and loveliness of the heart of our Savior Jesus, a heart so warm and so filled when he sees us in the state we're in, when he sees us committing these sins, when he sees us so broken, Jesus can't help but step towards us.
Johnny: Ready to embrace us.
Johnny: Ready to love us.
Johnny: And for centuries we've been just trying to avoid the inevitable, trying to change this, change that, so I don't need him.
Johnny: Altering what God set forth in motion so we don't have to go to him by either fear or embarrassment, by ignoring and hoping he doesn't see this mess we've created.
Johnny: The very things we've been to shamed of, the very things we've been denying, the very things we don't want God to see are the very things itself that drew Jesus to come to us.
Johnny: We just need to draw near to him and ask for forgiveness for these sins instead of trying to self-justify each and every one of them.
Johnny: 2 Peter 3.9 says, The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise, as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance.
Johnny: The Savior's All to reach repentance.
Johnny: Turn away from our sin today and turn to the Lord and call upon him to give you life.
Johnny: Once you realize we can't do that on our own, we need someone else.
Johnny: Daniel Ortlund also says this in his book Gentle and Lowly.
Johnny: He says this.
Johnny: He says, He has flown in, he has correctly diagnosed the problem, and the antibiotics are prepared and available.
Johnny: He's independently wealthy, he has no need of any kind of financial compensation, but as he seeks to provide care, the afflicted refuse.
Johnny: They want to take care of themselves.
Johnny: They want to heal on their own terms.
Johnny: Finally, a few brave young men step forward to receive the care being freely provided.
Johnny: What does the doctor feel?
Johnny: Joy.
Johnny: His joy increases to the degree that the sick come to him for help and healing.
Johnny: It's the whole reason he came.
Johnny: That is the good news.
Johnny: Life isn't found in a set of rules.
Johnny: Life isn't found in a socially constructed path.
Johnny: Life isn't found by just trying harder.
Johnny: But I think what we see here is that life is found in a person.
Johnny: The good life is found and a savior named Jesus.
Johnny: That is where life is.
Johnny: That is where goodness is.
Johnny: And that is where the living that we need to live takes place is when we run to Jesus himself.
Johnny: Because all that sin we've been justifying, all those things we've been trying to make happen is the whole reason Jesus came so we don't have to do that anymore.
Johnny: But that we can just rest in the savior himself.
Johnny: John 14, six says, this.
Johnny: Jesus said to him, I am the way, the truth, and the life.
Johnny: That is where life is found.
Johnny: That is where goodness is found in Jesus Christ himself.
Johnny: So let us repent and draw near to him this morning.
Johnny: Let's pray.
Johnny: God, we come before you in confession.
Johnny: that we are sinners, that we have contributed to this mess.
Johnny: And we've made it a little bit messier.
Johnny: And we confess that we've been trying to justify, we've been trying to change what is good and right, what is wrong, when that's something only you can do, Lord.
Johnny: So Lord, we pray that our hearts will find rest.
Johnny: We pray that our hearts will ultimately each day run to you for life.
Johnny: And that when we run to you in repentance and confession, Lord, we know that you are just and able to forgive us of all of our sins.
Johnny: And that we don't need to raise a defense anymore, Lord, but we can just throw our hands up, Lord, and say, save me.
Johnny: Save me.
Johnny: I know you have what it takes to heal me.
Johnny: Because I am broken and in need of a savior.
Johnny: So may we cling to you today and each day going forward.
Johnny: Thank you for the life you've given us through Jesus Christ himself.
Johnny: And we pray this all in the mighty name of Jesus.
Johnny: Amen.