WEBVTT 00:00:00.239 --> 00:00:00.959 Well, good morning. 00:00:01.120 --> 00:00:02.640 This week begins Lent. 00:00:02.799 --> 00:00:07.519 So we are breaking from our study of the book of Leviticus, which we've been doing since the beginning of January. 00:00:07.599 --> 00:00:09.359 We're taking a break for Lent. 00:00:09.519 --> 00:00:13.839 Lent are these 40 days leading up to Easter. 00:00:14.000 --> 00:00:19.039 And so Lent comes from the word Lenten, which means the season of spring. 00:00:19.120 --> 00:00:25.359 So as we enter spring and around us, we're going to begin to see different things blooming and blossoming around us. 00:00:25.440 --> 00:00:27.839 I think this week I saw a cherry tree blooming. 00:00:27.920 --> 00:00:40.560 Like we're going to begin to see this, like we're going to be studying New Testament passages and contemplating our need of Jesus and what new growth Jesus might have for us in our hearts. 00:00:40.799 --> 00:00:47.039 Now, as a boy, I went to the Thomas I Group in Lilburn, Georgia on Highway 29, next to the baseball card shop. 00:00:47.119 --> 00:00:51.039 So I could always get my eyes checked and get a baseball card or basketball card. 00:00:51.119 --> 00:00:56.880 And they would sit me in that chair 20 feet from the eye chart, swing that apparatus in front of me. 00:00:56.960 --> 00:01:00.799 The Ferroper is what it's called, invented by Chad Ferroper. 00:01:01.119 --> 00:01:04.400 Now I don't I have no idea if Chad Feropeter invented it or not. 00:01:04.719 --> 00:01:07.200 But that is the Ferroper, and they put it in front of you. 00:01:07.359 --> 00:01:08.000 Anyone else? 00:01:08.159 --> 00:01:08.640 Remember this? 00:01:08.719 --> 00:01:09.519 Maybe you still do this? 00:01:09.599 --> 00:01:10.319 And what do they do? 00:01:10.400 --> 00:01:12.319 They go, this one or this one? 00:01:12.560 --> 00:01:14.799 This one or this one, right? 00:01:14.959 --> 00:01:16.000 This one or this one? 00:01:16.239 --> 00:01:17.359 This one or this one. 00:01:17.439 --> 00:01:18.400 And what are they doing? 00:01:18.640 --> 00:01:22.159 They're getting the correct lens for you. 00:01:22.719 --> 00:01:27.200 Because we need the correct lens as to see rightly. 00:01:27.439 --> 00:01:35.680 Now, sadly, we all have a bad lens when it comes to how we see God. 00:01:35.920 --> 00:01:39.599 Because we can even hear that we are loved by God. 00:01:39.760 --> 00:01:42.959 We can even hear that, which would be a major breakthrough. 00:01:43.200 --> 00:01:52.959 We can hear that, and then we can still wake up tomorrow and revert back to life by the law, or we could say life by performance. 00:01:53.200 --> 00:02:01.040 And this is why we need the gospel to become Christians, but then even as Christians, we need the gospel day to day, week to week. 00:02:01.200 --> 00:02:13.199 We need to be preaching the gospel to ourselves because we do have different lenses that we use to look at the world and God and ourselves. 00:02:13.439 --> 00:02:17.840 The three main lenses are the worldly lens, the religious lens, and the gospel lens. 00:02:17.919 --> 00:02:25.599 So the worldly lens says this merit or obtain that, whatever that is, you can fill in the blank. 00:02:25.680 --> 00:02:27.759 We're all very good at filling in that blank. 00:02:28.000 --> 00:02:33.039 Merit it, earn it, obtain it, then you will be enough. 00:02:34.240 --> 00:02:41.439 The religious lens says merit or obey, then you will be accepted by God. 00:02:42.159 --> 00:02:47.680 So you need to shape up more and more and more as to be accepted by God. 00:02:47.759 --> 00:02:51.439 So then the questions inevitably eventually haunt us. 00:02:51.840 --> 00:02:58.240 What must I do today to really be favored by God? 00:02:59.360 --> 00:03:05.520 Which produces an incredible amount of anxiety and fear and time for us as Christians. 00:03:05.759 --> 00:03:10.960 Both the world and the religious lens leaves us in our own performance. 00:03:11.599 --> 00:03:13.120 But the gospel's different. 00:03:13.280 --> 00:03:14.319 And that's the good news. 00:03:14.479 --> 00:03:15.599 The gospel lens. 00:03:16.080 --> 00:03:19.680 You are already accepted in Jesus. 00:03:20.000 --> 00:03:23.599 Therefore, because of that, because it's already true. 00:03:24.000 --> 00:03:26.319 Therefore, be free. 00:03:26.719 --> 00:03:28.560 Grow and obey. 00:03:28.879 --> 00:03:32.639 This brings us to our morning's text, 1 Peter 3, 18 through 22. 00:03:32.719 --> 00:03:35.039 I will read 18 through 20. 00:03:35.199 --> 00:03:58.560 For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but made alive in the spirit, in which he went and proclaimed to the spirits in prison, because they formerly did not obey, when God's patience waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was being prepared, in which a few, that is, eight persons, were brought safely through water. 00:03:58.800 --> 00:04:04.159 Point number one is this In Jesus you have a wise teacher and a perfect substitute. 00:04:04.639 --> 00:04:06.159 We need a wise teacher. 00:04:06.319 --> 00:04:12.319 A lot of people believe Jesus is a wise teacher, and he is, but he's also a perfect substitute for us. 00:04:12.479 --> 00:04:17.519 Verse 18, Christ suffered once for sins, meaning it is over. 00:04:19.199 --> 00:04:22.879 The journey for forgiveness and righteousness is over in Jesus. 00:04:23.439 --> 00:04:26.000 We know we should go to bed early. 00:04:27.600 --> 00:04:48.879 We know we should wake up early with enough margin to have our devotional time, and we're gonna have a prayer time, and we're gonna journal, and we're gonna have a little meditation time, and then we're gonna go for prayer walk, and then we're gonna go for our jog, and we're gonna be healthy people spiritually and emotionally and physically, and we're gonna do all of this. 00:04:48.959 --> 00:04:57.680 So we know we should, but man, isn't it easy at 10 o'clock at night to go to the freezer and get the chunky monkey out, right? 00:04:57.839 --> 00:05:02.000 And you watch just one, just one, just one more, just one more. 00:05:02.399 --> 00:05:09.199 And then in the morning, you know, you don't wake up at six, you wake up at seven, you don't wake up at seven, you wake up at eight, right? 00:05:09.600 --> 00:05:26.480 Now, even if you are the kind of person who goes to bed early and you wake up early, you're very disciplined, you can keep all that in check, you are still like the rest of us, that you are never as loving, none of us are as loving or patient or kind or generous as Jesus calls us to be. 00:05:26.879 --> 00:05:29.920 And this is why we don't just need a wise teacher. 00:05:30.079 --> 00:05:33.360 We need a wise teacher and a perfect substitute. 00:05:33.439 --> 00:05:44.399 And this is why it says in verse 18, the righteous, Jesus, the righteous for the unrighteous, Jesus for us, that he might bring us to God. 00:05:45.199 --> 00:05:51.920 So what brings you and permanently sets you secure with your heavenly Father is not you. 00:05:53.759 --> 00:05:56.720 He comes to us while we do not always go to him. 00:05:57.439 --> 00:06:05.040 Verse 19, which is a strange little verse, verse 19, in which he went and proclaimed to the spirits in prison. 00:06:05.439 --> 00:06:06.560 Strange little verse. 00:06:06.800 --> 00:06:09.360 So did Christ preach to dead people? 00:06:09.519 --> 00:06:13.040 Or verse 20 like talks about people from Noah's day. 00:06:13.199 --> 00:06:14.319 Did Christ preach to angels? 00:06:14.480 --> 00:06:15.839 Did he preach to demons? 00:06:16.000 --> 00:06:17.360 That's all very debated. 00:06:17.439 --> 00:06:18.319 You can continue to debate. 00:06:18.480 --> 00:06:21.759 That, what is clearer is this Noah story. 00:06:21.920 --> 00:06:25.839 This Noah story is very clear, and this Noah story is pretty fantastic. 00:06:26.000 --> 00:06:30.720 If you remember the big ark and the big flood, this is how you probably learned it, right? 00:06:31.439 --> 00:06:37.519 And the world was populated, and everyone just forgot about God. 00:06:38.720 --> 00:06:41.439 They just did their own thing, lived their own way. 00:06:41.600 --> 00:06:46.959 And so there was incredible selfishness and abuse in the world there in Genesis. 00:06:47.199 --> 00:06:50.160 Everything that God hated was happening. 00:06:50.639 --> 00:06:52.959 And so God decides to start over. 00:06:53.279 --> 00:06:58.079 He floods the earth to wipe it clean, which probably looked more like this. 00:06:58.240 --> 00:06:59.040 We've seen this before. 00:06:59.120 --> 00:07:02.000 This is Leon Comir's 1911 depiction. 00:07:02.160 --> 00:07:05.439 We do not use it in our children's classrooms. 00:07:05.759 --> 00:07:09.360 Rest assured, we use the first picture, not the second. 00:07:11.040 --> 00:07:12.399 It was so horrible. 00:07:12.959 --> 00:07:15.120 If you look at this painting, it was so horrible. 00:07:16.000 --> 00:07:26.079 Come here is communicating something here that you see lions and you see bears, and they're not even attacking anyone or anything else. 00:07:26.399 --> 00:07:27.519 It was so horrible. 00:07:27.759 --> 00:07:32.160 Everything, everyone is just suffering. 00:07:33.360 --> 00:07:40.319 And in Genesis 6.8, we read this But Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord. 00:07:40.639 --> 00:07:44.720 Which can be worded this way Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord. 00:07:44.800 --> 00:07:52.079 So Noah starts building this huge boat in the middle of the desert, and Noah and his family and some animals, they board it, and they're saved. 00:07:52.319 --> 00:07:55.279 Now, other people groups also had flood stories. 00:07:55.439 --> 00:08:03.759 Sumerians had flood stories, Africans, Babylonians all had flood stories about rains wiping away cities and people. 00:08:04.480 --> 00:08:07.680 Which makes sense because floods happened. 00:08:08.000 --> 00:08:19.279 And everyone told their story, and they said it a very similar way that the rains would come, the rains came to punish evil, that the evil that the people were creating, and the lesson was this. 00:08:19.360 --> 00:08:20.879 The lesson was always this. 00:08:21.120 --> 00:08:25.920 If you keep doing this, I will keep flooding you. 00:08:26.240 --> 00:08:28.480 You will reap what you sow. 00:08:28.720 --> 00:08:33.200 You will get exactly what you deserve. 00:08:34.159 --> 00:08:36.720 So everybody knew this flood story. 00:08:37.039 --> 00:08:41.919 And so Moses is telling the story about Noah, and you can just see all the people just nodding along. 00:08:42.080 --> 00:08:46.159 Yep, know this, heard it, I've heard it, heard it over there, heard it over there, heard it over there. 00:08:46.720 --> 00:08:48.399 But this story's different. 00:08:48.559 --> 00:08:51.200 The story to Israel is different. 00:08:52.080 --> 00:08:54.240 Genesis 9, 12, and 13. 00:08:54.480 --> 00:09:04.159 And God said, This is the sign of the covenant I am making between me and you and every living creature with you, a covenant for all generations to come. 00:09:04.320 --> 00:09:09.840 I have set my rainbow in the clouds, and it will be the sign of the covenant between me and the earth. 00:09:10.000 --> 00:09:17.840 And God goes on to say there in Genesis 9, never again, never again will the waters become a flood to destroy all of life. 00:09:18.720 --> 00:09:28.879 Two years ago I was fishing in Wyoming with my fishing buddies, and we finished a day of fishing, killer day of fishing, and we stopped at the stagecoach in Wilson, Wyoming. 00:09:29.200 --> 00:09:32.159 Went inside, got two fish tacos, lovely drink. 00:09:32.240 --> 00:09:37.279 We had a lovely dinner, we walk outside, then here is what we see when we come outside. 00:09:37.440 --> 00:09:38.960 Forgive my big face there. 00:09:39.039 --> 00:09:40.000 I was very excited. 00:09:40.240 --> 00:09:41.600 Double rainbow. 00:09:42.080 --> 00:09:44.159 Anybody else seen a double rainbow? 00:09:44.320 --> 00:09:44.559 Right? 00:09:44.639 --> 00:09:45.919 It's a big moment of your life. 00:09:46.080 --> 00:09:46.879 Double rainbow. 00:09:48.879 --> 00:10:00.639 We crossed the street, we walked into the pasture, and we watched this double rainbow turn into like a just vibrant, vibrant single rainbow. 00:10:00.879 --> 00:10:03.919 And then we just stood there. 00:10:04.080 --> 00:10:05.759 Like for, I don't know, half hour. 00:10:05.840 --> 00:10:06.799 I have no idea. 00:10:07.039 --> 00:10:08.720 And we didn't really say anything. 00:10:08.799 --> 00:10:14.080 It was one of those moments you were in front of something so like kind of majestic and unbelievable. 00:10:14.159 --> 00:10:18.480 Like all that we kept saying, like someone every once in a summer go like, wow. 00:10:20.000 --> 00:10:20.799 Amazing. 00:10:22.159 --> 00:10:22.639 Awesome. 00:10:23.759 --> 00:10:25.279 Man, wow, amazing, awesome. 00:10:25.360 --> 00:10:26.799 Like this is like a repeat. 00:10:26.960 --> 00:10:28.159 Amazing, awesome. 00:10:29.759 --> 00:10:31.120 The rainbow. 00:10:31.759 --> 00:10:36.879 Still, still today, the rainbow is a message from God to his covenant people. 00:10:37.600 --> 00:10:46.240 Verse 13 says this I have set my rainbow in the clouds, and it will be the sign of the covenant between me and the earth. 00:10:46.480 --> 00:10:53.120 The word rainbow is warbo, meaning God laid his warbow down. 00:10:53.759 --> 00:10:55.919 Now, the point is not that floods will stop. 00:10:56.080 --> 00:10:57.360 Sadly, we still have floods. 00:10:57.679 --> 00:11:08.000 The point is that God chooses in his grace to us, through Jesus, not to be vindictive or condemning to you. 00:11:08.639 --> 00:11:13.200 This God relates to us through the covenant of grace known in Jesus. 00:11:13.519 --> 00:11:22.159 Point number two is this our worldly gods will always judge us, but God's judgment is satisfied in Christ. 00:11:23.039 --> 00:11:26.720 On Tuesday, I stopped and I bought a lottery ticket. 00:11:27.200 --> 00:11:28.480 Um is that okay? 00:11:28.559 --> 00:11:28.960 I don't know. 00:11:29.039 --> 00:11:30.559 Uh anybody else? 00:11:31.120 --> 00:11:33.120 Don't know if I'm allowed to say it or not. 00:11:33.360 --> 00:11:34.000 Just one. 00:11:34.159 --> 00:11:37.759 I am a Christian, so just one ticket. 00:11:38.080 --> 00:11:39.279 That's what Christians do. 00:11:39.440 --> 00:11:40.720 Christians buy one. 00:11:40.960 --> 00:11:44.320 Um this is my lottery dream home right here. 00:11:44.480 --> 00:11:46.080 This is my lottery dream home. 00:11:46.240 --> 00:11:48.879 This is on the Bigwood River in Idaho. 00:11:48.960 --> 00:11:50.720 Uh it's for sale right now. 00:11:50.879 --> 00:11:55.840 It's for sale uh for a mere$19 million there in Idaho. 00:11:56.000 --> 00:11:58.960 Um Ski Mountain behind, you can fish over. 00:11:59.120 --> 00:12:02.720 And I know this because I'm ridiculous. 00:12:02.879 --> 00:12:03.919 This is why I know this. 00:12:04.000 --> 00:12:06.080 And I'm worldly, and this is why I know this. 00:12:06.159 --> 00:12:17.519 And when I'm bored, when I'm bored, I like to open up Zillow on my phone and I look at mountain houses that I will never, ever, ever, ever, ever be able to afford. 00:12:17.679 --> 00:12:22.559 But if I did, I would, I would, I would be so Christian with it, guys. 00:12:22.720 --> 00:12:28.720 Like, I would be so Christian with my$19 million mountain house. 00:12:28.799 --> 00:12:30.159 You you can't even imagine. 00:12:30.240 --> 00:12:33.759 I would host retreats and I'd have friends could use it. 00:12:33.919 --> 00:12:35.279 I'd let friends use it. 00:12:35.360 --> 00:12:40.240 Um, maybe the guest house, not the main house, but they could stay in the guest house. 00:12:40.320 --> 00:12:41.360 That would be okay. 00:12:41.679 --> 00:12:43.759 You can come, you could come. 00:12:44.159 --> 00:12:56.480 Now it's easy for this fun little escape dream that I do, maybe you do this, um, to suddenly kind of ricochet back and judge me. 00:12:56.799 --> 00:13:05.840 Because like all of a sudden I'll feel this um message that says, like, then I would be enough. 00:13:06.960 --> 00:13:09.440 Then I will be content. 00:13:10.480 --> 00:13:14.720 Then I could be really joyful. 00:13:15.279 --> 00:13:25.759 And suddenly, this worldly God, which was so fun for a little bit, it judges my present moment, day-to-day life. 00:13:27.600 --> 00:13:29.840 And it's always saying the same thing. 00:13:30.480 --> 00:13:33.440 All the little gods always end up saying the same thing. 00:13:33.759 --> 00:13:35.360 You are not enough. 00:13:36.559 --> 00:13:38.480 That's how all little g gods work. 00:13:38.639 --> 00:13:41.360 But God's judgment is different, and that's the good news. 00:13:41.440 --> 00:13:58.080 Because all the judgment that you're not enough, or you're a mess, or you're a mistake, all your sin, also all your inability to get your goodness as good as it should be, all of that is satisfied in Christ's forgiveness for you and his righteousness for you. 00:13:58.480 --> 00:14:01.440 That that imputation is true for us. 00:14:02.480 --> 00:14:11.759 This Noah flood story would have blown people's minds because all the other gods were judgmental and angry. 00:14:12.480 --> 00:14:18.639 But this one and this story and this God says, no, no, no, I covenant with you. 00:14:20.000 --> 00:14:26.879 I want to be gracious towards you and love you and move towards you in love in this Jesus to come. 00:14:27.039 --> 00:14:29.039 1 Peter 3, 21 and 22. 00:14:29.200 --> 00:14:46.639 Baptism, which corresponds to this, now saves you, not as a removal of dirt from the body, but as an appeal to God for a good conscience through the resurrection of Jesus Christ, who has gone into heaven, is at the right hand of God, with angels, authorities, powers having been subjected to him. 00:14:46.960 --> 00:14:53.679 So Peter is saying, even the noblest religious acts do not save you, only Jesus. 00:14:54.240 --> 00:14:56.720 And it's all water imagery, like this passage, right? 00:14:56.879 --> 00:15:01.519 We had like the Noah thing and the flood, and then it bridges over into like the baptism thing. 00:15:01.600 --> 00:15:14.639 Like all water imagery as a way to say, point number three, you exist, you are immersed moment by moment in the finished work of Christ. 00:15:15.200 --> 00:15:22.639 When I was in elementary school, I'd get home from school and get my snack and turn on TBS reruns. 00:15:22.799 --> 00:15:24.720 Anybody else from the 1900s? 00:15:24.879 --> 00:15:27.360 We watch TBS reruns. 00:15:27.759 --> 00:15:32.559 And I love to watch in the afternoons on TBS the Beverly Hillbillies. 00:15:32.639 --> 00:15:36.480 This was one of my absolute favorites, the Beverly Hillbillies. 00:15:36.720 --> 00:15:41.039 Uh Jed Clampett, if you remember, Jed Clampett was from Missouri. 00:15:41.120 --> 00:15:45.440 He was out hunting a rabbit one day, and he discovers there's oil on his land. 00:15:45.519 --> 00:15:47.919 He's lived on this land always, as poor as can be. 00:15:48.080 --> 00:15:51.919 But all underneath him the entire time was all this oil, and he discovers it. 00:15:52.000 --> 00:15:59.759 So he takes his millions and millions of dollars, and he and a handful of the family members, they moved to Beverly Hills, and they live in this lavish house. 00:15:59.919 --> 00:16:04.159 So you get these simple country folk living in Beverly Hills. 00:16:04.240 --> 00:16:08.720 They have this lavish house, they have these lavish cars, and that's what the story's about. 00:16:08.799 --> 00:16:14.480 And they lived all this from a gift, a gift that they always had. 00:16:14.799 --> 00:16:17.120 It was always there, that oil. 00:16:17.840 --> 00:16:19.919 They just had no awareness of it. 00:16:20.080 --> 00:16:24.000 They had no integration of it into their life. 00:16:24.320 --> 00:16:33.360 So the point is, is the wealth, you have a wealth of forgiveness and righteousness and value in Jesus. 00:16:34.960 --> 00:16:40.639 Our journey as Christians is about integrating that into our lives. 00:16:41.039 --> 00:16:43.600 Your faith is not the cause of this. 00:16:43.759 --> 00:16:45.679 Your faith didn't cause God's grace. 00:16:46.080 --> 00:16:47.039 God's grace is already there. 00:16:47.200 --> 00:16:54.240 Your faith is the awakening to it and the beginning of the integration of it into your heart and your life. 00:16:54.559 --> 00:16:55.679 That's point number four. 00:16:55.840 --> 00:17:02.240 Our faith is the journey of the implications of grace already given to us in Christ. 00:17:02.399 --> 00:17:08.319 Our faith is the journey of the implications of God's grace to us that we know in Jesus. 00:17:08.559 --> 00:17:15.839 So we are not asking questions like, what must I do today as to be accepted by God? 00:17:16.000 --> 00:17:17.440 That's a religious question. 00:17:17.599 --> 00:17:19.599 That's a performance question. 00:17:20.400 --> 00:17:28.960 We're asking gospel lens questions like, where do I run when I believe Jesus is not enough? 00:17:29.920 --> 00:17:36.480 What would it look like for me to live more deeply in God's acceptance and less in people's opinion? 00:17:37.279 --> 00:17:42.400 What would it look like for me to be freer and godlier in God's lavish love for me? 00:17:42.640 --> 00:17:44.799 I just wrote those three questions this week. 00:17:44.960 --> 00:17:46.880 You could write another three or ten. 00:17:47.759 --> 00:17:59.599 But those kinds of questions, gospel lens questions, this type of journey of discipleship is based in a gospel foundation of a gift already given to you that's true. 00:17:59.680 --> 00:18:04.799 So the question is based on these gospel truths. 00:18:05.119 --> 00:18:08.960 You're already forgiven, you're already righteous, you're already accepted, you're already loved. 00:18:09.119 --> 00:18:16.160 Therefore, therefore, how is this working itself into our hearts and lives? 00:18:16.319 --> 00:18:27.759 This past Wednesday was Ash Wednesday, so maybe you saw on Wednesday, or maybe you went to an Anglican or Catholic service and you walk down front and you get a little cross with ashes put on the forehead. 00:18:27.920 --> 00:18:29.359 Maybe you saw somebody with that. 00:18:29.599 --> 00:18:35.599 Historically, those ashes were taken from the palms, from Palm Sunday the year before. 00:18:35.680 --> 00:18:38.880 Now, Palm Sunday is the Sunday before Easter. 00:18:39.039 --> 00:18:45.759 And they would take those palms, they would burn them, take those ashes, and then the next year on Ash Wednesday, those would be the ashes used. 00:18:46.319 --> 00:18:49.279 Palm Sunday was that Sunday where Jesus marches into Jerusalem. 00:18:49.759 --> 00:18:52.559 Everybody's waving the palm, saying hallelujah, everybody's in it. 00:18:52.640 --> 00:18:54.240 They just, oh Jesus, we love you. 00:18:54.319 --> 00:18:56.240 They all ran away later, but oh, we love you. 00:18:57.440 --> 00:19:01.920 And the point is, is even all my earthly hallelujahs get burned up. 00:19:02.079 --> 00:19:05.279 Even all my goodness needs God's grace. 00:19:05.759 --> 00:19:17.200 It's a way to say, I'm still weary, I'm still more fickle than I wish I was, and I just need to admit how much I need God's grace to me, and I'm so thankful for it. 00:19:17.519 --> 00:19:20.960 So we come into 40 days, headed towards Lent. 00:19:21.440 --> 00:19:28.559 We're gonna contemplate our need of Jesus and we're gonna rest in the fact that we are buried with Christ in baptism. 00:19:28.880 --> 00:19:37.519 We live immersed, immersed in the full forgiveness and righteousness of Jesus for us and the newness of life that we might experience. 00:19:37.759 --> 00:19:41.680 Any growth is coming from a grace already given to us. 00:19:41.839 --> 00:19:44.240 And I want to pray for us as we head into the season. 00:19:44.319 --> 00:19:45.279 Let's pray together. 00:19:46.720 --> 00:19:56.799 If you're open to it, you can just open your hands in front of you as a symbol of saying, God, I want to be open to what you have for me in this season. 00:19:58.000 --> 00:20:05.759 Heavenly Father, forgive us for the ways that we view you and the world and ourselves with a worldly or religious lens. 00:20:06.240 --> 00:20:08.559 Would you give us a gospel lens? 00:20:09.759 --> 00:20:20.160 Would you give us this foundation that we are already loved, already forgiven, already righteous in the full sufficiency of Jesus for us? 00:20:21.279 --> 00:20:29.359 Would you help us to have our journey of faith be the implications of this already lavish grace? 00:20:30.240 --> 00:20:32.720 What does it mean for our hearts today? 00:20:32.960 --> 00:20:35.039 What does it mean for my status? 00:20:35.200 --> 00:20:44.079 What does it mean for how I view people, how I love people, my need of people? 00:20:44.720 --> 00:20:53.519 Would you free us in greater ways, help our unbelief, increase our trust, that we might walk with you in profound ways? 00:20:54.160 --> 00:21:03.759 In this season of Lent, as we see the new growth around us, would you create new growth in us? 00:21:03.920 --> 00:21:04.960 In Christ's name. 00:21:05.200 --> 00:21:05.599 Amen.