WEBVTT 00:00:00.880 --> 00:00:04.639 Well, it is our last week in the book of Neop. 00:00:06.000 --> 00:00:09.679 We've been journeying through this book for most of the spring. 00:00:10.080 --> 00:00:16.000 By the end of chapter 12, in Jerusalem, the people have rebuilt the temple. 00:00:16.160 --> 00:00:17.600 They've restored worship. 00:00:17.760 --> 00:00:19.359 They've rediscovered the word of God. 00:00:19.519 --> 00:00:22.719 They've rebuilt the walls around the city. 00:00:23.280 --> 00:00:27.039 In chapter 12, last week, we saw how they dedicated the walls. 00:00:27.199 --> 00:00:28.719 Everyone is grateful. 00:00:28.960 --> 00:00:30.399 Everyone is generous. 00:00:30.640 --> 00:00:33.039 Everyone is worshiping. 00:00:34.000 --> 00:00:37.439 And they all lived happily ever after. 00:00:38.320 --> 00:00:43.679 Well, we would think that at the end of chapter 12, but there's a chapter 13. 00:00:44.719 --> 00:00:48.880 It's easy to think, you know, like, oh, and they're all perfect Christians. 00:00:49.039 --> 00:00:52.799 And everything in life is lollipops and rainbows. 00:00:53.679 --> 00:00:55.840 And that's what we think at the end of 12. 00:00:55.920 --> 00:00:57.679 But then we have 13. 00:00:57.840 --> 00:01:02.640 Now a lot has happened between chapters 12 and chapter 13. 00:01:03.920 --> 00:01:09.120 Remember, Nehemiah was actually a servant of the Persian king. 00:01:09.200 --> 00:01:13.200 So after the walls are finished in chapter 12, he goes back to Persia. 00:01:13.680 --> 00:01:14.959 He returns to Persia. 00:01:15.040 --> 00:01:19.519 So between 12 and 13, 12 years have passed. 00:01:19.760 --> 00:01:34.879 So when we jump into 13, 12 years have passed since that 12, all the generosity and the gratefulness and the worship, and look what God has done, and all of that spiritual revival in 12, 12 years have passed when we jump into 13. 00:01:36.319 --> 00:01:38.879 And then Nehemiah returns to Jerusalem. 00:01:39.040 --> 00:01:42.640 And it is not happily ever after. 00:01:43.280 --> 00:01:46.319 The spiritual revival and the worship services are gone. 00:01:46.480 --> 00:01:50.319 Everyone has forgotten what's important. 00:01:51.680 --> 00:01:55.359 Maybe you remember Tobiah earlier in the Nehemiah story. 00:01:55.439 --> 00:02:01.040 When Nehemiah was trying to get these walls built, he had a handful of enemies trying to stop him and limit him. 00:02:01.120 --> 00:02:03.519 And Tobiah was one of these enemies. 00:02:03.599 --> 00:02:05.120 And Tobiah plotted against him. 00:02:05.280 --> 00:02:16.240 Tobiah shows back up in chapter 13 because Tobiah gets his family, a family member, Eliashib the priest, to clear out a room in the temple for himself. 00:02:16.479 --> 00:02:23.360 This room is supposed to be for supplies for the temple priests and supplies for the temple workers. 00:02:23.439 --> 00:02:26.479 But Tobiah selfishly takes it for himself. 00:02:26.800 --> 00:02:29.599 Give himself an apartment, basically, a free apartment. 00:02:29.919 --> 00:02:33.759 Nehemiah shows up, chapter 13, verse 8 and 9. 00:02:34.080 --> 00:02:41.919 Nehemiah says, And I was very angry, and I threw all the household furniture of Tobiah out of the chamber. 00:02:42.080 --> 00:02:51.120 Then I gave orders and they cleansed the chambers, and I brought back there the vessels of the house of God with the grain offering and the frankincense. 00:02:51.520 --> 00:02:54.159 And point number one is this we just sang it. 00:02:54.400 --> 00:02:56.960 We are prone to wander. 00:02:58.080 --> 00:02:59.599 Lord, I feel it. 00:03:00.479 --> 00:03:03.039 We feel our wandering hearts, don't we? 00:03:03.360 --> 00:03:08.319 Wanting more of something, wanting something else, wanting something we shouldn't have. 00:03:08.960 --> 00:03:11.199 That's why we sing the hymn. 00:03:11.520 --> 00:03:16.400 Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it, prone to leave the God I love. 00:03:16.879 --> 00:03:20.159 I love this God, and yet I'm prone to wander away. 00:03:20.319 --> 00:03:21.439 Here's my heart. 00:03:21.599 --> 00:03:22.800 Oh, take and seal it. 00:03:22.960 --> 00:03:24.960 Seal it for thy courts above. 00:03:26.960 --> 00:03:29.840 Last Friday I went out and cut the grass. 00:03:30.000 --> 00:03:32.560 So I did the cut and I blew everything off. 00:03:32.719 --> 00:03:35.840 Which once you love a blower, you feel so accomplished with the blower. 00:03:36.080 --> 00:03:38.240 Blower fans, anybody else a blower fan? 00:03:38.319 --> 00:03:43.919 God, I mean, if you are doubting your productivity in the world or life purpose, just get a blower. 00:03:44.080 --> 00:03:47.599 It solves a lot, a lot of angst issues. 00:03:47.680 --> 00:03:48.960 So I blew everything off. 00:03:49.039 --> 00:03:50.080 I'm an accomplished person. 00:03:50.240 --> 00:03:56.800 I'm walking back to my garage, and as I walk back, I cut through the backyard and I see my azalea bed, little azalea bed. 00:03:56.960 --> 00:03:58.479 Here's a picture of it up against the trampoline. 00:03:58.560 --> 00:03:59.360 That's the azalea bed. 00:03:59.919 --> 00:04:01.919 They're not Augusta azaleas. 00:04:02.000 --> 00:04:03.599 I know, but they're my azaleas, right? 00:04:03.680 --> 00:04:04.080 They're mine. 00:04:04.159 --> 00:04:05.280 And I love these azaleas. 00:04:05.360 --> 00:04:08.000 They blew them in the spring, and I love them. 00:04:08.159 --> 00:04:08.879 They're mine. 00:04:09.120 --> 00:04:16.079 And I saw on top of that little bed there of those azaleas, I saw like a weed vine growing on top. 00:04:16.560 --> 00:04:18.240 So goodness, I hadn't seen that. 00:04:18.319 --> 00:04:23.199 So I put the blower down and I go over and I pull on the top. 00:04:23.600 --> 00:04:25.519 It wasn't much on top. 00:04:25.759 --> 00:04:32.879 It was enough for me to get my hands on a pull, and as I pull, I look kind of like underneath, and it is just everywhere. 00:04:33.120 --> 00:04:37.199 Like it is just wrapped around and it is everywhere. 00:04:37.519 --> 00:04:40.240 A little bit on top, but just grow under the surface. 00:04:40.319 --> 00:04:41.279 It's just everywhere. 00:04:41.439 --> 00:04:44.720 See, Nehemiah 8 through 12 are wonderful. 00:04:44.959 --> 00:04:46.480 Get things done, right? 00:04:46.639 --> 00:04:47.759 That's the kind of people we are. 00:04:47.839 --> 00:04:48.720 Let's get some stuff done. 00:04:48.800 --> 00:04:49.600 Let's build some walls. 00:04:49.759 --> 00:04:50.160 Let's do it. 00:04:50.319 --> 00:04:51.680 We can we can do it. 00:04:52.000 --> 00:04:56.399 Improve, build a wall, dedicate it, be thankful, give generously, worship. 00:04:56.720 --> 00:04:58.959 We would all say, yes, that's who we want to be. 00:04:59.120 --> 00:05:01.040 I want to be that kind of person. 00:05:01.439 --> 00:05:03.680 And then we get chapter 13. 00:05:04.000 --> 00:05:04.319 Right? 00:05:04.399 --> 00:05:10.079 We get finally the weeds pop up and get on top of the Zalea bush. 00:05:10.800 --> 00:05:13.519 Now that that weed had been growing all spring. 00:05:13.680 --> 00:05:14.000 Right? 00:05:14.079 --> 00:05:15.439 It didn't just show up. 00:05:15.600 --> 00:05:21.439 Like it'd been underneath, growing, but then finally it becomes visible. 00:05:22.720 --> 00:05:25.439 In us is the propensity to wander. 00:05:25.759 --> 00:05:32.879 Even in a chapter 12 moment of life, when we're thriving and we're giving and we're worshiping and we're thankful. 00:05:33.279 --> 00:05:40.240 Even then is the propensity to wander from those very things we love, from the God we love. 00:05:40.959 --> 00:05:42.240 We call this sin. 00:05:43.360 --> 00:05:48.639 Even when we are thriving, there's a sin rem growing under the surface. 00:05:49.199 --> 00:05:54.879 Even the most put together among us are not really fully put together. 00:05:55.839 --> 00:06:00.800 And the reason why you feel imperfect is because you're imperfect. 00:06:01.439 --> 00:06:07.600 The reason why you wander from the very things you love is because you're a sinner. 00:06:08.319 --> 00:06:19.279 To accept that I am imperfect or I am a sinner, that is just to acknowledge the reality that who we are and the world we live in. 00:06:19.680 --> 00:06:24.079 Chapter 13 is just full of this wandering, these compromises. 00:06:24.319 --> 00:06:28.879 Nehemiah 13, 10 through 12, the people stopped giving to the temple. 00:06:29.680 --> 00:06:36.319 Nehemiah 13, 15 through 22 is where Nehemiah addresses the people stopped practicing rest on the Sabbath. 00:06:36.560 --> 00:06:42.240 Nehemiah 13, 23 through 25, the people married pagan people groups. 00:06:43.279 --> 00:06:48.879 And the New Testament, Paul explains sin this way, Romans 5, 12 through 14. 00:06:49.120 --> 00:06:57.920 Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned. 00:06:58.560 --> 00:07:04.959 For sin indeed was in the world before the law was given, but sin is not counted where there is no law. 00:07:05.360 --> 00:07:14.720 Yet death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over those whose sinning was not like the transgression of Adam, who was a type of the one who was to come. 00:07:14.879 --> 00:07:16.879 Now, Paul gets pretty theological there. 00:07:17.040 --> 00:07:24.079 What he's saying is the law, right and wrong, is given to us for us to see the reality of which who we are. 00:07:25.839 --> 00:07:35.839 The law, right and wrong, is given, and as soon as you become aware of law, what is right and wrong, you and I, we become aware that we are not perfect unto the law. 00:07:36.399 --> 00:07:38.000 We are like Adam. 00:07:39.279 --> 00:07:41.519 If you read the Genesis story, we're like Adam. 00:07:41.600 --> 00:07:49.439 We're prone to wander, prone to want the thing, the fruit that we were told not to want or to go after. 00:07:49.920 --> 00:07:51.920 And we all need Jesus. 00:07:53.600 --> 00:07:57.920 Point number two is this sin is best understood as idolatry of the heart. 00:07:58.720 --> 00:08:03.360 We see that in Romans 1, where Paul says, sin is idolatry. 00:08:04.160 --> 00:08:12.959 When we worship the created thing instead of the creator, the created, all the good stuff that we love, and some of it really good stuff. 00:08:13.279 --> 00:08:22.879 But when we love it more than the creator, when we esteem it and value it more than the creator, now we're in idolatry and it shows the sinfulness of our hearts. 00:08:23.040 --> 00:08:25.839 Pastor and author John Ortberg, he asked these questions for me. 00:08:25.920 --> 00:08:32.960 These are questions always helpful to me, for me to see my own idolatry and wandering. 00:08:34.399 --> 00:08:38.799 Do I feel like I have enough money and possessions right now? 00:08:39.840 --> 00:08:42.240 Or do I feel like I need a little more? 00:08:42.879 --> 00:08:48.399 Do I have enough power and control in my life, or do I feel like my life needs more? 00:08:48.879 --> 00:08:56.399 Is there a relationship in my life which I am so attached that I have to have it for my life to have meaning? 00:08:57.679 --> 00:09:04.080 What am I willing to betray of my values in order to obtain that one thing? 00:09:05.279 --> 00:09:09.440 What desire is so strong in me that it controls my thinking? 00:09:10.320 --> 00:09:18.240 And you can see how the idolatry of our hearts and the sin in our hearts can actually imprisons us from the freedom that God wants for us. 00:09:18.399 --> 00:09:19.840 We're prone to wander. 00:09:20.080 --> 00:09:23.759 And it's so easy to get stuck in the shame of that wandering. 00:09:24.399 --> 00:09:34.000 But Paul's point is that the path of condemnation, of just wallowing in the condemnation of the reality of our sin, is not our full story. 00:09:34.799 --> 00:09:41.440 If so, then this reality of chapter 13 would just be the most depressing thing imaginable. 00:09:43.120 --> 00:09:46.639 What our story is, is justification by grace. 00:09:48.080 --> 00:09:50.080 That's the real story of our lives. 00:09:50.399 --> 00:09:55.679 That you are fully known in the chapter 13 of your life, in the wandering. 00:09:55.840 --> 00:10:00.559 Fully known and fully loved by Jesus. 00:10:00.799 --> 00:10:07.519 While we are Adam in Christ, we understand and rest in our redemption. 00:10:07.759 --> 00:10:13.919 Point number three is this: while we are prone to wander, God is devoted to pursue. 00:10:16.559 --> 00:10:19.519 We see this as Nehemiah's a picture of Christ. 00:10:19.759 --> 00:10:21.919 He's an Old Testament picture of Christ. 00:10:22.240 --> 00:10:27.679 He's showing coming back to Jerusalem in their wandering state. 00:10:27.919 --> 00:10:30.399 He's addressing all the issues. 00:10:30.639 --> 00:10:32.080 He's not just staying in Persia. 00:10:32.159 --> 00:10:34.240 He's coming back, he's coming toward them. 00:10:34.480 --> 00:10:42.559 Romans 5.8, but God shows his love for us in that while we are still sinners, Christ died for us. 00:10:43.200 --> 00:10:46.480 This week I kept thinking about that needy woman in John 4. 00:10:46.720 --> 00:10:47.600 Do you remember the story? 00:10:47.759 --> 00:10:57.840 Jesus is headed to Galilee and he goes through Samaria, which was an odd route because the Jews despised, hated, avoided the Samaritans. 00:10:58.480 --> 00:11:04.720 And yet here is Jesus at this well speaking to a woman that he should not be speaking to. 00:11:04.799 --> 00:11:06.799 He's in a place he shouldn't be. 00:11:07.360 --> 00:11:13.919 And it's a beautiful image of how Christ pursues you in your weakness. 00:11:14.559 --> 00:11:24.639 And all the ways that we feel beat down or worn out or weary or exhausted or guilty or ashamed as an outsider that Jesus pursues you, right? 00:11:25.759 --> 00:11:26.399 There. 00:11:27.360 --> 00:11:29.039 John 4, 7 through 9. 00:11:29.120 --> 00:11:32.080 A woman from Samaria came to draw water. 00:11:32.399 --> 00:11:34.639 Jesus said to her, Give me a drink. 00:11:34.799 --> 00:11:38.080 For his disciples had gone away into the city to buy food. 00:11:38.399 --> 00:11:45.759 The Samaritan woman said to him, How is it that you, a Jew, like how like how why are you speaking to me? 00:11:46.000 --> 00:11:47.200 Jews don't speak to me. 00:11:47.519 --> 00:11:52.080 How is it that you, a Jew, ask for a drink from me, a woman of Samaria? 00:11:55.120 --> 00:12:01.440 The most famous painting of the scene is Annabel Karachi's, Christ and the Samaritan woman. 00:12:01.519 --> 00:12:03.440 It is painted around 1600. 00:12:03.600 --> 00:12:05.360 Here's the picture, the painting. 00:12:05.679 --> 00:12:12.799 Jesus is calmly seated and he's speaking while the woman, the Samaritan woman, sits listening intently. 00:12:15.440 --> 00:12:17.200 That water jar is there. 00:12:17.279 --> 00:12:21.840 It's a symbol of both her task, of why she's there, but it's also a symbol of her deeper thirst. 00:12:21.919 --> 00:12:28.000 It's a symbol of our thirst, that her soul, our soul thirsts for something more. 00:12:28.320 --> 00:12:32.000 The core of who we are keeps thirsting. 00:12:33.360 --> 00:12:34.799 You remember what Jesus says to her? 00:12:34.879 --> 00:12:36.639 He says, I'm living water. 00:12:38.399 --> 00:12:48.799 This week I uh when I was looking at this painting, the thing that hit me was I had always I always imagined the woman in John 4 to be much more beat up than this. 00:12:49.600 --> 00:12:51.039 She's looking pretty good. 00:12:51.200 --> 00:12:53.360 I mean, I was like, isn't that interesting? 00:12:53.440 --> 00:12:59.679 I was like, I think I've in my mind, the John 4 woman is just, I mean, she's had five husbands. 00:12:59.840 --> 00:13:02.000 She's on the sixth guy. 00:13:02.159 --> 00:13:04.480 She's had a lot of life happen to her. 00:13:04.639 --> 00:13:12.720 In my mind, I've always imagined this woman to be just worn out and weary and wrangled, right? 00:13:13.919 --> 00:13:15.600 She looks pretty good. 00:13:16.799 --> 00:13:20.399 I mean, you wouldn't know that her entire life is a mess. 00:13:22.240 --> 00:13:26.879 And I realized most of us look pretty good. 00:13:28.080 --> 00:13:30.080 Like we dress up really well. 00:13:32.159 --> 00:13:36.159 Even while there's all sorts of stuff going on inside of us. 00:13:37.200 --> 00:13:40.559 And I love that Jesus knows that. 00:13:42.159 --> 00:13:45.200 He knows that we dress up really well. 00:13:46.240 --> 00:13:50.240 And he knows everything that's still going on inside of us. 00:13:50.399 --> 00:13:53.440 He knows all of that, he knows all of that about me. 00:13:54.320 --> 00:14:00.399 And I can put on my did denims, and I can put on my Oxford button-up, and I can look pretty good. 00:14:01.360 --> 00:14:04.000 And there's still all sorts of stuff going on. 00:14:05.919 --> 00:14:14.080 And while you and I are prone to wander, Jesus is devoted to pursue us. 00:14:14.960 --> 00:14:17.440 Nehemiah 13, 29 through 31. 00:14:17.519 --> 00:14:19.679 This is how the chapter ends, how the book ends. 00:14:19.840 --> 00:14:25.600 Remember them, O my God, because they have desecrated the priesthood and the covenant of the priesthood and the Levites. 00:14:25.759 --> 00:14:32.080 Thus I cleanse them from everything foreign, and I established the duties of the priests and the Levites, each in his work. 00:14:32.320 --> 00:14:36.000 And I provided for the wood offering at appointed times and for the first fruits. 00:14:36.159 --> 00:14:38.879 Remember me, O my God, for good. 00:14:39.200 --> 00:14:43.120 So two prayers conclude the book. 00:14:43.759 --> 00:14:45.679 Remember them, O my God. 00:14:45.919 --> 00:14:47.440 Verse 29 and verse 31. 00:14:47.519 --> 00:14:50.080 Remember me, oh my God, for good. 00:14:51.600 --> 00:14:54.799 Point number four is this is what Nehemiah 13 tells us. 00:14:54.960 --> 00:15:00.240 We are securely God's beloved in Christ, but we need ongoing renewal. 00:15:00.480 --> 00:15:02.240 Both those things are true. 00:15:02.480 --> 00:15:04.799 We're securely God in Christ. 00:15:05.039 --> 00:15:08.720 Securely beloved, on the cross, the full forgiveness is given you. 00:15:08.879 --> 00:15:09.600 Fully forgiven. 00:15:09.679 --> 00:15:14.639 You're fully forgiven, and you're fully righteous, fully given, fully beloved in Jesus alone. 00:15:14.720 --> 00:15:17.120 Not your performance, not your pretending, nothing of you. 00:15:17.279 --> 00:15:22.559 All of that is true, and we still need ongoing renewal. 00:15:22.879 --> 00:15:26.879 Because life in me and you, we're not Nehemiah 12. 00:15:27.039 --> 00:15:28.000 We want to be. 00:15:28.240 --> 00:15:29.440 We would love to be. 00:15:29.600 --> 00:15:32.399 It's our heart to be Nehemiah 12 people. 00:15:32.720 --> 00:15:35.519 Grateful, generous, worshiping. 00:15:36.159 --> 00:15:42.320 But the reality is a lot of life and a lot of us is Nehemiah 13. 00:15:43.200 --> 00:15:47.679 But isn't it interesting that Nehemiah didn't end the book in chapter 12? 00:15:48.960 --> 00:15:51.679 Because chapter 12 is just such a glorious high note. 00:15:51.759 --> 00:15:54.320 What a way to end the book with chapter 12. 00:15:54.399 --> 00:16:00.639 Remember, last week we talked about these, he had these two kind of like worshiping procession parades. 00:16:00.720 --> 00:16:02.320 I mean, that's a way to end the book. 00:16:02.399 --> 00:16:04.159 That's how we would end the movie. 00:16:04.559 --> 00:16:07.679 We built the wall, we worshiped, everything's good. 00:16:09.600 --> 00:16:17.679 And just the problem with that is as good as that is, as much as we want that, it's just not what life or our lives or Christian faith is like. 00:16:18.159 --> 00:16:21.519 Reality feels much more like the weather this week. 00:16:23.600 --> 00:16:26.080 How many times did it rain this week? 00:16:26.320 --> 00:16:28.480 How many times in one day? 00:16:28.720 --> 00:16:32.240 I think one day it rained like five times in one day. 00:16:32.879 --> 00:16:35.120 There was a day we the staff went to lunch. 00:16:35.279 --> 00:16:36.559 We walked down to get pizza. 00:16:36.720 --> 00:16:38.080 Micah's pizza, thank you very much. 00:16:38.240 --> 00:16:39.440 Walk down to get pizza. 00:16:39.600 --> 00:16:42.320 On the way back, it's a six-minute walk. 00:16:43.200 --> 00:16:48.960 It poured on us, it became beautiful out, and then it drizzled again. 00:16:49.200 --> 00:16:50.080 Six minutes. 00:16:50.240 --> 00:16:51.519 That was six minutes. 00:16:51.679 --> 00:16:53.519 There's like three different weather fronts. 00:16:54.080 --> 00:16:55.840 That feels a little bit more like life. 00:16:56.000 --> 00:17:07.279 Like just really beautiful seasons and moments and times we're thriving, and then times when life really hits us, and life becomes complex and dynamic, and somebody hurts us, or we sin and we mess up. 00:17:08.880 --> 00:17:12.640 Nehemiah 13 exists because we're flaky. 00:17:14.400 --> 00:17:17.519 And we need Nehemiah 13 because we are not perfect. 00:17:17.599 --> 00:17:20.480 Our lives are not Nehemiah 12 as much as we want them to be. 00:17:21.200 --> 00:17:33.119 Nehemiah 13 declares, left to ourselves, apart from grace, apart from Nehemiah returning, the picture of Christ coming to us, apart from that, we're a mess. 00:17:34.240 --> 00:17:35.920 Even as Christians. 00:17:36.799 --> 00:17:48.720 And this is how Nehemiah points us to Jesus, because all of the law and the rules and the vows and who we should be, Nehemiah 12, is not enough to get us to stop from wandering. 00:17:50.640 --> 00:17:52.640 Our performance for God is not enough. 00:17:52.799 --> 00:17:57.599 We need God towards us, constantly toward us, for us. 00:17:58.319 --> 00:18:08.480 Only the grace of God, by the work of the Holy Spirit in us, alive and flowing in our lives, can give the power to truly overcome sin. 00:18:09.440 --> 00:18:16.799 Romans 8, 3, for God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do. 00:18:17.200 --> 00:18:24.480 By sending his own son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh. 00:18:25.759 --> 00:18:30.079 500 years ago, Martin Luther, the theologian, he coined two terms. 00:18:30.400 --> 00:18:36.400 So this is a point that the Catholic Church was going, and then Luther comes along, he begins to read the Bible for himself. 00:18:36.480 --> 00:18:43.359 He discovers this idea of justification by grace alone, through faith alone, and Christ alone, and he starts to write about this and read about this. 00:18:43.440 --> 00:18:44.160 He's discovering this. 00:18:44.640 --> 00:18:47.599 This is amazing what we have in Jesus. 00:18:49.279 --> 00:18:59.440 And he coins these terms, theology of glory and theology of the cross, which is about how do we think about life? 00:18:59.680 --> 00:19:03.039 How do we think about being Christian in this world? 00:19:03.359 --> 00:19:14.240 A theology of glory says this maturity and life, like life where you flourish, is at the top of an endless incline of improvement. 00:19:15.359 --> 00:19:19.599 So this is the delusion that life is at the top of this incline. 00:19:19.680 --> 00:19:24.319 It's Nehemiah 8 through 12 without the reality of 13. 00:19:25.519 --> 00:19:28.000 It's the law without grace. 00:19:28.160 --> 00:19:30.799 It's all the rules without Jesus. 00:19:31.119 --> 00:19:37.359 And like I said, it's not that we don't want to be Nehemiah 12 people, it's just that we're not. 00:19:37.920 --> 00:19:39.519 We just don't pull it off. 00:19:39.680 --> 00:19:41.119 We are prone to wander. 00:19:41.279 --> 00:19:52.400 And this is why ideologies and theologies of moralism or prosperity will always end up crushing you and making you feel worse about yourselves and exhausting you. 00:19:54.480 --> 00:20:02.880 So Luther, coming from Jesus and from Paul, he gives us the term, the idea of the theology of the cross. 00:20:03.279 --> 00:20:09.839 That God provides salvation, wholeness, and fulfillment as I die into Christ. 00:20:11.440 --> 00:20:16.480 So life is in honestly facing your sin and your weakness and your guilt and your shame. 00:20:16.799 --> 00:20:18.880 We confess that we're prone to wander. 00:20:18.960 --> 00:20:21.440 We confess at Nehemiah, this is who we are. 00:20:21.599 --> 00:20:25.039 And we collapse into Jesus as we voice our mistakes and our needs. 00:20:25.119 --> 00:20:26.720 We say stuff like, I just need help. 00:20:26.880 --> 00:20:28.000 I need help. 00:20:28.319 --> 00:20:33.759 I want to be Nehemia 12, I want to be generous, and I want to be worshiping, I want to be thankful. 00:20:34.559 --> 00:20:39.279 But I'm discovering all these other parts of my heart, my motives. 00:20:40.400 --> 00:20:41.839 Jesus, I need help. 00:20:42.000 --> 00:20:47.680 And in that we remember how good and lovely and sufficient and enough He is for us. 00:20:48.960 --> 00:20:57.039 Years ago, I saw this chart, a representation of what the Christian life can look like, the shrinking of the cross. 00:20:57.119 --> 00:21:01.759 We could call this a theology of glory chart, way of life. 00:21:01.920 --> 00:21:07.119 So we become Christians, and over time we realize how holy God is and how messed up we are, right? 00:21:07.200 --> 00:21:09.119 You can see that as it moves from left to right. 00:21:09.200 --> 00:21:17.839 Time goes by, some more we have a conversion, and inevitably what's going to happen is you're going to grow aware of God's holiness and how good and holy and right and loving that God is. 00:21:18.000 --> 00:21:23.440 And you will, you will become aware of your own flesh and sinfulness. 00:21:23.599 --> 00:21:31.839 If you don't become aware of it in your outer behaviors, you will certainly become aware of it in your own heart and how you think about people and your motives. 00:21:32.559 --> 00:21:42.319 And if Jesus' loveliness and sufficiency stays the same for you throughout time, you will have to fill the gap with something else. 00:21:43.359 --> 00:21:49.359 And often what we fill the gap with is our performance and pretending. 00:21:50.400 --> 00:21:55.119 Because we discover the difference between who we should be and who we are. 00:21:55.440 --> 00:22:08.799 And if the cross does not fill that gap, if the grace of God does not fill all of that and Jesus is getting bigger and bigger and bigger for you, you will fill the gap with your pretending and your performance. 00:22:08.880 --> 00:22:12.880 And that's why you're so worn out and condemned. 00:22:16.640 --> 00:22:21.440 But there's a theology of glory, and there's a theology of the cross. 00:22:21.680 --> 00:22:24.400 And here's the other chart that I saw. 00:22:26.559 --> 00:22:39.680 That over time, as we're growing aware of this difference, who we should be and who we are, God's holiness and who I am, I don't have to fill the gaps with my performance and my pretending to be righteous. 00:22:40.480 --> 00:22:45.920 I can let Jesus get bigger and bigger and bigger and bigger. 00:22:49.119 --> 00:22:51.039 Let me close with this quote. 00:22:51.279 --> 00:22:54.240 This is Dane Ortland in the book Deeper. 00:22:56.559 --> 00:23:06.079 Christian growth is, among other things, growth in sensing just how impoverished and powerless we are in our own strength. 00:23:06.319 --> 00:23:12.400 How hollow and futile our efforts to grow spiritually are on our own steam. 00:23:12.880 --> 00:23:20.799 The point in all this is that we must come to face to face with who we really are, left to our own steam. 00:23:21.519 --> 00:23:26.240 Christian salvation is not assistance, it is resurrection. 00:23:26.559 --> 00:23:30.880 The gospel does not take our good and complete us with God's help. 00:23:31.039 --> 00:23:42.880 The gospel tells us we are dead and helpless, unable to contribute anything to our rescue, but the sin that requires it, Christian salvation is not enhancing, it is resurrecting. 00:23:44.400 --> 00:23:50.720 So we're Nehemiah 13 people, we want to be Nehemiah 12 people, that presents a huge problem. 00:23:52.400 --> 00:24:03.680 But fortunately, all of Nehemiah is sending us into the New Testament to cast our eyes, put our hearts in Jesus. 00:24:09.119 --> 00:24:13.359 He knows all of it, and he still pursues you. 00:24:13.680 --> 00:24:16.160 He knows all of you and he still pursues you. 00:24:16.799 --> 00:24:18.079 Let's pray to God. 00:24:19.680 --> 00:24:27.359 Heavenly Father, we're so grateful that you hear the prayer at the end of the Emaih, remember us. 00:24:29.200 --> 00:24:32.000 Remember them, remember me, remember me. 00:24:32.880 --> 00:24:36.240 And thank you that you you did, and you have. 00:24:37.759 --> 00:24:46.720 Thank you that Jesus came to do the thing that law, to do the thing that our performance and our pretending cannot do. 00:24:46.960 --> 00:24:52.319 That in Jesus we have all the full forgiveness of God, in Jesus we have all the full righteousness. 00:24:52.559 --> 00:25:04.480 May any part of our lives of trusting and worship and generosity and gratefulness come out of our secure belovedness in Christ alone. 00:25:04.720 --> 00:25:14.480 May we all the more rejoice in, cast our eyes upon and behold Jesus as he gets bigger and bigger for our hearts and our lives. 00:25:14.640 --> 00:25:15.759 In Christ's name we pray. 00:25:16.160 --> 00:25:16.559 Amen.