WEBVTT 00:00:00.080 --> 00:00:03.120 We're at the end of three weeks of prayer as a church. 00:00:03.520 --> 00:00:08.720 Back in May, we bought that space to the right of the sanctuary, the space on the other side of that wall. 00:00:08.880 --> 00:00:12.400 We've been talking for the past few months about what does that mean and how are we going to handle that? 00:00:12.480 --> 00:00:14.720 How do we handle the other areas of our church that need to be dealt with? 00:00:14.880 --> 00:00:15.919 What are the next steps? 00:00:16.079 --> 00:00:18.160 And so we decided, well, we should pray about this. 00:00:18.239 --> 00:00:22.000 And so we spent the first week prayers of thanksgiving. 00:00:22.160 --> 00:00:24.000 I mean, we're 10 years in. 00:00:24.079 --> 00:00:25.039 Look what God has done. 00:00:25.199 --> 00:00:27.359 Let's not be a people who just move on. 00:00:27.519 --> 00:00:31.679 We want to always be people of thankfulness in all things and all ways. 00:00:31.760 --> 00:00:34.159 And then the second week we prayed prayers of hope. 00:00:34.320 --> 00:00:35.679 God, here's what we hope. 00:00:36.240 --> 00:00:38.079 Here's the hopes that we have for our church. 00:00:38.159 --> 00:00:43.759 But at the same time, we're doing that really open-handedly to say, God, like align our hearts with your heart for our church. 00:00:43.920 --> 00:00:47.840 And then this past week, we asked you to pray all of us. 00:00:48.320 --> 00:00:49.840 God, how do you want me to participate? 00:00:50.000 --> 00:00:57.359 How do you want me to, because we believe if if we all, those who called us a church home, just God, how do you want me to participate? 00:00:57.520 --> 00:01:01.359 And we're open to that answer, we're fine. 00:01:01.600 --> 00:01:12.879 Like whatever, you know, whether we're just laying down carpet and repainting, or whether we're knocking down walls, either way, we will move forward in how the God of our church calls us to. 00:01:13.040 --> 00:01:17.200 And all that's not just to be bigger, like more building and more people. 00:01:17.280 --> 00:01:18.799 Like that's not what it is. 00:01:18.959 --> 00:01:36.239 What it is is for us to be the church we've always been, and that's to be a place resting and growing the grace of God for you, for your children, for your family, for your friends, for our neighbors, for the next person, and for us to be that place of refuge that Mandy so well spoke of. 00:01:36.480 --> 00:01:39.519 Let's pray for that before we jump into the book of James. 00:01:40.480 --> 00:01:50.319 God, we thank you for your grace to us, that our church is not a story of our glory or cleverness, but of your faithfulness. 00:01:50.719 --> 00:01:54.719 Help us to be who you've called us to be and who we've always been. 00:01:55.280 --> 00:02:00.319 A place where we leave thinking more of Jesus and less of us. 00:02:01.760 --> 00:02:08.960 And this week moving into making pledges and figuring out what it means to take a next step. 00:02:09.360 --> 00:02:11.199 God, would you call us? 00:02:11.599 --> 00:02:12.639 Would you inspire us? 00:02:12.719 --> 00:02:16.400 But would it be clear in our hearts for what you have for us as a church? 00:02:16.800 --> 00:02:20.560 And we hold with open hands all things in Jesus' name. 00:02:20.719 --> 00:02:21.360 Amen. 00:02:22.319 --> 00:02:25.280 Well, we're in our third week studying the book of James. 00:02:25.439 --> 00:02:27.919 James is, James is very blunt. 00:02:28.000 --> 00:02:29.120 He tells it how it is. 00:02:29.280 --> 00:02:33.039 For some of us, that's exactly why you love James. 00:02:33.199 --> 00:02:37.199 And for some of us, that's exactly why you've always kind of wrestled with the book of James. 00:02:37.520 --> 00:02:42.879 James wants us not just to survive in trials, James wants us to grow through them. 00:02:43.120 --> 00:02:44.240 James 1.12. 00:02:44.400 --> 00:02:47.919 Blessed is the man who remains steadfast under trial. 00:02:48.159 --> 00:02:54.879 For when he has stood the test, he will receive the crown of life, which God has promised to those who love him. 00:02:55.199 --> 00:03:00.560 Now when James uses this phrase, blessed is the man, he's echoing Jesus. 00:03:00.800 --> 00:03:11.280 If you remember the Sermon on the Mount, Matthew 5.10, those Beatitudes, Matthew 5.10, blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness' sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. 00:03:12.159 --> 00:03:20.879 Now listen to what Jesus teaches early on the Sermon on the Mount, just seven verses after we have that blessed are Matthew 5, 17 through 20. 00:03:21.439 --> 00:03:24.400 Do not think that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets. 00:03:24.479 --> 00:03:26.879 I've not come to abolish them, but to fulfill them. 00:03:27.039 --> 00:03:34.800 For truly I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot will pass from the law, until all is accomplished. 00:03:34.960 --> 00:03:42.560 Therefore, whoever relaxes one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do the same will be called the least of the kingdom of heaven. 00:03:42.879 --> 00:03:52.639 But whoever does them and teaches them will be called great in the kingdom of heaven, for I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and the Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. 00:03:52.879 --> 00:03:55.120 Now, what is Jesus saying? 00:03:55.360 --> 00:04:00.560 Well, he's teaching that your righteousness won't exceed the Pharisees. 00:04:00.879 --> 00:04:02.479 He's saying you're not that good. 00:04:02.639 --> 00:04:08.879 You're not going to be able to live up to the law, even while the law tells us who we should be, and the law guides us. 00:04:09.759 --> 00:04:14.159 The law also breaks us into our need of Jesus. 00:04:14.400 --> 00:04:21.439 That the righteousness that we proclaim and have comes first and always from Christ's righteousness to us. 00:04:22.079 --> 00:04:29.920 And Jesus uses that Sermon on the Mount to move past a behavioral spirituality to the heart and for our need. 00:04:30.079 --> 00:04:32.639 And James is actually taking us to that same truth. 00:04:32.800 --> 00:04:35.680 You've got to remember the book of James would have been, it was written as a letter. 00:04:35.759 --> 00:04:36.959 It would have been read as a letter. 00:04:37.120 --> 00:04:41.600 We wouldn't have chopped it up into 12 different Sundays over the course of fall of 2023. 00:04:41.759 --> 00:04:46.000 This would have been read to a people from the very beginning to the very end. 00:04:46.160 --> 00:04:50.800 And when they read that all at once, they would have come to a conclusion at the end. 00:04:50.959 --> 00:04:52.480 Here's James's conclusion. 00:04:52.560 --> 00:04:54.480 This is where he was driving the people. 00:04:54.720 --> 00:04:59.360 So we have to keep it in our hearts as we make our way through it. 00:04:59.600 --> 00:05:03.120 James 5, 19 and 20, the last two verses of the book. 00:05:03.439 --> 00:05:17.360 My brothers, if any one among you wanders from the truth and someone brings him back, let him know that whoever brings back a sinner from his wandering will save his soul from death and will cover a multitude of sins. 00:05:18.240 --> 00:05:31.839 So the wanderer, the worn out, the broken down, the failure, the one who can't live up to so much of what James asks of us is met with full forgiveness, full righteousness. 00:05:33.279 --> 00:05:35.040 James 1 12, back to verse 12. 00:05:35.199 --> 00:05:42.800 Blessed is the man who remains steadfast under trial, for when he has stood the test, he will receive the crown of life, which God has promised to those who love him. 00:05:43.920 --> 00:05:49.279 Point number one, transformation through trials will be part of our story. 00:05:49.439 --> 00:05:51.920 This is the same thing we learned in verses 2 through 4. 00:05:52.079 --> 00:05:56.000 James is revisiting that we will have trials. 00:05:56.160 --> 00:05:59.839 Your marriage maybe hasn't ended up like you thought it would. 00:06:00.000 --> 00:06:04.480 Your family, your children, your health, your finances. 00:06:05.600 --> 00:06:06.800 How am I 45? 00:06:06.879 --> 00:06:07.839 How am I 17? 00:06:08.000 --> 00:06:09.519 How am I 77? 00:06:09.600 --> 00:06:10.959 And this is it? 00:06:11.120 --> 00:06:13.759 This is what I was able to put together. 00:06:14.800 --> 00:06:16.240 The phone rings. 00:06:16.560 --> 00:06:17.680 The test comes back. 00:06:17.839 --> 00:06:19.439 It's not what you thought it would be. 00:06:20.399 --> 00:06:24.160 Trials will be part of our life and our stories. 00:06:24.879 --> 00:06:27.920 We spent last weekend with my college roommate and his family. 00:06:28.000 --> 00:06:29.920 He lives in the promised land of Athens. 00:06:30.079 --> 00:06:32.079 He has two boys and he has two girls. 00:06:32.240 --> 00:06:33.680 See how I slid that in? 00:06:33.920 --> 00:06:39.199 Last year, their little 11-year-old girl started to lose weight. 00:06:39.680 --> 00:06:43.920 And then many other sad things started to happen to her body. 00:06:44.160 --> 00:06:47.759 One night it was almost like her body was shutting down. 00:06:48.959 --> 00:06:53.759 They rushed to the hospital and eventually they learned that she has diabetes. 00:06:54.560 --> 00:07:00.800 This has huge sad effects on her life now and her life of the future. 00:07:01.120 --> 00:07:15.519 And now they live as parents and a family, they live in constant anxiety of monitoring, their phones beeping, reminding them of something or some measurement and something's off and they need to do an injection. 00:07:15.600 --> 00:07:20.639 They do this all day, every day, they do it all night, they do it every night. 00:07:21.600 --> 00:07:22.319 All the time. 00:07:35.360 --> 00:07:37.680 And then we're taught just to just wait, right? 00:07:38.079 --> 00:07:39.439 I'm so sorry. 00:07:40.319 --> 00:07:48.560 And he said, because I was kind of waiting for him to vent or complain or blame God or, you know, you know, this is a moment, and you're with your best friend. 00:07:48.639 --> 00:07:50.639 Let out some cuss words, you know, let it loose a little bit. 00:07:50.720 --> 00:07:56.480 Like I was waiting, that's what I was waiting for, but he just said, we live in a broken world. 00:07:56.800 --> 00:07:59.120 And he didn't say it as a defeatist. 00:07:59.920 --> 00:08:00.879 He was sad. 00:08:02.079 --> 00:08:06.720 He also didn't put a religious band aid on it and pretend like it wasn't a big deal. 00:08:07.199 --> 00:08:09.360 He understood like James. 00:08:11.040 --> 00:08:14.319 The world's broken, and his family lives in the world. 00:08:14.560 --> 00:08:19.040 And he and me and you, we're not exempt from any of that. 00:08:20.399 --> 00:08:24.639 He also knows what theologian Alec Motyear says about these exact verses. 00:08:24.800 --> 00:08:32.320 Here's what Motyear says: God is at work in all this business of trials and persistent endurance. 00:08:32.639 --> 00:08:42.480 God is imparting blessing all the while as well, as guiding us towards the great ultimate blessing of his total approval. 00:08:43.519 --> 00:08:44.639 So that's the good news. 00:08:44.720 --> 00:08:56.399 The good news is we don't have to take joy in the hurt because it hurts, but we can take joy in the transformative process that God promises to do through the hurt. 00:08:57.120 --> 00:08:58.080 Back to verse 12. 00:08:58.159 --> 00:08:58.720 I'll read again. 00:08:58.799 --> 00:09:06.399 Blessed is the man who remains steadfast under trial, for when he has stood the test, he will receive the crown of life, which God has promised to those who love him. 00:09:06.720 --> 00:09:16.159 The image of crown of life is an image of total approval, a dignity of position, like royalty. 00:09:16.559 --> 00:09:19.679 That last phrase states that this is promised to those who love him. 00:09:19.919 --> 00:09:22.879 See, our lives are shaped by what and who we love. 00:09:23.440 --> 00:09:27.919 Now, 1 John's the good news that we love God because he first loved us. 00:09:29.759 --> 00:09:33.600 Some of you live in Marietta, not because you love Marietta. 00:09:33.840 --> 00:09:34.639 Heaven forbid. 00:09:34.799 --> 00:09:35.759 Heaven forbid. 00:09:36.080 --> 00:09:41.919 Some of you live in Marietta because you love somebody who wants to live in Marietta. 00:09:42.240 --> 00:09:43.759 So you live in Marietta. 00:09:45.600 --> 00:09:52.000 Some of you yesterday, you went to a football stadium somewhere in the middle of the day in September. 00:09:53.120 --> 00:09:55.039 It was so horribly hot. 00:09:55.279 --> 00:09:56.159 It was awful. 00:09:56.399 --> 00:09:58.399 Have you been to a college football game in September? 00:09:58.480 --> 00:10:00.799 It is an awful experience. 00:10:01.440 --> 00:10:02.480 And we do it. 00:10:02.639 --> 00:10:03.759 And it's horrible. 00:10:03.919 --> 00:10:04.639 It's awful. 00:10:04.799 --> 00:10:05.519 We know it before. 00:10:05.679 --> 00:10:06.879 We know it when we buy the tickets. 00:10:06.960 --> 00:10:07.600 We know when we go. 00:10:07.759 --> 00:10:09.200 We know it when we're sweating it out. 00:10:09.360 --> 00:10:10.080 We're sitting there. 00:10:10.159 --> 00:10:12.000 There's no grease coming into the stadium. 00:10:12.159 --> 00:10:13.519 It is awful. 00:10:13.759 --> 00:10:18.879 And we do it because we love that team. 00:10:19.840 --> 00:10:22.480 We're miserable, but we're in love. 00:10:24.320 --> 00:10:26.559 Our lives are shaped by what we love. 00:10:26.879 --> 00:10:39.600 Are we in the current of God's astonishing grace, total approval of us through Christ and the growth that we have in that grace, or are we somewhere else? 00:10:41.039 --> 00:10:42.399 James 1, 13. 00:10:42.559 --> 00:10:46.639 Let no one say when he is tempted, I am be tempted by God. 00:10:46.799 --> 00:10:51.360 For God cannot be tempted with evil, and he himself tempts no one. 00:10:51.519 --> 00:10:55.840 But each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire. 00:10:56.080 --> 00:11:02.240 Then desire, when it has conceived, gives birth to sin, and sin when it is fully grown brings forth death. 00:11:02.639 --> 00:11:10.960 So James is taking us from the outer conflict of trials now into the inner conflict of temptation. 00:11:11.440 --> 00:11:17.919 Point number two, resisting tempting desires of the heart will be part of our growth. 00:11:18.799 --> 00:11:26.720 The word desire can also be covet, a longing, a longing to possess, to have that. 00:11:27.759 --> 00:11:34.000 Temptation is the inner enticement of your heart and mind to lure you toward that which is ungodly, unhealthy, and harmful. 00:11:35.360 --> 00:11:40.399 Five times a year in our house for birthdays, a nothing but cake shows up. 00:11:41.360 --> 00:11:41.679 Man. 00:11:43.120 --> 00:11:45.759 Chocolate chip, that creamy icing. 00:11:46.879 --> 00:11:51.039 Oh, I and it's it's gluten-free, so it's healthy. 00:11:52.799 --> 00:12:00.399 So that evening I'll have a piece of cake, a little bit bigger than normal, because it's a birthday party, so you should have a little bit bigger than normal. 00:12:00.639 --> 00:12:05.200 The next morning I wake up and there's nothing different between a donut and a piece of cake. 00:12:05.279 --> 00:12:07.279 So I have a piece of cake in the morning. 00:12:07.519 --> 00:12:14.960 I usually go out to lunch, so after lunch I'll swing by the house because I don't want the cake to go bad, so I'll have a piece there after lunch. 00:12:15.200 --> 00:12:16.799 I get home from work. 00:12:17.120 --> 00:12:18.159 I've worked hard. 00:12:18.240 --> 00:12:19.440 I've been working hard. 00:12:19.519 --> 00:12:20.320 I got a lot done. 00:12:20.480 --> 00:12:23.120 I deserve, I deserve a piece of cake. 00:12:23.360 --> 00:12:25.200 So I have a piece of cake then. 00:12:25.679 --> 00:12:28.720 And then we have dinner, we get kids to bed. 00:12:28.960 --> 00:12:33.600 I usually stay up a little bit later, have a little quiet moment to myself, and it's about 10 p.m. 00:12:34.879 --> 00:12:36.399 It's calling out. 00:12:37.919 --> 00:12:39.200 Luring me. 00:12:39.519 --> 00:12:40.240 Luring me. 00:12:40.399 --> 00:12:42.480 So I have another piece of cake. 00:12:42.639 --> 00:12:56.720 You know, all the other three pieces of cake didn't satisfy the longings of my heart to fulfill me and solve all my sin and shame and guilt and childhood wounds, but I'm pretty sure that the one at 10 p.m., that's that's the one. 00:12:57.120 --> 00:13:00.639 So I go to bed having had five pieces of cake in 26 hours. 00:13:02.879 --> 00:13:11.759 Pastor and author John Piper says this the power of all temptation is the prospect that it will make me happier. 00:13:12.559 --> 00:13:15.919 No one sins out of a sense of duty. 00:13:16.399 --> 00:13:23.120 Piper's saying when we talk about temptation, we're always talking about illusions of happiness. 00:13:24.960 --> 00:13:29.759 Spiritual maturity is not not facing temptation. 00:13:30.960 --> 00:13:39.919 Maturity is growth to walk by the Spirit, to be able to walk by the nothing bunt cake and pick up a banana. 00:13:40.720 --> 00:13:42.320 That's maturity. 00:13:43.039 --> 00:13:44.799 It's really hard, also. 00:13:45.600 --> 00:13:47.440 James teaches us where the blame lies. 00:13:47.600 --> 00:13:52.720 Verse 15 says that we are lured and enticed by our hearts, not by God, don't project it on the God. 00:13:52.879 --> 00:13:53.840 It's not his fault. 00:13:53.919 --> 00:13:54.480 It's our fault. 00:13:54.639 --> 00:13:56.159 Our desires are not as they should be. 00:13:56.320 --> 00:14:06.799 It turns out that we are beautifully created and worthy, and yet we're not perfect in our hearts and desires and motives, thoughts. 00:14:07.440 --> 00:14:13.360 Paige Brown, she's a great Bible teacher at West End Presbyterian Church in Nashville. 00:14:13.600 --> 00:14:18.799 She helped me think through this, this downward cycle of the heart that we see in these verses. 00:14:19.039 --> 00:14:25.679 First step, deception, refusing to refusing to see things as God has declared them to be. 00:14:26.480 --> 00:14:34.399 The second step, attraction or lure, looking with eyes of longing and refusing to let it pass us by. 00:14:35.840 --> 00:14:37.679 Third, preoccupation. 00:14:38.000 --> 00:14:44.559 Enticed by what is not true and not healthy, a controlling desire takes over. 00:14:45.519 --> 00:14:50.799 Conception, desire meets opportunity, and sin and destruction begin. 00:14:51.360 --> 00:14:54.399 Enslavement, the desire does not deliver. 00:14:55.039 --> 00:15:00.879 Destruction of the heart and life begin, and the desire demands more. 00:15:02.720 --> 00:15:05.120 So, what's the good news? 00:15:05.360 --> 00:15:06.480 Well, James keeps going. 00:15:06.559 --> 00:15:07.440 Verse 16. 00:15:07.759 --> 00:15:09.919 Do not be deceived, my beloved brothers. 00:15:10.080 --> 00:15:20.320 Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change. 00:15:20.480 --> 00:15:26.159 Point number three, the loving Abba is with us in our trials and in our temptation. 00:15:26.399 --> 00:15:42.240 Almost 200 years ago, Thomas Chalmers, a great Scottish preacher, he said, the only way to break the hold of a beautiful object on the soul is to show it an object even more beautiful. 00:15:43.519 --> 00:16:00.159 The answer of how to have a joyful, free, be godly in all circumstances is to be captured by something more beautiful and lasting than the lie, than the illusion. 00:16:00.320 --> 00:16:04.399 Maturity is not just a negation of joy, but a falling in love with a better way. 00:16:04.559 --> 00:16:09.120 This is why James grounds us in verse 17 to the Heavenly Father. 00:16:09.919 --> 00:16:17.360 Now, in Galatians, that's Paul's great chapter, chapter 5, that this lavishing of Christian freedom. 00:16:17.600 --> 00:16:19.919 Jesus plus nothing equals everything. 00:16:20.080 --> 00:16:32.000 We're fully accepted by Christ for us, fully loved, total approval, the position that royal dignity by Christ for us, what a peace that gives us, and then the implication of that. 00:16:33.200 --> 00:16:35.840 Lavish love is this, Galatians 5, 16. 00:16:36.000 --> 00:16:42.799 But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. 00:16:43.519 --> 00:16:45.600 Okay, last verse, verse 18. 00:16:45.919 --> 00:16:54.320 Of his own will he brought us forth by the word of truth, that we should be a kind of firstfruits of his creatures. 00:16:55.039 --> 00:16:55.919 Interesting phrase. 00:16:56.080 --> 00:17:04.160 He brought us forth by the word of truth, meaning all of life, all of the new life in you, is through him. 00:17:04.640 --> 00:17:08.880 It's not by you, it's through him, it's through Christ. 00:17:09.119 --> 00:17:19.039 And then we have this phrase that we're the firstfruits of his creatures, which we could say children, which brings me back to saying the same thing I've been saying the last month or so. 00:17:19.279 --> 00:17:20.079 So I'll say it again. 00:17:20.240 --> 00:17:21.279 Point number four. 00:17:21.599 --> 00:17:28.720 We don't have to live as orphans in the world when we are beloved children of the Abba Father. 00:17:29.759 --> 00:17:35.119 A few years ago, a story went viral where a daughter, Hannah, she bought a ring doorbell. 00:17:35.200 --> 00:17:36.319 Maybe you have a ring doorbell. 00:17:36.480 --> 00:17:43.839 Is the doorbell where anytime somebody just even walks by it, it shoots a little video of the audio and the video, and then it sends it to the app. 00:17:43.920 --> 00:17:48.559 And so Hannah had it on the app, and her mom had it on the app, and Chuck, her dad, had it on the app. 00:17:48.640 --> 00:17:51.440 And then soon later, the daughter, Hannah, she went off to college. 00:17:51.519 --> 00:18:03.599 And that's when her dad, Chuck, every time he came in and out of the house by the ring doorbell, he would look the ring doorbell right into it, and he would leave these sweet, loving messages to his daughter. 00:18:03.759 --> 00:18:05.359 Here's a few of them. 00:18:05.839 --> 00:18:06.880 Hi, Hannah. 00:18:07.039 --> 00:18:09.599 Hope everything's good and loyal this morning. 00:18:10.319 --> 00:18:11.279 Hello, Hannah. 00:18:11.440 --> 00:18:13.119 Hope you're having a good day. 00:18:14.559 --> 00:18:15.119 Hey. 00:18:15.359 --> 00:18:17.039 Good morning, loyal Hannah. 00:18:17.119 --> 00:18:18.480 I hope you're having a great day. 00:18:18.720 --> 00:18:19.359 Love you. 00:18:19.680 --> 00:18:21.519 Have a fantastic day. 00:18:21.759 --> 00:18:22.640 Hey Hannah. 00:18:22.880 --> 00:18:23.279 Love you. 00:18:29.359 --> 00:18:30.960 Hello, Louisville Hannah. 00:18:31.119 --> 00:18:32.240 Happy Valentine's Day. 00:18:32.400 --> 00:18:34.559 I hope you're having a lovely, lovely day. 00:18:34.799 --> 00:18:36.319 Enjoy your trip to Nashville. 00:18:37.200 --> 00:18:39.759 Good morning, Louisville Hannah. 00:18:40.960 --> 00:18:43.839 I hope you're done off to a great start. 00:18:44.720 --> 00:18:45.839 Have a lovely day. 00:18:46.000 --> 00:18:46.880 I love you. 00:18:48.720 --> 00:18:50.240 He just kept doing this. 00:18:50.480 --> 00:18:53.599 Just day after day, leaving these messages. 00:18:53.759 --> 00:18:55.599 And she would get them on her phone. 00:18:55.920 --> 00:19:04.240 He said in an interview, I just made a vow to myself years ago that she wouldn't go a day without knowing a lover. 00:19:05.519 --> 00:19:09.839 The heart of a good father is to always love his child. 00:19:10.079 --> 00:19:22.640 And according to James, the perfect heavenly father, in his holy nature, only seeks the good for his children. 00:19:23.279 --> 00:19:26.480 To love you without limits or conditions. 00:19:27.039 --> 00:19:30.720 Do you remember what Jesus teaches Luke 11, 11 through 13? 00:19:30.880 --> 00:19:37.839 What father among you, if his son asks for a fish, will instead of a fish give him a serpent? 00:19:38.079 --> 00:19:41.359 Or if he asks for an egg, we'll give him a scorpion. 00:19:41.599 --> 00:19:51.680 If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the Heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him? 00:19:53.359 --> 00:20:00.960 See, no matter how messy you are, messy your life is, God promises his presence to you. 00:20:02.160 --> 00:20:03.839 And this changes everything else. 00:20:04.480 --> 00:20:08.720 This changes how we walk through temptation and trial. 00:20:10.079 --> 00:20:11.200 God loves you and He's for you. 00:20:11.440 --> 00:20:12.319 Let's pray together. 00:20:12.799 --> 00:20:22.880 God, thank you for your grace to us, that not by our work, but by your work for us, you can't love us anymore, and you can't love us any less because you love us without conditions. 00:20:23.279 --> 00:20:28.880 Thank you for the great promise that you are with us in our trials and you are with us in our temptation. 00:20:29.119 --> 00:20:34.799 May we grow in this grace, be more astonished by how beautiful you are to us. 00:20:36.480 --> 00:20:41.359 May we find an object more beautiful than the illusions of happiness of this world. 00:20:42.480 --> 00:20:46.640 Thank you that you love us in our mess and with our mess. 00:20:48.240 --> 00:20:49.440 We pray this in Jesus' name. 00:20:50.000 --> 00:20:50.400 Amen.