Truth And Consequences pt.2 | Andy Brown

This message confronts us with a powerful truth: authentic love requires the courage to speak reality, not just affirm preferences. Drawing from Psalm 2, we're challenged to examine whether we've embraced cultural decline by redefining truth as personal preference rather than divine reality. The psalm reveals nations raging against God's anointed, believing freedom means bursting free from divine boundaries. Yet God responds not with panic but with laughter from His heavenly throne, having already established His King. The invitation is stunning: kiss the Son, take refuge in Him, and discover true flourishing. This isn't about religious transaction but personal relationship with Jesus, the begotten Son whose resurrection power is historical fact, not myth. We're reminded that when words detach from meaning, our lives detach from purpose. The blessed life we all seek isn't found in self-defined reality but in surrendering to God's vision, even when His shaping feels like shaking. The message calls us beyond treating Jesus as a consultant for our dreams to making Jesus Himself our dream, recognizing that our lives were designed to resemble Him.

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Transcript

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Part of what it means to love is being able and willing to tell the truth. We have to be willing to love in such a way that we're able to tell the truth. You know, I really didn't know what it meant to love until I had children. And before you think that I'm talking about parenting and me telling them the truth, no, I'm actually talking about the opposite. I'm talking about them telling me the truth. I have a 14-year-old daughter, and she'll come to me and she'll say, Dad, are you gonna wear that? Or she'll say, Dad, or are you really gonna say that? And so I have to learn, uh, I've learned what it means to love by having children. Well, you know, I really thinking back on that, uh, I got it before I had children. It's really when Katie and I were deciding to get married. It's not just when we started dating, you know, we didn't tell, we didn't tell each other the truth. You know, it's just we just were all lovey-dovey. But then you start to get engaged, and Katie comes to me and she says, you know, you really need to get rid of those shoes. I've had these shoes since eighth grade, thank you very much. I like these shoes. But then I think about in my own life, I really got it honest because I would do the same thing. When my mother, she used to come and she used to uh take me to school, and let me show you a picture of what she took me to school in. This picture of this car, now, this car that's on the screen, now this car was a 1987, something like that, Grand Prix. Man, that car was ugly. That car was a hookie. Now looking back, I'm thinking, oh, that car's pretty cool. But you have to understand that when mother would take me to school in this car, my school was right next to the country club. And I didn't live in the country club, and in the 90s, at the country club, nobody was riding around in cars from the 80s. And to make it even worse, mother would uh take me to school with curlers in her hair. And I used to think, Mama, please, can you get up a little early and get ready for my sake before you take me to school? And so she'd I know, I know. And so she'd take these curlers and she'd hide them underneath her hair. Now, ladies, these are these curlers that used to have the little pen, you know, and you're like, so these are real deal curlers. And to make it even worse, here was my expectation. This is the car that my dad would come pick me up in the afternoon. And I mean, I really had a Judas type moment when I would see this car coming. They'd be like, hey Andy, isn't that your dad's car? I'd be like, I've never seen that car. But we have to love, love each other enough of a way to tell the truth. And see, there's the type of love, people call it love, it's the type of love that will clap and applaud as your life is falling apart. That's really what Romans chapter 1 highlights, and we're not reading that passage today, but Romans chapter 1 talks about those who celebrate what God calls evil, celebrate the decline. And you know, cultural decline really accelerates when we refuse to acknowledge reality. Cultural decline accelerates when we refuse to acknowledge reality, and that is when truth becomes preference. Truth becomes my truth, in other words, truth becomes something that I get to define. That's what we mean when we say preference. Truth becomes my truth. If we could go to the next slide, please. Also, truth becomes, uh, truth not only becomes my truth, freedom becomes this idea of no limitation. Freedom is something that's just without limits. Or love, maybe you've heard this before. Love is affirmation. That's what we're really after. It's not necessarily telling the truth, but it's you affirming what I already hope and believe is true. And under this scheme, under cultural decline, good becomes whatever feels good. And the world, it says something. It says the way that we flourish, the way that we flourish is by taking whatever authority that's there, whatever culture that you inherit. And if we're really going to flourish, then the way to flourish is by bursting the bonds. And that's a phrase taken right from Psalm 2. And go ahead, and if you wouldn't mind, take your Bible and join me in Psalm chapter 2. Because there's going to be a vision that the world has for flourishing. The vision that the world has is not based upon reality, it's based upon what we hope and what we think, versus what God says. God says, here's the way that you flourish. The way that you flourish is by taking refuge in the sun. The way that you flourish is by taking refuge in the sun. Your life finding a safe place, finding shelter in the sun. There again, there's this kind of love that we live with in our society. It's this kind of love that claps and gives approval when we're destroying your life. But God, He doesn't love that way. God, He comes and loves us a different way. He loves us enough to tell us the truth. Because when words detach from meaning, then our lives detach from purpose. So, for example, it used to be that we would have words, and it wasn't just signifying, they would really mean something. A tree, for example, means a tree. We used to have a grove of trees behind my house growing up where that uh Ford Festiva and that Grand Prix were parked. And Daddy also had a motorcycle, but I don't know why he didn't pick me up in that. That would have been much better than that little white car. But anyway, PTSD, I guess. I'm going forward, not backwards. But I had a little grove of trees behind that house. And, you know, when I would talk to my parents, I'd say, I'm going to play in the woods, and they knew what I meant. They I wouldn't tell them I'm going to play in the bushes. A tree meant a tree. A boy meant a boy. A girl meant a girl. Life was understood as something that began at the moment of conception, all the way to natural death. Marriage is not up for redefinition. God defines it, and marriage is defined as one man and one woman for all time. But our society celebrates a decline by taking reality, taking words that point to reality and taking those words and detaching it. And when we get to define meaning and purpose, when we get to define words, we detach our meaning, we detach our life from purpose. As I've said during these two weeks that we've been together looking at this whole idea, ideas have consequences. Because there is a real way that our world is ordered. It's not just up for our appropriation or approval or us to define things. Ideas truly have consequences. And here's what I know about every one of us. The reason why we try to redefine things and move towards a purpose is because all of us want the blessed life or the good life. All of us do. That's what you want. You don't enter Mississippi State and plan to fail. You don't get married and one day hope to get a divorce. You don't live life without having dreams and ambitions. You know why? Because you're made this way. You're more than a per person who forms opinions. As if you could really reduce yourself to a set of opinions. You're made in God's image. And you'll only find truth and purpose when you fulfill the purpose, when you resemble the image that you were made into. You say, Well, what's the image that I was made into? Some of you already know this. It's Jesus. Your life was meant to resemble Jesus. Jesus is the pattern. You mean the virgin-born son of Mary? Yeah, that one, that Jesus. He is the pattern that your life is meant to fill. He is the image of God. So everyone's looking for this blessed life. Everyone's looking for the good life. But the question is, where do you find it? And how do you know if you've made it? Well, Psalm chapter 2 serves as a divine interruption. Psalm chapter 2 shows us the way that God loves, and he loves us enough to tell us the truth. He loves us to interrupt our wandering, interrupt our reasoning with reality. Listen to the scene here. The Bible says in Psalm 2, Why do the nations rage and the peoples plot in vain? The kings of the earth set themselves and the rulers take counsel together against the Lord and against his anointed. Saying, Let us burst their bonds apart and cast away their cords from us. Now let's stop right there. Notice what's happening. The nations are assembling. And whenever the nations assemble in the scriptures, it's never a good thing. There's a difference in God gathering, and there's also a difference between nations that are gathering. And I'm going to make that plain and we come back next week. But the point for this week is to simply say, these people are getting together and they're saying, Do you believe this situation that we're in? God is holding back something from us. And so our only solution is to break free of the shackles that He's provided for us. And so they've gathered together against the Lord and against His anointed. Now, do you see that word anointed in your Bible? That word anointed means Messiah. They've set themselves against the Lord and His Christ. That's what the Bible says. And here's what they're saying. They're plotting in vain. Don't miss that. The reason they're plotting in vain is because the Psalm is going to keep going. But it says they're plotting in vain, and who are they really rebelling against? They're rebelling against reality. Against God and the Messiah. Who, by the way, is God. And the solution that they have to advance, the solution that they have to achieve this good life is hey, God's holding back the best from us. We need to burst free and find our own way. Now notice what happens at verse 4, how God responds. I love this. He who sits in the heaven laughs. Now notice this, so much this here. And I'm going to come back next week and really dig into this part. But for now, let me just say, he who notice what he's saying. He is not moved by them. Instead, what's he doing? He's sitting in the heavens. Sitting. Don't miss that. The place of absolute authority. And what's he doing?

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Ha!

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He's laughing. And he's not laughing to make fun. It's almost like, and I love the way that this is, it's almost like the universe is tied together by the laughter of God. This is great. This is God holding it all together. And then he says he sits in the heaven and laughs and he holds them in derision. In other words, he scoffs at the plans that they have. And then notice what happens next. He speaks to them at verse 5. He speaks to them in his wrath. So laughter first, and then wrath. Don't miss this. And terrify them in his fury, saying, As for me, now he's letting us in on reality. Why is he doing this? Because he cares for us. As for me, I have set my king on Zion, my holy hill. I will tell of the decree. The Lord said to me, You are my son. Today I have begotten you. Ask of me, and I will make the nations your heritage, and the ends of the earth your possession. You shall break them with a rod of iron and dash them into pieces like a potter's vessel. Now let's stop right there. You see this image that we have here? Here are these nations that are gathered in these nations that have assembled, trying to figure out their own way. And then here's what God said. Here's what God said. I have set my king on Zion, on the holy hill. And how has he set his king in Zion? Don't miss this. I want you to see this. He said at verse 7, the Lord said to me, You are my son, today I have begotten you. You know why that's important, that word there, today? It lets us know that the faith that holds us, the faith that we hold as followers of Jesus Christ, is not myth, it's reality. You say, What's the difference? Myth is something that can't be verified or proven. It's based upon some idea that's contrived. Reality is richer than that. Reality is based upon something that we can go back and we can look and we can see this is when and where it happened. And so some of you right now, the posture of your heart might be, as you're listening to this, you're thinking, okay, listen, that's your version of reality. That's your truth. And I just want to say, okay, let's play that out just a little bit. If this is my reality and my truth that I'm presenting to you before the scripture, what's the basis of it? The basis of this truth, listen to this, is the power of the indestructible life of Jesus Christ. It's not just my opinion that I'm up here pumping up. It's the truth that orders the world. It's the truth by which the world itself is ordered. Now, what are you basing your life upon? What's the vision that you have for your life? Is it based upon how you feel? Is it based upon what you think is right? You know, I can remember growing up, I had a pastor, his name was Clois Watson, and he used to talk about this infatuation period between teenagers, and he used to talk about how, and some of you have known this because you've met someone, and maybe you're beyond this, or maybe you're here right now. I don't know, but you've met someone and you're like, you know what, I'm gonna marry this person. Give it about two or three years and see if that really comes. Clois Watson used to say, boy, it might be puppy love, but it show is real to the puppy. The reality that I am putting before you today is based upon the power of the indestructible life of Jesus. You can go back, and just like I took a group to Israel just a couple of weeks ago, and you know, we were able to walk where Jesus walked. You were able to see these steps and say, Jesus Christ walked up these stairs. Or maybe there was another side that you know that, well, you know, I'm not too sure if Jesus was here or not. But you could say, well, you know, it happened somewhere real close. Because our faith is based upon fact, eyewitnesses who not only simply said it was true, but they went to the grave and sometimes tortured because of what they said was true about the resurrection of Jesus Christ. And this is what the nations are raging against because they've bitten into this lie that they've embraced as a truth that says, you know, I'm gonna live with my feelings as the center of my emotion. I get to define my reality. I'm the captain of my own ship, I'm the master of my own fate. Which was that little quote was painted on the wall at my high school, and I walked by it every day. You're the captain of your own ship, the maker of your destiny, the master of your fate. Nothing is further from the truth. Because ideas have consequences. There was a time when we were in Jerusalem with the group just a couple of weeks ago again, and we I was looking over the Mount of Olives, and the Mount of Olives, the sun was coming up over the Mount of Olives. And what's significant about the Mount of Olives? This is the place where Jesus, after raising from the dead, after dying on the cross, this is the place where Jesus ascended up to heaven. And you know what else is significant about that? The Bible says that that's the place when he comes back, that's the place that he's coming again. And I had a little moment where my soul was raptured in that moment, and I was thinking, my goodness, Jesus Christ, just as that sun is coming up over the mountain, Jesus Christ could come back right now. And then I thought to myself, well, I want my children here with me. And then I thought, wouldn't it be neat if he did come back right then? And all of a sudden I look to my left, and there's my children right there with me. The faith that we have, the vision of reality that Jesus Christ gives us, we now live in a world where people come back from the dead. Do you realize that? That's the world that Jesus, through the power of his indestructible life, he peels back the layer beyond all the scientism and pragmatism and humanism and all the other isms. He pulls back the layer of our own human reasoning, and he says, however you think about humanism and pragmatism and scientism, you have to contend with this fact. There was once a previously dead man who now came back to life, and one day he said he's gonna come riding on the clouds on a white horse. You have to deal with that. See, what I'm presenting to you today is not my opinion or my conjecture. It's based upon a real Jesus who lived, breathed, and walked, who is living right now, who promised to come again. And what I'm presenting before you today, according to this word, is based upon the power of the indestructible life of Jesus Christ. And we serve a God who loves us so much, who sees us in all of our reasoning, who sees us in all of our justifying, who sees us in all of our wandering and meddling and worrying and sometimes. And he comes to us and he loves us enough to tell us the truth. Not just because he's angry at you, but he sees the consequence of where your life is heading, and so he will move heaven and earth, in some cases, to oppose you if necessary, to keep you from destroying your own life. The life that he created you, fulfillment that you'll only know by following him. Today, he says, So that all the world could go back and say, at the fullness of time, God sent his son, born of a woman, born under the law, so that he could redeem us who are under the law, so that he could do what we could not do, die, death that we deserve, but yet place his righteousness and give his righteousness to us. We gave the reason he died was because of your unrighteousness, so that he could then take his righteousness by the power of his indestructible life and give it to you. So that whatever is true of him by faith is now true of you. Today, he says, Today I have begotten you. And that word begotten, you can already hear where I'm going, can't you? John 3, 16. For God so loved the world that he sent who? His only begotten Son. Now notice what happens next at verse 10. There's an invitation that God has. Here's reality. It's inescapable. He loves us enough to tell us the truth. And notice what God does next. He doesn't just share this at a distance and say, well, here's the truth. It's written and there's nothing you can do about it. Instead, what does he do? He invites us. He says, Now, therefore, O kings, be wise, be warned, O rulers of the earth, serve the Lord with fear, and rejoice with trembling. And then he says this beautiful phrase that is so unique in Scripture. He says, Kiss the sun. I love this. Kiss the sun. Lest he be angry with you and you perish on the way. For his wrath is quickly kindled. Look at these true statements that you're reading about God. I don't know what your view of God is, but this is the real view of who God is. Notice what it says. His wrath is quickly kindled. It's not as if he's just waiting to destroy somebody. His wrath is quickly kindled. And then listen to this promise. Blessed are all of those who take refuge in him. Again, there's a vision that God lays before us in this text, and I want to talk about that. It's a vision of flourishing. And the vision for flourishing that God gives us is refuge in the Son. Taking your shelter in Him, finding your whole life to be consumed with living with Him, in Him, and for Him. You see, God loves us enough to tell us the truth. So what I want to do is I want to answer how or how can everybody since everybody wants the blessed life, where can we find it, and how can we make sure that we're getting there? Number one. Flourishing begins. Or excuse me, number one, God loves us enough to tell us the truth. That's what God does here. He loves us enough to tell us the truth. Why is that? Because God has a definite plan that this world is coming to. He has a definite end in mind for all the world. One day you're going to die and you're going to stand before God. And the question might be, if some proposed it in the previous generation, why should I let you into heaven? You have an eternal destiny that's awaiting you. It's either with God forever in a place called heaven, or it's without God forever in a place called hell. This is reality. God is the one who designed you. He's the one that gave you breath. You had literally, I can say this with certainty, you, you had nothing to do with being born in this world. Nothing. But God did. And he saw you and he intricately made you. He didn't make a mistake. Instead, he made you for a purpose. He has a definite plan that he reveals. And listen to this: don't think that the definite plan that God reveals is something so abstract. It's so simple. God's definite plan for you is for your life to look just like Jesus. For the way that you love, for the way that you live, for the way that you think, for what you do, everything to look just like Jesus. And he warns us. Why does he warn us? Because he loves us. He warns us because he loves us. I can remember growing up, my granny, she used to love to cook, and we used to love to have Granny cook because granny could really cook. Well, one of the things that Granny had, not in her kitchen, but beside her kitchen, was one of these smoke detectors. And how many of you have ever fanned a smoke detector? Well, let me tell you, we knew Granny was cooking something good when Paw Paul would run out of the kitchen, smoke detector would be going off, and he'd be taking the papers and he'd be waving the smoke detector. Usually what she was cooking was uh salmon patties and biscuits. Now there's some of you that said, mmm, but most of you just don't know. Amen. Let me tell you, you get a little biscuit, you put that salmon patty and put some mustard on it. Delicious. Ketchup, you can have that too. But it was easy for us to look at that smoke detector. That smoke detector was giving us a warning. And you know, that thing would go off, and we're thinking, isn't somebody gonna get that? But finally granddaddy would come, Paw Paw, he'd come and he'd start fanning it. But it's a difference when that thing goes off at two in the morning. If it goes off at two in the morning, hopefully Grandny's not cooking. If it is, boy, we're gonna have one kind of a breakfast, I tell you. But if something's going off at two o'clock, it's best to not ignore it. Some of you already are thinking, man, I got this battery that's going off I can't find. That's annoying too. I get that. But the point is that God loves us enough to tell us the truth. He warns us of the plan that will be enacted for the ages. The second truth for you to write down is this flourishing begins with surrender to God's vision. Your life begins to flourish when you first say, God, whatever plan you have for my life is best. And I just want to humbly ask you right here. Notice what it says. It says at verse 10, it says, be warned, O rulers of the earth. Verse 11, serve the Lord with fear and rejoice in trembling. And I just want to ask you a question, sir or ma'am, have you consulted God with the plan that you have with your life? Some of you, honestly, and it's not too late, so don't think that it is. Some of you, within the sign of my voice, you're, if you were honest with me, you would tell me that you have not asked God what he wants your major to be. And I know because I've talked to some of you, and you've told me that. Some of you, you didn't ask God about the direction of your life, and it's never too late. Have you come to the point where you're willing to say, God, you know best, and I accept your vision for my life? And that's the place that you start saying that. You start right here, and you say, God, I accept the vision, your way is best. What do you want me to do, Lord? I surrender my vision to your vision. And then how does that play itself out? If you're married, then you tell your spouse. If you have children, then you tell your children. And then you start aligning all of your life. The way that you spend your money, the way that you spend your time, the way that you order your affections, everything is now you, by the power of God within you, him coming to you with conviction and saying, This doesn't fit who I want you to be. So now you do this. Now this doesn't fit who I want you to be. And no, this is what I want you to do. So go ahead and sign up for that or do that. But oftentimes, I'm afraid what we do is we we take our plans and we baptize them and we say, Well, God, bless this, would you? And instead of living a life that's surrendered to God's vision, we treat Jesus like a buddy. He's our buddy that's going to help us make it. We treat Jesus as a coach that makes sure that we're not going, or a consultant, that makes sure that we're not going down a path that we shouldn't. And that's really what we think about, because after all, you've worked hard to get here. You're not committing fraud or any of those things. You're really depending on God to bless what He's never promised to bless. Because it's not His vision for your life that you're letting work out through your circumstances. Instead, it's your vision. Jesus is more of a buddy or a coach or a consultant. But you see, Jesus is not just the consultant to help us fulfill our dream. The point in us surrendering to God's vision is for us to let Jesus be our dream. To let our life so look like Him that our life resembles Him in such a way that His life, Him, He's the dream that I'm after. Because He's the dream that we're after, the third truth for you to write down, and I wish that this wasn't here, but it just is. If we're gonna flourish, then that inevitably is going to involve God is gonna shape you. And oftentimes that shaping is gonna feel like shaking. There is a blessing that comes from brokenness. Notice what he says here at verse 9. The anointed one who just simply has to ask, he says, you shall break them with a rod of iron and dash them in pieces like a potter's vessel. What if, what if, what if? That period that you're undergoing right now where you're being broken, what if God's not breaking you? What if he's putting you back together? What if that period where you feel like that your whole world is upside down is really God taking you and turning you right side up? You just consider something for me for just a moment. How is it that God put the world back together? Listen carefully. How is it that he put the world back together? He was willing to crush his son. He was willing to tear down the sun for your sake and for my salvation, so that through the sun descending to death on a cross, through going low, God could raise him up and raise the whole earth and raise us up there with him. You know why God has to come and break down us oftentimes? It's because our lives have been held together by lies. It's sort of like Adam and Eve. Remember what happened to them? They sinned in the garden. They forsook God's vision for the blessed life for their vision. And that didn't work out too well for them or the rest of us. And so what was their solution? Do you remember when it was? Their solution was to tie these fig leaves together. And God comes to them, and what does he have to do? He looks at them and he says, Where'd you get those fig leaves? And God has to strip them of those fig leaves. Now they worked hard on those fig leaves. My mama, she taught me one time, you take little things, you get little twigs, you put them together and make you a little hat or make you a little belt. You work hard on that stuff. Could you just imagine? And God comes down and what does he do? He rips it, he tears it down. And then, you know the reason that he tears them down? Why? Because he knows that that fig leaf outfit is not going to keep them warm at night. And so God tears down that part of their life in order that he can give them something better. He gives them animal skins to cover their nakedness. The first time, by the way, that a blood sacrifice covers sin is right in the first pages of Genesis, already an echo of the cross. And oftentimes that's what God comes and does with our lives. He sees that our lives are really held together by the fig leaves. The fig leaves of our imagination, the fig leaves can't keep us warm. And God comes and he tears down our lives in order to build us up. He tears down those portions that our lives have been built upon the lie in order to build us up. Why is that? Because true flourishing, number four, is you having a personal relationship with Jesus. I love the way the Bible speaks. It says this kiss the sun. Now, can't you just hear the intimacy this there? Can't you hear it? I don't think it's an image of, you know, Jesus saying, kiss the ring, or it's not an image of, you know, it's this close proximity where there is an opportunity for you to kiss the sun. And by the way, Jesus has been kissed before, hasn't he? He's been betrayed. And oftentimes, again, if we don't embrace his vision with, if we don't embrace his vision for our lives, instead of propping up our vision, oftentimes our kiss is just a kiss of betrayal because it's not a kiss of love. We're really asking Jesus to to, we're really asking Jesus to baptize our plans with his permission. But there's an opportunity that God gives us to invite us to know him forever. Notice this. It says, Ask of me, and I will make the nations your heritage, the end of the earth your possessions. And Jesus comes on the scene and he inherits the nations by dying on a cross, rising again. And you know what he does? He comes and he says to you and to me, by grace through faith, I'm gonna make you a coin, a co-heir with me forever. So that as Jesus inherits the nations, so you get to be a joint heir with him. So that whatever is true of him, by grace through faith, is now true of you. And he invites you to know him, not just from a distance, but personally. And some of you this morning, that's what you've done. You've you've you've traded this personal relationship with Jesus for some religious transaction, and there is so much more for you to experience. You know what that experience looks like? It looks like kissing the sun. It's this idea that says, not that I admire Jesus. Maybe that's where you are. You I really admire that guy. Not I agree with Jesus, not even that I'm aware of Jesus, but it's for you to say I have a personal relationship with him. And let me say this. The only way for you to know peace is to know Jesus Christ personally. Not because it's your mama's faith, not because it's your daddy's faith, but for you to know him personally, so that you can say, I belong to him, and he belongs to me. You see, there's an apology, and maybe you've you've seen this apology, there's this type of apology that says, you know, I'm sorry, you feel that way. Versus an apology that says, I was wrong. And you know what that apology is? It says I was wrong. That's what surrender looks like. So the world has its vision of flourishing. And you know what that's the center of the world's vision for flourishing? May, me, me. Ma. But Jesus' vision for flourishing, it's so different. Jesus' vision for flourishing, listen to it, listen. Blessed are all of those who take refuge in him. And I humbly want to ask you this morning, have you placed your faith in Jesus Christ? Not that you know about him, but you know him. That you've come to the point of your life where you're saying, have thine own way, Lord. You're not a buddy, you're not a consultant, you're not a coach, you're the Lord. I am the clay, you are the potter. I embrace your vision for my life. And you know what that takes? It takes the same thing that Jesus had to add had to do to inherit the nations. All he had to do was ask. You know what that means? It means that God is more ready to meet you where you are. And you are even willing to meet with him. You want to live the blessed life? It's available to anyone by faith. And here it is. Blessed are those who take refuge in you. And if you've never taken refuge in Jesus, would you ask him to forgive you of your sins? Would you ask him to be your God? And would you ask him to receive you unto himself? And here's what he said. Anyone who wants to come to me and take refuge in me, anyone, Jesus says, You come to me and I'll never cast you out. No matter what you've done, no matter if you think it's too late, no matter if you've already built your life around all of that, Jesus says, You come to me. And it's my prayer for you that you'll take this warning and be wise and turn to him. Father, thank you so much for Jesus. Thank you that he is our God. Thank you that he loves us. And thank you that we love him. Father, if there's anyone here who doesn't know you, they're looking at the circumstances of their life and they're seeing that it's built upon lies. Would you meet them gently and gracefully? Expand their eyes. All that you have prepared for the one who loves you. Thank you, Lord, for this church and this opportunity that you give us to consider these truths. Now, Lord, I pray through the power of the Holy Spirit that you would seal these truths to our hearts. In Jesus' name. And everybody said, Amen.