WEBVTT 00:00:00.640 --> 00:00:05.120 So for three weeks, we're asking the question how do we grow as Christians? 00:00:05.200 --> 00:00:12.480 And this is not guilt on you or fear on you, and you better or else or you better do these things or else. 00:00:12.640 --> 00:00:18.160 No, what we're saying is in Jesus, you are already fully forgiven. 00:00:18.320 --> 00:00:20.079 In Jesus, you are already fully righteous. 00:00:20.239 --> 00:00:21.839 In Jesus, you're already fully accepted. 00:00:22.000 --> 00:00:25.359 All those things are fully secure in Jesus. 00:00:25.760 --> 00:00:29.679 God's delight in you is secure in Jesus. 00:00:30.239 --> 00:00:31.920 So this is what we said last week. 00:00:32.079 --> 00:00:35.520 We are free from earning God's love. 00:00:35.840 --> 00:00:40.399 So, how do we grow in that lavish love? 00:00:41.439 --> 00:00:44.399 Over the past few weeks, our family's been watching the Olympics. 00:00:44.479 --> 00:00:45.600 Y'all have been watching the Olympics? 00:00:45.679 --> 00:00:46.960 Did you see the trampoline? 00:00:47.119 --> 00:00:47.679 Did you know? 00:00:47.759 --> 00:00:48.479 I didn't know. 00:00:48.640 --> 00:00:51.359 I didn't know I didn't know people were gonna be jumping that high. 00:00:51.439 --> 00:00:52.000 That surprised me. 00:00:52.079 --> 00:00:54.640 I was like, he's the he's really going high. 00:00:55.119 --> 00:00:58.079 And then I saw the horse like stomping around. 00:00:58.159 --> 00:00:58.799 That was interesting. 00:00:58.880 --> 00:01:00.320 But the gymnastics is my favorite. 00:01:00.479 --> 00:01:02.159 Any other gymnastics, right? 00:01:02.320 --> 00:01:03.359 And we love her. 00:01:03.600 --> 00:01:05.040 Do we not love Simone? 00:01:05.200 --> 00:01:06.319 Everybody loves Simone. 00:01:06.640 --> 00:01:07.760 I love Simone. 00:01:08.319 --> 00:01:09.840 She dominates. 00:01:10.000 --> 00:01:13.200 She dominated and she helped win the team gold. 00:01:13.359 --> 00:01:16.879 And then she dominated and she helped win the all-around gold. 00:01:16.959 --> 00:01:18.799 And then did you see the vault? 00:01:19.280 --> 00:01:19.920 She did. 00:01:20.000 --> 00:01:22.159 Do you know about the Biles 2 vault? 00:01:22.239 --> 00:01:24.400 This is a double pipe vault. 00:01:24.719 --> 00:01:30.400 No lady has ever done this vault in competition except her. 00:01:30.959 --> 00:01:34.159 She is the GOAT, the Sigma, the greatest. 00:01:34.239 --> 00:01:35.599 She's like, it is her. 00:01:35.760 --> 00:01:36.480 She's it. 00:01:36.640 --> 00:01:38.480 She's Jesus and a Leotard. 00:01:38.799 --> 00:01:42.079 That is that's what we're seeing right there. 00:01:42.319 --> 00:01:48.159 And just when I thought she is supernatural, I saw this picture. 00:01:52.000 --> 00:01:55.280 So that's a real, that's a real picture. 00:01:55.519 --> 00:01:56.400 That is real. 00:01:56.560 --> 00:01:58.159 That really happened. 00:01:59.439 --> 00:02:01.359 So she's the best ever. 00:02:02.239 --> 00:02:04.400 She does a vault nobody else can do. 00:02:04.560 --> 00:02:09.439 She can flip her body 12 feet in the air. 00:02:10.639 --> 00:02:12.400 But you know what she can't do? 00:02:13.919 --> 00:02:20.400 She cannot will herself with all of her discipline and strength and self-effort. 00:02:20.639 --> 00:02:25.120 She can't will herself to grow a single inch. 00:02:26.159 --> 00:02:29.360 Because some things we just don't have the power to do within ourselves. 00:02:29.599 --> 00:02:32.319 And that's the point about Christian growth. 00:02:32.479 --> 00:02:40.319 That our spiritual growth as Christians is always inside of God's grace, which empowers the growth. 00:02:40.960 --> 00:02:44.639 Some things we just don't have the power to do on our own. 00:02:44.960 --> 00:02:54.319 This is why Tim Keller said it this way: the gospel is not just the ABCs of the Christian life, but the A to Z of the Christian life. 00:02:54.479 --> 00:02:58.719 We do not leave the gospel to go and start growing as Christians. 00:02:58.960 --> 00:03:01.840 We have to grow ever deeper in it. 00:03:02.080 --> 00:03:08.159 That's why I love this Titus II passage, one of my favorite passages, because it so clearly lays this out for us. 00:03:08.400 --> 00:03:09.599 Titus 2, 11. 00:03:09.759 --> 00:03:13.439 For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people. 00:03:13.520 --> 00:03:15.039 Okay, so the grace of God appeared. 00:03:15.199 --> 00:03:17.199 Through Jesus we have salvation. 00:03:17.759 --> 00:03:18.719 ABC. 00:03:19.280 --> 00:03:21.520 But it's also the A to Z, verse 12. 00:03:21.599 --> 00:03:44.560 So this grace training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age, waiting for our blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness and to purify for himself a people for his own possession who are zealous for good works. 00:03:44.960 --> 00:03:48.319 So it is by grace that we are saved, and it is by grace we're changed. 00:03:48.400 --> 00:03:49.280 That's point number one. 00:03:49.439 --> 00:03:55.599 Jesus gives us our salvation and empowers our change. 00:03:55.759 --> 00:04:02.400 We could say it this way: God's love is not a result of our transformed lives. 00:04:02.719 --> 00:04:04.800 For a long time I lived that way as a Christian. 00:04:04.960 --> 00:04:08.800 I thought that God's love was a result of me becoming just a little bit better. 00:04:08.960 --> 00:04:09.599 No, no, no. 00:04:09.919 --> 00:04:14.080 God's love is the source of our transforming lives. 00:04:14.719 --> 00:04:17.120 This week I was reminded of the theories of change. 00:04:17.279 --> 00:04:18.959 We studied this about a year ago. 00:04:19.040 --> 00:04:21.680 This comes from an article called The Cure of Souls by Dr. 00:04:21.759 --> 00:04:25.040 Simeon Zoll, which is a Cambridge theological professor. 00:04:25.199 --> 00:04:28.160 And he sort of summarizes four different theories of change. 00:04:28.240 --> 00:04:34.399 There are a bit of simplification, but all these theories of change are going on in different churches and different Christian realms. 00:04:34.560 --> 00:04:37.759 If you've been at church at all, you've experienced disease. 00:04:37.920 --> 00:04:40.959 These theories have actually been done to you. 00:04:41.680 --> 00:04:45.040 So as I review them, just think through what you've experienced. 00:04:45.279 --> 00:04:49.600 Theory of change number one, the sacramental participation approach. 00:04:49.920 --> 00:04:55.040 This says you better get baptized and you better take communion. 00:04:55.279 --> 00:04:59.839 Because this theory says, take the sacraments as to be holy. 00:05:00.079 --> 00:05:03.600 Take the sacraments and you will be godly. 00:05:03.759 --> 00:05:05.920 Through the sacrament, you are these things. 00:05:06.079 --> 00:05:12.800 Because in this approach, the sacraments don't just symbolize something, they actually cause the change. 00:05:13.759 --> 00:05:17.439 Theory of change number two, the Christian information approach. 00:05:17.600 --> 00:05:21.439 This says you better learn your Bible facts and your doctrine. 00:05:22.000 --> 00:05:27.680 This theory says the Bible contains instructions for life, so get to know the instructions for godly living. 00:05:27.839 --> 00:05:29.759 The more you learn, the more you will change. 00:05:29.920 --> 00:05:32.959 The instructions, the learning of it will actually change you. 00:05:33.120 --> 00:05:34.879 So get more in you. 00:05:35.439 --> 00:05:39.360 Theory of change number three, the Pentecostal and charismatic approach. 00:05:39.519 --> 00:05:45.600 This says you better have more and more and more emotional worship experiences. 00:05:46.000 --> 00:05:51.279 This theory says that the next experience, the next one is more important than the one you just had. 00:05:51.360 --> 00:05:53.839 And then after you have that one, you need another one. 00:05:54.000 --> 00:06:01.439 And you just move from experience to experience because through the experience and the emotion of it, that's where you're changed. 00:06:01.839 --> 00:06:03.199 Now let's pause. 00:06:03.439 --> 00:06:07.360 Just sort of think about the churches you've been in, the different worship experiences. 00:06:09.680 --> 00:06:10.959 Can you spot it? 00:06:11.120 --> 00:06:13.120 Can you spot what's been done to you? 00:06:13.680 --> 00:06:15.839 Maybe even your personal theory of change. 00:06:16.000 --> 00:06:18.240 We all have a personal theory of change, whether we realize it or not. 00:06:18.319 --> 00:06:21.600 We've accepted some theory of change about how we're going to change. 00:06:21.839 --> 00:06:23.360 What's your theory of change? 00:06:23.519 --> 00:06:26.720 Is your theory of change actually working? 00:06:27.759 --> 00:06:31.439 Or are you just becoming more exhausted as a Christian? 00:06:31.680 --> 00:06:34.480 Now, theory of change number four is the one that Dr. 00:06:34.639 --> 00:06:35.519 Zoll likes. 00:06:35.680 --> 00:06:39.199 This is actually the one that Redeemer Marietta practices and believes in. 00:06:39.360 --> 00:06:40.879 The Augustinian approach. 00:06:41.040 --> 00:06:47.040 Now, we would just say it this way: grow in grace by diving deeper in Jesus' goodness. 00:06:48.480 --> 00:06:48.800 St. 00:06:48.959 --> 00:07:00.079 Paul says that the demand of what we should be as Christians, the demand on its own is not enough to empower the change to get us to be that very thing. 00:07:00.399 --> 00:07:02.959 So the demand doesn't hold the power. 00:07:03.279 --> 00:07:11.759 And this is why we need more than information and we need more than experiences, even though those things may play into our Christian life. 00:07:12.079 --> 00:07:18.399 We actually need the Holy Spirit in us to meet us in our nothingness. 00:07:18.879 --> 00:07:23.120 Not in the thing that we're bringing, and then he kind of helps us out along the way. 00:07:23.279 --> 00:07:26.560 No, we bring our surrender, our repentance. 00:07:26.639 --> 00:07:32.240 We're falling into our belovedness, and he is changing us. 00:07:42.399 --> 00:07:53.759 Human beings receive the Holy Spirit so that there arises in their minds a delight in and a love for that highest and immutable good that is God. 00:07:54.319 --> 00:07:57.920 Even now, while they walk by faith, not yet by sight. 00:07:58.160 --> 00:08:06.000 By this love given to them, like the pledge of a gratuitous gift, they are set afire with a desire to cling to the Creator. 00:08:06.160 --> 00:08:12.079 So he says the only reason we'd even desire change or have change is because a love has been given to us. 00:08:19.279 --> 00:08:21.360 And that is God's gift to us. 00:08:22.079 --> 00:08:28.319 So thinking back to Titus 2, 11 and 12, just as I read this, think about how the grace of God is working. 00:08:28.399 --> 00:08:38.559 For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people, training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age. 00:08:38.720 --> 00:08:46.799 So theologically, we could say it this way: our sanctification happens as we grow deeper in our justification. 00:08:46.879 --> 00:08:49.120 Now, those are big church words. 00:08:49.440 --> 00:08:52.480 Justification is our enoughness to God. 00:08:52.879 --> 00:08:56.799 Holy enough, just enough, righteous enough, forgiven enough. 00:08:56.960 --> 00:08:58.559 We are justified before God. 00:08:58.720 --> 00:09:01.039 Our justification is in Jesus. 00:09:01.360 --> 00:09:02.799 One-time event. 00:09:03.600 --> 00:09:07.519 Our sanctification is the process of becoming more like Jesus. 00:09:07.759 --> 00:09:10.159 This is the process of being a Christian. 00:09:10.399 --> 00:09:17.279 Now I was taught that justification happened when I converted and became a Christian, surrendered my life to Jesus, and now I need to leave my justification. 00:09:17.440 --> 00:09:23.600 I need to move on to being a Christian, doing the spiritual practices, my sanctification. 00:09:24.159 --> 00:09:26.159 But I was taught wrongly. 00:09:26.559 --> 00:09:31.840 Because actually the sanctification is a going deeper in the justification. 00:09:32.000 --> 00:09:34.480 We never leave our justification. 00:09:34.639 --> 00:09:40.399 It happens to us, and our life of a Christian is learning just how wonderful this is. 00:09:42.720 --> 00:09:48.799 Which means that we grow deeper by growing into the great wealth of our identity in Jesus. 00:09:48.960 --> 00:09:50.399 This is why we said last week. 00:09:50.559 --> 00:10:00.799 So you can be like, you can try to act smart and sound smart to your friends, and you can say, well, the Christian life is our sanctification happens as we grow deeper in our justification. 00:10:01.039 --> 00:10:02.240 So you could say it that way. 00:10:02.320 --> 00:10:03.200 And you will be right. 00:10:03.840 --> 00:10:05.200 People in your small group be very impressed. 00:10:05.440 --> 00:10:07.039 Oh, whoa, whoa, that's great. 00:10:07.919 --> 00:10:12.320 Or you can just say, we grow as Christians as we grow deeper in Jesus. 00:10:12.639 --> 00:10:13.919 They mean the same thing. 00:10:14.720 --> 00:10:15.919 So what do we do? 00:10:16.159 --> 00:10:17.120 What do I do? 00:10:17.279 --> 00:10:20.960 If I'm free, if I'm free, what do I do? 00:10:21.759 --> 00:10:23.759 Two implications for growth and grace. 00:10:23.919 --> 00:10:28.320 Implication number one, collapse and confess in Jesus. 00:10:29.519 --> 00:10:31.679 In God's kindness, we're drawn to repentance. 00:10:31.759 --> 00:10:33.759 So our confession is in God's grace. 00:10:34.000 --> 00:10:35.919 We collapse into Jesus. 00:10:36.159 --> 00:10:38.399 We voice our mistakes, we voice our mess. 00:10:38.639 --> 00:10:41.279 I mean, we're voicing that we need help. 00:10:41.519 --> 00:10:42.960 I don't have this. 00:10:43.200 --> 00:10:44.399 I don't know what to do. 00:10:44.559 --> 00:10:46.480 I don't know how to engage this person. 00:10:46.559 --> 00:10:49.919 I don't know how to have this conversation, or I messed up with that conversation. 00:10:50.000 --> 00:10:52.080 I'm overreacting, I'm abreacting. 00:10:52.320 --> 00:10:53.919 I need help. 00:10:54.879 --> 00:10:57.360 This is a collapse in a confession in Jesus. 00:10:57.440 --> 00:11:03.440 And in that, we're remembering just how lovely He is, how sufficient He is. 00:11:05.279 --> 00:11:08.480 This practice actually matures you. 00:11:08.879 --> 00:11:11.120 The collapse in the confession. 00:11:11.919 --> 00:11:13.360 This actually matures you. 00:11:13.440 --> 00:11:19.120 The bringing your nothingness to God and saying, I need help actually creates change. 00:11:19.840 --> 00:11:21.840 Years ago, I saw this chart. 00:11:22.080 --> 00:11:24.639 This was very helpful to me, stuck with me for a long time. 00:11:24.799 --> 00:11:38.240 So we have this point of conversion, we become a Christian, surrender our life to Jesus, and then inevitably we all begin on this path where we are growing in our awareness of God's holiness, how big God is, how great He is, how glorious He is. 00:11:38.320 --> 00:11:44.480 And at the same time, we are inevitably discovering we're not as put together as we thought, we're not quite changing like we thought we would. 00:11:44.639 --> 00:11:46.639 We're not quite the Christians we thought we would be. 00:11:46.720 --> 00:11:49.759 So we're growing in our awareness of our flesh and our sinfulness. 00:11:49.919 --> 00:11:52.559 So a gap is occurring over time. 00:11:53.600 --> 00:12:01.919 And what happens so often is we fill the gap with a little bit of Jesus and we fill it with some pretending and we fill it with some performing. 00:12:02.159 --> 00:12:07.440 And this is why, as Christians, it's so often to live with condemnation and exhaustion. 00:12:07.600 --> 00:12:10.480 But there's another way to live the Christian life. 00:12:10.639 --> 00:12:11.919 And that's this chart. 00:12:12.000 --> 00:12:15.679 And that is that Jesus just keeps getting bigger. 00:12:15.919 --> 00:12:36.159 That you're growing in your awareness how great God is, how glorious, and how holy He is, and you're not as put together as you thought you were, and like, oh yeah, I thought you were great, but then my motives are messed up and all sorts of stuff, and you're growing in that awareness of your flesh and sinfulness, and instead of inserting, pretending, and performing, you just let the cross, Jesus, get bigger and bigger for you. 00:12:37.759 --> 00:12:41.200 Dane Ortland in his book Deeper writes this. 00:12:41.840 --> 00:12:50.559 Christian growth is, among other things, growth and sensing just how impoverished and powerless we are in our own strength. 00:12:50.720 --> 00:12:55.919 How hollow and futile our efforts to grow spiritually are on our own steam. 00:12:56.159 --> 00:13:03.279 The point in all of this is that we must come face to face with who we really are, left to our own steam. 00:13:03.519 --> 00:13:07.759 Christian salvation is not assistance, it is resurrection. 00:13:08.080 --> 00:13:15.120 The gospel does not take our good and complete us with God's help. 00:13:15.360 --> 00:13:23.279 The gospel tells us we're dead and helpless, unable to contribute anything to our rescue but the sin that requires it. 00:13:23.600 --> 00:13:27.120 Christian salvation is not enhancing, it is resurrecting. 00:13:27.360 --> 00:13:35.039 So Ortland is saying the Christian entry and the Christian path is a bringing of your nothingness. 00:13:35.200 --> 00:13:36.000 Open hands. 00:13:36.240 --> 00:13:37.440 I need help. 00:13:37.679 --> 00:13:41.120 So our way forward is a continued collapse in confession. 00:13:41.279 --> 00:13:45.360 Now next week we're going to talk more about spiritual practices and disciplines. 00:13:45.519 --> 00:13:52.480 But just for today, confession and collapse, and then implication number two, become your own Jesus preacher. 00:13:52.799 --> 00:13:58.639 So maybe I'm your preacher, maybe somebody else is your preacher, but you need to be your own preacher. 00:13:59.440 --> 00:14:07.200 Grace guru and seminary professor Jack Miller, he used to say this: preach the gospel to yourself every day. 00:14:08.080 --> 00:14:10.639 We need to do this every day because every day we forget. 00:14:10.799 --> 00:14:18.320 Every day to some degree we revert into guilt or shame into performance, pretending some merit. 00:14:20.000 --> 00:14:30.799 We need to preach to ourselves that we actually are fully forgiven already in Jesus, actually fully loved and fully secure and fully beloved and fully worthy and fully validated, and all of this is in Jesus. 00:14:30.960 --> 00:14:32.960 We have to preach to ourselves. 00:14:35.039 --> 00:14:36.799 So don't go to a church. 00:14:36.960 --> 00:14:38.320 You don't have to come to church here. 00:14:38.399 --> 00:14:39.919 Maybe go to church somewhere else. 00:14:40.159 --> 00:14:44.960 But you need to go to a church that is a Jesus plus nothing equals everything church. 00:14:45.120 --> 00:14:48.960 That's not mixing Jesus and moralism together. 00:14:50.240 --> 00:14:54.480 That sort of Christian moralism will just exhaust you. 00:14:55.279 --> 00:15:02.080 You need a church that is setting the gospel up against moralism so you can discern the difference. 00:15:02.879 --> 00:15:06.879 That you understand what your role is inside of God's grace. 00:15:07.039 --> 00:15:09.039 That earning is over. 00:15:09.759 --> 00:15:14.159 Now there's effort inside of God's grace, but the earning is completely over. 00:15:15.440 --> 00:15:17.679 To grow in this sort of gospel. 00:15:18.000 --> 00:15:21.279 I have two book recommendations just to get you started if you need them. 00:15:21.440 --> 00:15:24.480 The first is a short book by Tim Keller, The Prodigal God. 00:15:24.639 --> 00:15:31.120 This is a short book, very easy to read, and really will help you grow in Jesus. 00:15:31.679 --> 00:15:33.440 It's the prodigal son's story. 00:15:33.600 --> 00:15:37.840 The second is a year-long devotion, New Morning Mercies by Paul Tripp. 00:15:38.559 --> 00:15:47.600 And in time, you'll be able to grow and discern the difference between Christian moralism, where it's like me, a lot of me and a little bit of Jesus. 00:15:47.759 --> 00:15:53.919 But then you keep feeling like really prideful and then really in despair, like really excited and then really exhausted. 00:15:54.639 --> 00:15:55.039 Right? 00:15:55.200 --> 00:15:57.360 Because it's the charts, the first chart. 00:15:57.600 --> 00:16:00.639 A lot of pretending and performing with Jesus. 00:16:01.919 --> 00:16:09.519 But then to be able to discern, be able to preach to yourself gospel that Jesus is big enough for this gap. 00:16:11.759 --> 00:16:19.679 Last week one of you sweet church folks came up to me and gave me a bag from your garden of tomatoes. 00:16:21.840 --> 00:16:25.200 I love a homegrown tomato. 00:16:25.679 --> 00:16:27.919 I mean, white bread. 00:16:28.080 --> 00:16:31.840 Not, I don't want your, I don't want your brown bread with nuts in it. 00:16:32.000 --> 00:16:34.159 I mean, that's not, that will not work. 00:16:34.639 --> 00:16:37.679 White, like cake, okay? 00:16:37.840 --> 00:16:39.120 That's what we're talking about. 00:16:39.440 --> 00:16:41.200 Nutritious as cake. 00:16:41.519 --> 00:16:45.200 And then you just smother Duke mayonnaise on it. 00:16:45.440 --> 00:16:45.679 Right? 00:16:45.840 --> 00:16:46.399 Just dupe. 00:16:46.559 --> 00:16:47.600 I don't want to hear about anything else. 00:16:47.759 --> 00:16:48.799 Just Duke mayonnaise. 00:16:49.039 --> 00:16:50.799 Slice that sweet tomato up. 00:16:50.879 --> 00:16:53.360 You put it on there, your juice is just running down, right? 00:16:53.440 --> 00:16:54.639 You eat it over the sink. 00:16:54.720 --> 00:16:56.240 You don't even put it on a plate. 00:16:56.399 --> 00:16:58.000 You eat it over the sink. 00:16:58.159 --> 00:16:58.639 Right? 00:16:59.120 --> 00:17:00.320 That's summertime in the South. 00:17:00.480 --> 00:17:02.080 Southerners, amen. 00:17:02.559 --> 00:17:04.720 Northerners, I don't know if y'all have tomatoes. 00:17:04.799 --> 00:17:05.920 I'm not sure. 00:17:06.319 --> 00:17:07.599 Pretty sure you don't. 00:17:07.920 --> 00:17:09.680 You don't have tomato, like not like us. 00:17:09.759 --> 00:17:11.039 We have real tomatoes. 00:17:11.839 --> 00:17:15.200 Now, this tomato, I've I've never grown a tomato in my life. 00:17:15.359 --> 00:17:16.799 I am no farmer. 00:17:17.519 --> 00:17:22.319 Here's what I hear about it: that there's roots under the soil. 00:17:22.480 --> 00:17:24.160 And out of those roots come a vine. 00:17:24.240 --> 00:17:29.519 And that vine comes up, and then it comes straight in the top of this fruit, right? 00:17:29.680 --> 00:17:34.480 Where the fruit vegetable debate, y'all can debate later, but it comes straight into the fruit. 00:17:35.119 --> 00:17:36.160 Straight into there. 00:17:36.400 --> 00:17:40.720 And as soon as this fruit is taken off of the vine, it starts to die. 00:17:41.279 --> 00:17:41.599 Right? 00:17:41.759 --> 00:17:46.319 And the lesson there is that the tomato has no hope without the vine. 00:17:47.039 --> 00:17:50.000 All the nutrition is coming through the vine. 00:17:50.240 --> 00:17:54.799 I mean, if Jesus was a southerner, he wouldn't have been talking about wine all the time. 00:17:54.960 --> 00:17:55.119 Right? 00:17:55.200 --> 00:17:56.880 He would have been talking about tomatoes. 00:17:59.039 --> 00:18:05.359 And the lesson is our Christian growth is not our effort with a little help from Jesus. 00:18:06.480 --> 00:18:10.880 As soon as we believe that, we are on a path of exhaustion and condemnation. 00:18:12.000 --> 00:18:17.920 Our Christian growth is growing deeper into the justification by Christ alone. 00:18:18.880 --> 00:18:23.279 Our sanctification is ever deepening into our justification. 00:18:23.599 --> 00:18:25.920 Now, if you just want to be normal, you say it this way. 00:18:26.079 --> 00:18:31.680 Our Christian growth is growing deeper into the loveliness and the enoughness of Jesus. 00:18:32.000 --> 00:18:34.319 We're not earning a thing. 00:18:35.039 --> 00:18:39.599 We're growing in the lavish acceptance and approval Jesus already has for us. 00:18:40.559 --> 00:18:43.920 So are we seeing that Jesus is bigger? 00:18:45.680 --> 00:18:49.839 He's lovelier more than enough, or are we just busy and distracted? 00:18:50.240 --> 00:18:51.039 Let's pray together. 00:18:51.440 --> 00:18:57.119 Heavenly Father, we thank you that you through Jesus is enough for us. 00:18:57.440 --> 00:19:04.079 You are all the forgiveness we have ever needed, all of our sin put upon the cross and all of your righteousness given to us. 00:19:04.319 --> 00:19:07.359 We have all the righteousness we ever need in Jesus. 00:19:07.680 --> 00:19:10.720 We are fully your beloved, secure forever. 00:19:11.119 --> 00:19:12.079 We are free. 00:19:13.119 --> 00:19:35.839 In our freedom, would you inspire and empower a growth and grace that our lives, that you would train us to say no to ungodliness, to say yes to godliness, to confess our mistakes and our mess ups, to collapse even more, to become our own Jesus preachers, that we might grow in your grace, grow in this freedom. 00:19:37.519 --> 00:19:46.720 That our hearts would burn, that our hearts would long for the greatness, the goodness, the loveliness, the enoughness of Jesus for us. 00:19:46.960 --> 00:19:48.160 In Christ's name we pray. 00:19:48.400 --> 00:19:48.880 Amen.