WEBVTT 00:00:00.080 --> 00:00:00.719 Well, good morning. 00:00:00.959 --> 00:00:05.759 We are in our fourth week studying and going through the book of James. 00:00:05.919 --> 00:00:12.080 Now, last week we learned in James 1, verse 21, that there is an implanted word in us. 00:00:12.240 --> 00:00:16.079 That was the wording, the image that James gives us. 00:00:16.160 --> 00:00:26.719 And that image is of something profoundly spoken into the core of who you are by God of Christ about the core of who you are. 00:00:27.039 --> 00:00:34.880 Meaning that in Christ we are already worthy and valuable and righteous and forgiven and totally accepted. 00:00:35.039 --> 00:00:43.200 And all of that is not because of your shiny behaviors or your great accomplishments or where you're accepted or not accepted, because you're already accepted in Him. 00:00:43.679 --> 00:00:46.640 And so we have that true of us by the word in us. 00:00:46.719 --> 00:00:54.799 And James says the core of who you are is like a root that flourishes, a certain kind of life. 00:00:55.600 --> 00:00:56.560 What kind of life? 00:00:56.799 --> 00:00:57.439 Glad you asked. 00:00:57.520 --> 00:01:03.439 All right, so that's James 1, 26 and 27, because that's coming out of the verses that we looked at last week, right? 00:01:03.520 --> 00:01:12.719 This was written as a letter, it would have been read all at one time, and so he's building off this idea of the implanted word in us, and what kind of life flourishes? 00:01:12.959 --> 00:01:14.799 James 1, 26 and 27. 00:01:15.040 --> 00:01:23.040 If anyone thinks he is religious and does not bridle his tongue but deceives his heart, this person's religion is worthless. 00:01:23.359 --> 00:01:32.879 Religion that is pure and undefiled before God the Father is this, to visit orphans and widows in their affliction and to keep oneself unstained from the world. 00:01:33.359 --> 00:01:34.959 So let's make some sense of this. 00:01:35.120 --> 00:01:42.239 Point number one, true Christian spirituality is rooted in the heart and shaped in the life. 00:01:43.359 --> 00:01:45.680 Rooted in the heart and shaped in the life. 00:01:46.000 --> 00:01:51.760 A couple of days ago, I was invited to go play golf with a friend of mine at a really nice golf course. 00:01:51.840 --> 00:01:55.200 Now I've played a lot of very average golf courses. 00:01:55.359 --> 00:01:58.719 I actually fit in really well at an average golf course. 00:01:58.879 --> 00:02:00.400 My golf game fits in there. 00:02:00.560 --> 00:02:01.840 I'm pretty comfortable there. 00:02:01.920 --> 00:02:07.760 And I've played at some nice golf courses where like I kind of sneak in, but this is a really, really nice course. 00:02:07.840 --> 00:02:13.280 And so I text my friend because I've picked up on that golfers tend to look a certain way. 00:02:13.439 --> 00:02:19.360 And so I text them, I'm like, hey, and sometimes there's rules, like lots of rules, sometimes golf courses like rules and stuff. 00:02:19.680 --> 00:02:22.960 Like, hey, what, like, what should I wear? 00:02:23.199 --> 00:02:30.319 Like, you know, I figured there's probably, you know, and it was the reply I thought, because it's kind of the golfer's uniform. 00:02:30.479 --> 00:02:32.159 You've seen it probably this morning. 00:02:32.400 --> 00:02:33.919 Khaki shorts. 00:02:34.240 --> 00:02:42.800 A golf shirt, probably Peter Millar, and it's gonna have an emblem of a golf course, not the golf course you're playing, but a logo of another golf course, right? 00:02:42.960 --> 00:02:50.159 To make sure everybody realizes you've been some places, and so they see you and the, oh, you've been, oh, you've played there, oh, wonderful. 00:02:50.240 --> 00:02:59.360 Yeah, and then uh the pullover, quarter zip, but I'm a white middle-aged man, so I got lots of quarter zip pullovers, closets full, that's covered, check that off. 00:02:59.680 --> 00:03:02.800 Golf hat of a second course, not the first. 00:03:03.280 --> 00:03:12.000 There's one course here, a second one, maybe with kind of a coding, the words, a little coding of it, the logos, a little, you're unsure, and people are like, what does he know? 00:03:12.159 --> 00:03:12.879 Where's he been? 00:03:12.960 --> 00:03:13.120 Right? 00:03:13.360 --> 00:03:16.560 You're trying to really status signal, produce some jealousy out there. 00:03:16.800 --> 00:03:18.560 And we've all seen this uniform, right? 00:03:18.639 --> 00:03:21.280 Because golfers tend to just look a certain way. 00:03:21.439 --> 00:03:22.479 They just do. 00:03:23.680 --> 00:03:24.319 Right? 00:03:24.879 --> 00:03:31.039 James is saying, a spiritual person tends to look a certain way. 00:03:32.479 --> 00:03:41.280 The second part of verse 26, religion is spoken of negatively as someone's spirituality only being external. 00:03:41.680 --> 00:03:49.520 Meaning the golfer who has the whole attire, got it all going on, can't even never swung a club, can't swing like nothing, no chance, right? 00:03:49.919 --> 00:03:55.759 James is saying that kind of religion is empty, it's worthless, it's a show, it's a performance, it's pretending. 00:03:55.840 --> 00:03:59.280 It's you're actually just lying to yourself. 00:03:59.520 --> 00:04:00.639 It's nothing. 00:04:02.000 --> 00:04:03.039 Maybe you remember. 00:04:03.120 --> 00:04:05.759 Do you remember the movie The Money Pit, 1986? 00:04:05.919 --> 00:04:06.560 Old people. 00:04:06.800 --> 00:04:07.199 You remember? 00:04:07.360 --> 00:04:08.240 Old people remember. 00:04:08.319 --> 00:04:09.360 Thank you, old people. 00:04:09.840 --> 00:04:12.080 1986, of course, it wasn't that great. 00:04:12.240 --> 00:04:13.120 Don't rush out. 00:04:13.280 --> 00:04:14.800 Don't rush out for it, okay? 00:04:14.960 --> 00:04:17.120 Uh but it's early Tom Hanks, okay? 00:04:17.199 --> 00:04:18.000 So that's where we're at. 00:04:18.160 --> 00:04:20.000 Early Tom Hanks, the money pit. 00:04:20.319 --> 00:04:24.399 They, him and his uh significant other, they buy this house. 00:04:24.639 --> 00:04:25.920 Impressive house. 00:04:26.399 --> 00:04:27.600 Huge white mansion. 00:04:27.680 --> 00:04:30.240 I mean, you have arrived if you got this house. 00:04:30.319 --> 00:04:32.079 I mean, this is a beautiful home. 00:04:32.160 --> 00:04:33.680 It is immaculate, it's impressive. 00:04:33.759 --> 00:04:36.160 As soon as they move in, everything starts falling apart. 00:04:36.319 --> 00:04:36.639 Everything. 00:04:36.800 --> 00:04:41.680 The front door just falls over, the plumbing, the electrical, the stairwell just falls down and one thing. 00:04:41.759 --> 00:04:52.800 Like it's falling apart, and then they have to rip the whole thing apart, they have to rebuild the entire thing into what it should be, into this really impressive, beautiful home. 00:04:53.439 --> 00:04:57.279 Because the house was not solid. 00:04:57.680 --> 00:04:59.920 It was not built with care from the foundation up. 00:05:00.000 --> 00:05:01.279 It was a show. 00:05:01.839 --> 00:05:04.720 It was a show with no substance. 00:05:05.519 --> 00:05:19.680 See, James has a heart for our spirituality to be born in the heart, to have substance, not just be a show, to have substance, to be holistic in our life and to flourish into the external. 00:05:20.000 --> 00:05:32.560 James uses the word religion in a positive way to communicate a deep spirituality with God, growing in that great wealth of our identity in Christ, verse 21, that implanted word. 00:05:33.199 --> 00:05:43.120 And in this way, the word religion speaks of an inner truth and an outer expression of your spiritual relationship with the Heavenly Father. 00:05:43.759 --> 00:05:48.399 To move from being an inward-focused people to an outward-focused people. 00:05:48.639 --> 00:05:51.680 So, what does James say this actually looks like? 00:05:52.079 --> 00:05:53.759 James gives us three thoughts. 00:05:53.920 --> 00:05:58.160 There's probably many more thoughts about what a Christian looks like, but James gives us three in these couple of verses. 00:05:58.319 --> 00:06:08.079 First characteristic of the Christian the spiritual person desires for their words to bring life and flourishing to those around them. 00:06:08.959 --> 00:06:11.839 A few years ago, my family went horseback riding. 00:06:11.920 --> 00:06:15.040 Now, we are not horse people or farm people. 00:06:15.199 --> 00:06:18.319 We don't know about fences and like taking care of the land. 00:06:18.639 --> 00:06:23.279 We're kind of like walk to session stand type of people, which is kind of a different lifestyle. 00:06:23.439 --> 00:06:24.560 But we're there, we're there. 00:06:24.720 --> 00:06:27.759 We're gonna get on these horses and ride the trails. 00:06:28.000 --> 00:06:33.120 So we all get on top of these massive animals, huge animals, right? 00:06:33.199 --> 00:06:34.720 There we are, massive, huge animals. 00:06:34.879 --> 00:06:36.879 We don't know what they're gonna do because we don't know about horses. 00:06:36.959 --> 00:06:40.240 They can buck us off, they can kick us, they could throw us off, they could sit on us. 00:06:40.319 --> 00:06:40.800 We don't know. 00:06:40.879 --> 00:06:43.360 We're not horse people, so it's all very intimidating. 00:06:43.680 --> 00:06:48.160 And then my youngest daughter, she's there at the time, probably 65 pounds. 00:06:48.399 --> 00:06:52.319 She's on top of this huge horse, huge horse. 00:06:52.560 --> 00:06:54.399 And the guide explains to her. 00:06:54.639 --> 00:06:58.639 She says, Hey, sweetie, I know this is intimidating, it's a big horse. 00:06:58.879 --> 00:07:07.279 But there's a bit that is in the mouth of this horse, and there's two leather straps, and it goes up top, and you're gonna hold these leather straps. 00:07:07.360 --> 00:07:17.120 And isn't it wild that you can control this massive beast with this bit and these straps is called a bridle. 00:07:17.680 --> 00:07:20.800 And James says, That's it. 00:07:21.439 --> 00:07:22.879 That's the image. 00:07:23.199 --> 00:07:33.279 Our words are a massive beast that can cause destruction, but also can help people really flourish. 00:07:33.759 --> 00:07:44.240 See, as we grow in grace from that implanted word in us of who we are in Christ, we can begin to guide our words to be words of flourishing. 00:07:44.720 --> 00:07:46.000 I'm 44 years old. 00:07:46.079 --> 00:07:50.399 I can still remember when I was 15 years old, I was on the JV basketball team. 00:07:51.839 --> 00:07:57.759 After practice one day, our basketball coach, he took us into the weight room next to the gym. 00:07:58.079 --> 00:07:59.120 I was in 10th grade. 00:07:59.279 --> 00:08:00.639 Basketball was everything to me. 00:08:00.720 --> 00:08:04.079 99% of my identity was basketball. 00:08:04.319 --> 00:08:10.560 And he takes us in there and he sits us down, a whole bunch of scrawny 15-year-olds. 00:08:11.120 --> 00:08:14.480 And he looked at me, still remember it, but still fresh. 00:08:14.800 --> 00:08:16.800 Must have been almost 30 years. 00:08:17.360 --> 00:08:23.120 And he said, Masterson, we thought you were gonna be something. 00:08:25.600 --> 00:08:28.240 You haven't lived up to any of it. 00:08:34.000 --> 00:08:35.279 I still remember that. 00:08:35.519 --> 00:08:40.879 No coaching, no real coaching there, no encouragement there, no life, no life. 00:08:43.200 --> 00:08:50.799 Now, 11 years ago, I was working at a big church down in Atlanta, and we had decided we're gonna come up here and plant this church. 00:08:51.039 --> 00:08:51.919 I was real nervous. 00:08:52.000 --> 00:08:53.440 That church had been so good to us. 00:08:53.600 --> 00:08:55.600 God, my wife and I, we had our babies there. 00:08:55.759 --> 00:08:59.919 We kind of grew up there in terms of like becoming adults in a young adulthood. 00:09:00.080 --> 00:09:11.200 And I was nervous because I loved that church, I was sad, I was excited, it's sort of unsettled, and I had to go and resign to three different pastors, all sort of my bosses in different ways. 00:09:11.360 --> 00:09:12.720 And so the day begins. 00:09:12.799 --> 00:09:16.960 I go to pastor number one, and he was he was so kind, very kind. 00:09:17.919 --> 00:09:21.279 Pastor number three, very, very kind. 00:09:21.519 --> 00:09:25.440 And then there was pastor number two, which really surprised me because it sat down in front of me. 00:09:25.600 --> 00:09:30.799 He was a very stoic man, very emotionless for the years that I knew him. 00:09:31.600 --> 00:09:38.720 And I gave him the spiel, you know, God's calling and how we're gonna do, and God's moving, and like, you know, really selling this. 00:09:38.799 --> 00:09:40.720 And he's thinking, I gotta hire another guy. 00:09:40.879 --> 00:09:42.000 That's his first thought, right? 00:09:42.159 --> 00:09:46.000 Then I'm selling, God's calling to another, going through it, going through it, the church we want to start. 00:09:46.080 --> 00:09:50.879 And this man has always been so stoic, so stoic. 00:09:51.120 --> 00:09:52.320 He tears up. 00:09:53.360 --> 00:09:57.279 And he says, 11 years ago, still remember it. 00:09:58.399 --> 00:10:01.120 I've always known you wouldn't stay here. 00:10:02.080 --> 00:10:06.080 I've always known you would leave to go do something great. 00:10:07.200 --> 00:10:09.679 I hadn't done anything at this point, right? 00:10:11.600 --> 00:10:14.399 Man, those are words of life. 00:10:14.960 --> 00:10:15.519 Right? 00:10:16.639 --> 00:10:17.200 Flourish. 00:10:17.840 --> 00:10:24.320 You've had somebody say something so horrible to you that it sticks with you, sticks in you, you keep replaying it. 00:10:24.960 --> 00:10:26.720 Just destruction, words of destruction. 00:10:26.879 --> 00:10:31.519 You've also had somebody say something to you that is so life-giving. 00:10:32.080 --> 00:10:34.000 And then we have the ability to do that. 00:10:34.159 --> 00:10:35.440 We have that kind of power. 00:10:35.600 --> 00:10:37.200 Words have power. 00:10:37.440 --> 00:10:40.080 And whatever fills our hearts shapes our words. 00:10:40.159 --> 00:10:47.919 So before we interact with people, we should probably settle ourselves into the implanted word in us. 00:10:48.879 --> 00:10:50.480 Who we are in Christ. 00:10:50.720 --> 00:10:55.840 So we don't walk into these relationships unsettled or insecure. 00:10:56.080 --> 00:11:04.480 But if we're already totally approved, already totally enough and worthy and forgiven and righteous, and we're all this in Jesus, we're beholding the word in us. 00:11:05.279 --> 00:11:09.440 Imagine what we can do to speak life into others. 00:11:09.759 --> 00:11:22.799 My mentor says, if our words are just like 3%, I don't know why he picks 3%, 3% of the lavishness of the gospel to us, just imagine the flourishing of our words in people's lives. 00:11:23.600 --> 00:11:24.639 Verse 27. 00:11:36.639 --> 00:11:44.799 Second characteristic of the Christian: the spiritual person's heart and life moves toward the one in need. 00:11:45.360 --> 00:11:50.000 So the word visit means to look upon, to help, or benefit. 00:11:50.159 --> 00:11:53.440 It doesn't mean you have to help just like your friend Susie helps, right? 00:11:53.519 --> 00:11:59.679 Like it just means that you are lovingly moving toward the person in need. 00:12:01.759 --> 00:12:05.600 And in this passage, when it says widows and orphans, it means people in need. 00:12:05.679 --> 00:12:08.799 These would have been the most vulnerable in their society at the time. 00:12:08.960 --> 00:12:10.799 So it's a calling for us. 00:12:11.519 --> 00:12:13.519 Whoever it is in your life. 00:12:14.159 --> 00:12:21.679 Whoever it is, if they're in need, that you are lovingly moving toward them. 00:12:23.120 --> 00:12:28.240 James is teaching that true spirituality begins in the heart and it moves outward. 00:12:28.320 --> 00:12:34.240 So true spirituality is not introverted, it is extroverted. 00:12:34.399 --> 00:12:37.039 Now, as an introvert, I don't like that. 00:12:37.519 --> 00:12:41.200 Like all the introverts in others are going, eh, I don't know, I just want to be contemplative. 00:12:41.279 --> 00:12:42.240 That's all I want to do. 00:12:42.320 --> 00:12:45.679 But James is saying, no, no, it actually starts to flow out of us. 00:12:45.840 --> 00:12:49.440 Now, I will never love people like my wife, Christy, loves people. 00:12:49.600 --> 00:12:54.000 She's always going to love people a lot better than I do because she is extroverted, she's a people person. 00:12:54.159 --> 00:12:56.320 That is just coming out of her naturally. 00:12:56.559 --> 00:13:02.480 But even for the introverts, there's a movement of grace in us. 00:13:03.759 --> 00:13:05.200 There's a movement. 00:13:06.320 --> 00:13:12.799 A movement of growing secure in the core of who we are, and it empowers awareness and care of others. 00:13:13.360 --> 00:13:17.279 The apostle Paul teaches that all this happens as we remember the gospel. 00:13:17.360 --> 00:13:19.360 His letters are even structured that way. 00:13:19.440 --> 00:13:26.559 That all the indicatives of who we are in Christ, all these great promises of how we're righteous and we're forgiven and we're worthy, all of that. 00:13:26.720 --> 00:13:30.720 Now, out of that flows, be patient. 00:13:31.120 --> 00:13:33.440 Or love people or speak words of encouragement. 00:13:33.600 --> 00:13:37.519 Because you don't have to be as defensive or angry or afraid. 00:13:39.679 --> 00:13:41.600 Do you remember my sage plant in my yard? 00:13:41.679 --> 00:13:42.559 I talked about a month ago. 00:13:42.799 --> 00:13:44.080 Thrilling illustration. 00:13:44.240 --> 00:13:45.600 Everybody was so thrilled by it. 00:13:45.759 --> 00:13:48.639 I wanted to give you an update on this sage because it's so thrilling. 00:13:48.720 --> 00:13:51.360 I can tell that y'all just love this illustration so much. 00:13:51.519 --> 00:13:53.919 So it's been about a month since we talked about the sage. 00:13:54.000 --> 00:14:01.519 So if you remember, just to catch you up, if you haven't been here, if you remember the sage, I had planted it on the other side of the trampoline. 00:14:01.600 --> 00:14:02.000 Do you remember that? 00:14:02.080 --> 00:14:04.960 And it was in the shade, and sage loves the sun, so it's in the wrong place. 00:14:05.200 --> 00:14:08.960 As soon as I planted it, it was droopy, it was struggling, it looked horrible. 00:14:09.120 --> 00:14:11.600 And then I realized it was it wasn't in the right place. 00:14:11.679 --> 00:14:13.600 It was resting in the wrong place. 00:14:13.679 --> 00:14:14.960 And so it's like, ah, okay. 00:14:15.039 --> 00:14:18.240 Now let just move it to the other side of the trampoline immediately. 00:14:18.399 --> 00:14:19.200 Flourishing. 00:14:19.440 --> 00:14:20.879 Unbelievable, right? 00:14:21.200 --> 00:14:24.159 And we learned we need to rest in the right place. 00:14:24.320 --> 00:14:34.879 It really matters where we rest, to be rooted in the right place, to rest in the correct place where we actually belong, this is when we begin to flourish. 00:14:35.120 --> 00:14:37.120 Now here's what I've noticed over the last month. 00:14:37.279 --> 00:14:38.399 Here's the update. 00:14:38.639 --> 00:14:49.840 Every time I walk by that area, usually I cut that grass right there or pull a few weeds, I am hit by the fragrance. 00:14:50.399 --> 00:14:51.840 You ever smelled sage? 00:14:52.159 --> 00:14:54.720 This is a sweet, sweet smell. 00:14:54.799 --> 00:14:56.159 I can't be in that area. 00:14:56.399 --> 00:15:00.480 I can't be in that area of the yard without being affected by it. 00:15:01.440 --> 00:15:08.240 See, by rooting where we belong, we begin to flourish, and as we flourish, we just begin to bless other people. 00:15:09.279 --> 00:15:11.600 We're a sweet fragrance to them. 00:15:12.080 --> 00:15:19.600 Not because like we're like having to or obligated to, but because we know positionally who we already are. 00:15:19.919 --> 00:15:22.080 Secure and free in Jesus. 00:15:22.320 --> 00:15:33.279 And this actually empowers this inner heart to be expressed outward, this lavishness of the gospel that's in us to begin to flow outward to other people. 00:15:33.440 --> 00:15:35.279 Back to verse 27 again. 00:15:35.600 --> 00:15:43.919 Religion that is pure and undefiled before God the Father is this, to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world. 00:15:44.159 --> 00:15:47.120 So, third characteristic of the Christian, last thing. 00:15:47.279 --> 00:15:54.720 True spirituality is a shift of the heart and life to live for more than this world. 00:15:56.240 --> 00:16:11.600 The word world means that there's this pull on our heart's affection and our mind's attention to focus on the temporary, to the systems of the world that are usually have to do with merit and usually have to do with escape. 00:16:12.000 --> 00:16:16.399 And James says, don't get all messed up by that. 00:16:17.200 --> 00:16:19.679 Don't get broken from that illusion. 00:16:20.720 --> 00:16:21.759 I love C.S. 00:16:21.919 --> 00:16:26.720 Lewis's quote about our desires as we're in the world. 00:16:27.039 --> 00:16:30.720 Our desires are not too strong but too weak. 00:16:31.360 --> 00:16:37.840 We're half-hearted creatures fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us. 00:16:38.080 --> 00:16:46.960 Like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. 00:16:47.200 --> 00:16:50.000 We are far too easily pleased. 00:16:50.480 --> 00:16:54.480 This idea of world is always temporary. 00:16:55.759 --> 00:16:57.360 A world that fades. 00:16:58.720 --> 00:17:02.720 Isaiah worded it this way: Isaiah 47 and 8. 00:17:02.960 --> 00:17:07.119 The grass withers, the flower fades when the breath of the Lord blows on it. 00:17:07.359 --> 00:17:09.200 Surely the people are grass. 00:17:09.519 --> 00:17:10.880 The grass withers. 00:17:11.279 --> 00:17:15.200 The flower fades, but the word of our God will stand forever. 00:17:16.160 --> 00:17:18.400 Temporary world. 00:17:19.680 --> 00:17:26.880 This week our town and our church lost a high schooler, a high school junior, lived Teverino. 00:17:27.359 --> 00:17:28.640 She died in a car crash. 00:17:29.119 --> 00:17:30.720 She was an amazing person. 00:17:31.920 --> 00:17:34.160 Had meaningful friendships, loving family. 00:17:34.640 --> 00:17:35.599 It doesn't make sense. 00:17:35.839 --> 00:17:37.359 There's no making sense of it. 00:17:37.599 --> 00:17:39.680 It's just horrible. 00:17:40.079 --> 00:17:41.039 It's just sad. 00:17:43.279 --> 00:17:48.480 Most days we don't live like the world's temporary. 00:17:49.119 --> 00:17:54.240 And then something happens, and then all of a sudden we're face to face. 00:17:57.039 --> 00:17:59.519 We really are passing through. 00:18:00.720 --> 00:18:03.039 Most of the time we don't have to think about that. 00:18:03.279 --> 00:18:06.559 Most of the time we get to just enjoy a run in the woods. 00:18:06.799 --> 00:18:09.200 We enjoy a meal with friends or family. 00:18:09.440 --> 00:18:12.480 We get to laugh and we get to go, oh, whatnot, that's so good. 00:18:12.720 --> 00:18:13.839 That's so good. 00:18:14.960 --> 00:18:16.559 And it's all a foretaste. 00:18:17.680 --> 00:18:18.720 That's real. 00:18:18.960 --> 00:18:27.759 That loveliness is real, but that loveliness is a foretaste in the temporary world of where we were created to live. 00:18:28.240 --> 00:18:29.599 Eternal beings. 00:18:30.480 --> 00:18:33.680 Those foretastes are meant to send our hearts onward. 00:18:35.200 --> 00:18:43.359 See, death is foreign to our hearts because we were created for everlasting life. 00:18:43.519 --> 00:18:49.359 Life that flourishes and is holistic and it's harmonious and it's always flourishing. 00:18:49.519 --> 00:18:50.880 Genesis 1. 00:18:51.599 --> 00:18:54.559 And death did not enter until sin entered. 00:18:56.240 --> 00:18:58.720 Death is a result of sin, not God's heart. 00:18:58.880 --> 00:19:04.079 So our hearts long for the life of restoration of heaven. 00:19:05.440 --> 00:19:08.319 This is why we can't make sense of death. 00:19:08.480 --> 00:19:10.480 Our hearts don't make sense of it. 00:19:10.799 --> 00:19:12.799 Because we weren't created for it. 00:19:13.680 --> 00:19:31.359 And in this in-between, in this broken temporary world, our hearts, by the brokenness and by the loveliness in this world, are sent onward to the restoration of heaven that our hearts really long for, this place where there's no tears and there's no fear. 00:19:32.640 --> 00:19:34.240 And all is redeemed. 00:19:36.400 --> 00:19:41.359 Paul wrote this to the Roman church, kind of ties us back into our passage of James. 00:19:41.519 --> 00:19:45.440 This is from the message translation, so it's kind of casual wording here. 00:19:47.119 --> 00:19:49.119 So here's what I want you to do. 00:19:49.440 --> 00:19:50.960 God helping you. 00:19:51.440 --> 00:19:54.079 Take your everyday, ordinary life. 00:19:54.559 --> 00:20:00.319 Your sleeping, eating, going to work, and walking around life, and place it before God as an offering. 00:20:00.559 --> 00:20:04.799 Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for Him. 00:20:05.279 --> 00:20:10.319 Don't become so well adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. 00:20:10.880 --> 00:20:13.440 Instead, fix your attention on God. 00:20:14.319 --> 00:20:16.960 You'll be changed from the inside out. 00:20:17.680 --> 00:20:22.640 Readily recognize what he wants from you and quickly respond to it. 00:20:22.960 --> 00:20:34.400 Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you. 00:20:34.640 --> 00:20:36.240 Let's pray together. 00:20:36.559 --> 00:20:51.920 God, thank you that you know all of us in our hurt and our mess, in the ways that we have created brokenness and our sin, and the ways that we've created brokenness in the world, and in the ways that the world has broken us. 00:20:52.480 --> 00:20:54.079 That you know all of us. 00:20:54.319 --> 00:21:00.480 You know our guilt, our shame, our anger, our frustration, our sadness, our kind of numbness. 00:21:00.559 --> 00:21:02.480 You know it all, and you love us. 00:21:05.200 --> 00:21:09.039 And thank you, God, that you are maturing us. 00:21:09.920 --> 00:21:16.480 Thank you that our hearts were not created for this temporary world, but for an eternal world. 00:21:17.920 --> 00:21:34.559 Would you help remind us in these days of what it means to live as a Christian rooted in you, at rest in you, fully yours, and flourishing from the inside out. 00:21:36.160 --> 00:21:38.480 And may we find a deep peace in you this morning. 00:21:38.799 --> 00:21:41.680 Comfort our hearts, have mercy on us as a people. 00:21:42.880 --> 00:21:44.880 In Jesus' name we pray. 00:21:45.119 --> 00:21:45.519 Amen.