WEBVTT 00:00:00.160 --> 00:00:01.120 You may be seated. 00:00:01.280 --> 00:00:01.840 Well, welcome. 00:00:01.919 --> 00:00:02.399 Good morning. 00:00:02.479 --> 00:00:03.600 Glad you're here. 00:00:03.919 --> 00:00:10.240 What we love to say every week, we've been saying it for 10 years, is we are more broken than we originally thought. 00:00:10.480 --> 00:00:13.679 But we are more loved by God and Jesus than we ever dare to dream. 00:00:13.839 --> 00:00:17.519 That's what we rest in, that's what we grow in as Christians. 00:00:17.679 --> 00:00:19.760 And we're excited to say that again this week. 00:00:19.839 --> 00:00:23.199 That's our forever heart of our church. 00:00:23.679 --> 00:00:29.199 This Sunday we are trying to have a shorter service, perhaps a shorter sermon as well, is the goal. 00:00:29.280 --> 00:00:35.520 And the goal is to have some time at the end of the service for us to talk some about the future and the direction of our church. 00:00:35.679 --> 00:00:56.640 So let's skip my amazing opening illustration about Adedazalea, and we're just going to jump right in to the passage that Ali just read for us about this man, Nicodemus, coming to Jesus, and Jesus answering him there in John 3 verse 3. 00:00:57.200 --> 00:01:02.960 Jesus answered him and said, Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. 00:01:03.039 --> 00:01:07.680 Nicodemus said to him, How can a man be born when he's old? 00:01:07.840 --> 00:01:10.719 Can he enter a second time in his mother's womb and be born? 00:01:10.799 --> 00:01:18.000 And Jesus answered, Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. 00:01:18.239 --> 00:01:22.719 That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the spirit is spirit. 00:01:23.040 --> 00:01:26.879 So we're born physically, and we need to be born spiritually. 00:01:27.120 --> 00:01:30.079 Verse 7, do not marvel that I said to you, you must be born again. 00:01:30.159 --> 00:01:37.519 The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes, so it is with everyone who's born of spirit. 00:01:37.680 --> 00:01:41.599 So our first point is this we are not machines producing in the world. 00:01:41.760 --> 00:01:42.719 We're not machines producing. 00:01:42.799 --> 00:01:43.920 It's not who we are. 00:01:44.159 --> 00:01:46.799 We are beloved children radically loved. 00:01:46.879 --> 00:01:50.560 We are not machines producing, we are beloved children radically loved. 00:01:50.719 --> 00:01:57.040 By God's grace, we come alive to our true selves even once we have already physically been born. 00:01:57.200 --> 00:02:00.560 We come alive to his love for us, that we are his children. 00:02:00.719 --> 00:02:02.719 That's the fight of our lives. 00:02:03.040 --> 00:02:04.640 That's our faith walk. 00:02:04.959 --> 00:02:10.080 To remember who we really are, who we truly are as his children. 00:02:10.319 --> 00:02:13.840 I love the imagery given to us in verses 5 and 6. 00:02:14.000 --> 00:02:20.319 In verse 5, we have the imagery of water, that word meaning procreation, a new life. 00:02:20.560 --> 00:02:24.319 And then verse 6: that which is born of spirit is spirit. 00:02:24.639 --> 00:02:26.400 So our spirit needs to be reborn. 00:02:26.560 --> 00:02:33.680 Jesus is saying we have life in our spirit by God granting it to us by his spirit. 00:02:34.159 --> 00:02:35.840 That's the core of who you are. 00:02:35.919 --> 00:02:49.120 That's the you inside of you, the you behind all the defense mechanisms and the different roles we play, all that exhaustion of life that we can use to self-justify, the you underneath. 00:02:49.439 --> 00:02:52.319 We can have life there in our spirit, the very core of who we are. 00:02:52.479 --> 00:02:58.479 This Nicodemus is just, he's hoping for the next list, the next obedience, the next amount of things to do. 00:02:58.560 --> 00:03:06.400 If I can get all this list together, and then I perform it, please God, I'll be welcomed by God, I'll be a whole person. 00:03:06.479 --> 00:03:09.039 And Jesus says, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. 00:03:10.400 --> 00:03:18.879 New life, a wholeness of heart, is by a relationship with the Heavenly Father, and it's by God's lavish love to us. 00:03:20.319 --> 00:03:21.840 Spirit to spirit. 00:03:22.080 --> 00:03:25.280 Back in 2018, do you remember the soccer team in Thailand? 00:03:25.360 --> 00:03:27.439 That horrible story they got stuck in the cave. 00:03:27.520 --> 00:03:28.080 Do you remember this? 00:03:28.240 --> 00:03:29.840 Twelve soccer players. 00:03:30.080 --> 00:03:34.719 There's one of the kids' birthdays, and the team and the coach, they go down in a cave. 00:03:34.879 --> 00:03:43.759 You know, mistake number one, they go down in a cave, down in the tunnels, and then it starts raining, and the tunnels fill up, and they they get stuck. 00:03:43.919 --> 00:03:50.319 For 10 days, they're stuck eating birthday snacks, drinking water from the the cave roof. 00:03:50.400 --> 00:03:53.520 They're wondering if the oxygen's gonna run out, they're gonna die. 00:03:53.680 --> 00:03:56.400 This is the you know, this is the birth, happy birthday. 00:03:56.639 --> 00:03:57.039 Right? 00:03:57.199 --> 00:03:59.520 This is their birthday, but you thought sparkles was bad. 00:03:59.599 --> 00:04:00.560 Yeah, the sparkles. 00:04:00.800 --> 00:04:02.080 You thought that wouldn't end. 00:04:02.240 --> 00:04:03.439 Well, ten days in a cave. 00:04:03.680 --> 00:04:06.319 I mean, a Sunday after the sparkles feels like ten days in a cave. 00:04:06.479 --> 00:04:08.800 It's about the same, it's the same experience. 00:04:09.360 --> 00:04:10.639 That's real, though. 00:04:10.800 --> 00:04:13.199 Them in the cave, wondering if they're gonna die. 00:04:13.599 --> 00:04:15.599 They have to be rescued. 00:04:15.919 --> 00:04:18.319 They can't get themselves out. 00:04:18.720 --> 00:04:20.879 They just have to wait for the divers to come for them. 00:04:20.959 --> 00:04:23.199 And the divers eventually come for them, right? 00:04:23.360 --> 00:04:26.639 And we know that glory story, and eventually they're rescued, right? 00:04:27.120 --> 00:04:28.959 The team made it, everybody made it. 00:04:29.199 --> 00:04:32.959 They were rescued, they had to be rescued. 00:04:34.560 --> 00:04:36.480 We can do some things. 00:04:37.759 --> 00:04:39.680 Like, you can do some things. 00:04:39.920 --> 00:04:44.720 Like, we can declutter the kitchen junk drawer, you could do that. 00:04:45.040 --> 00:04:46.720 You've been meaning to do that. 00:04:46.959 --> 00:04:51.920 You can get fit, you can earn money, you can buy a beach house, you can invite me to the beach house. 00:04:52.079 --> 00:04:58.319 You, but you can't cause, you can't cause your heart to come alive. 00:04:59.839 --> 00:05:02.319 We try, it's called self-justification. 00:05:02.560 --> 00:05:07.920 We try a lot, but it's by God's Spirit to us that we come alive. 00:05:08.079 --> 00:05:10.079 We are made to come alive to God. 00:05:10.480 --> 00:05:17.199 Some things we earn in this world, but the things of the heart have to be received from God by his grace. 00:05:18.639 --> 00:05:20.160 We're stuck in a cave. 00:05:21.519 --> 00:05:23.759 Martin Luther would say our will is bound. 00:05:24.000 --> 00:05:27.759 Reformed theology would say, depravity, total depravity. 00:05:28.000 --> 00:05:29.360 We're bound in a mess. 00:05:29.439 --> 00:05:34.800 We're bound in disappointment, we're bound in sin, and we're stuck, and we need a breakthrough from outside. 00:05:34.959 --> 00:05:37.439 And it's his lavish love to us where we receive it. 00:05:37.519 --> 00:05:41.839 Nicodemus has to pick up on this because he wants a list, just another list. 00:05:43.040 --> 00:05:44.560 And he has to pick up on this. 00:05:44.639 --> 00:05:45.519 Uh, verse 9. 00:05:45.680 --> 00:05:49.199 Nicodemus said to him, back to Jesus, how can these things be true? 00:05:49.279 --> 00:05:50.639 And how can these things be? 00:05:50.800 --> 00:05:54.639 And then verse 10, Jesus answered him, Are you the teacher of Israel? 00:05:54.800 --> 00:05:56.480 And yet you do not understand these things? 00:05:56.560 --> 00:05:58.560 Because Nicodemus was a religious teacher. 00:05:58.800 --> 00:06:06.879 Verse 11, truly, truly I say to you, we speak of what we know and bear witness to what we have seen, but you do not receive our testimony. 00:06:07.040 --> 00:06:12.000 If I had told you earthly things and you do not believe, how can you believe if I tell you heavenly things? 00:06:12.240 --> 00:06:16.800 No one has ascended into heaven except he who has descended from heaven, the Son of Man. 00:06:16.959 --> 00:06:29.439 And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up that whoever believes in him, so by belief, not by merit, whoever believes in him may have eternal life. 00:06:29.759 --> 00:06:37.279 For God so loved the world that he gave his only son, that whoever believes in him should not perish, but have eternal life. 00:06:37.439 --> 00:06:40.879 And we can all go put it on a sign at a sporting event. 00:06:41.439 --> 00:06:44.399 The word life is the word Zoe. 00:06:45.759 --> 00:06:50.560 It meaning your state, the state of your being, the core of who you are. 00:06:51.040 --> 00:06:56.160 Become vital and whole and animated by God through the Holy Spirit because of Christ Jesus. 00:06:56.319 --> 00:06:58.639 You come alive on the inside. 00:06:58.720 --> 00:07:01.439 You're born physically and we're born spiritually. 00:07:01.680 --> 00:07:07.600 Now, point number two is that our temptation is to provide our own justification. 00:07:07.759 --> 00:07:11.600 We did this before we're Christians, and sadly we still do it as we're Christians. 00:07:11.759 --> 00:07:16.639 Our temptation is to provide our own justification rather than resting in Jesus for it. 00:07:16.879 --> 00:07:20.879 That is also all of our exhaustion and our condemnation. 00:07:21.120 --> 00:07:31.360 I'm not someone as I justify myself with my job or my income or my social status or my body or you know, trying to hold on to the hair I still have. 00:07:31.439 --> 00:07:33.120 That's not what makes me someone. 00:07:33.279 --> 00:07:37.279 What makes me someone is that I am God's beloved. 00:07:37.680 --> 00:07:40.879 Now that's a lot more secure than my hair, right? 00:07:41.040 --> 00:07:43.920 That's a lot more secure than your income or your job. 00:07:44.480 --> 00:07:45.600 That's the promise we have. 00:07:45.759 --> 00:07:50.800 Verse 14, Jesus tells Nicodemus a strange story from Numbers in the Old Testament. 00:07:50.959 --> 00:07:51.680 It's a weird story. 00:07:51.759 --> 00:07:54.879 The Israelites are attacked by poisonous serpents. 00:07:55.120 --> 00:07:56.639 A lot of people died. 00:07:56.959 --> 00:08:01.360 And God commands Moses, make a bronze serpent. 00:08:01.519 --> 00:08:04.480 This is what Jesus is referring to here in this John 3 passage. 00:08:05.040 --> 00:08:07.920 God commands Moses, make a bronze serpent, set it on a pole. 00:08:08.240 --> 00:08:13.439 And then tell anybody who's bit, go and look on the pole. 00:08:13.680 --> 00:08:14.800 Go look at the bronze serpent. 00:08:14.959 --> 00:08:16.079 That's a weird story. 00:08:16.399 --> 00:08:29.279 Old Testament has all these strange stories, but what God is giving us through all these strange ancient stories is picture after picture after picture in Israel's history of what Christ would come to do. 00:08:30.079 --> 00:08:34.879 It's a strange story just to say we're rescued as we look to Him. 00:08:35.519 --> 00:08:38.320 We're bitten and we need to look to Him. 00:08:38.559 --> 00:08:41.440 Now remember, Nicodemus is this religious teacher. 00:08:41.759 --> 00:08:54.399 He teaches the law, he lives by the law, so all those rules of the Old Testament, and the eating and the drinking, and doing all the right things and getting them all right and doing them all enough, then maybe God will accept me and have me. 00:08:54.480 --> 00:08:56.639 Then maybe I'll be whole in some way. 00:08:56.879 --> 00:09:01.519 Then this is this differentiation that we like to make between the way of religion and the way of gospel. 00:09:01.679 --> 00:09:07.840 The way of religion is obey, and then you are accepted once you obey. 00:09:07.919 --> 00:09:09.279 And obey enough. 00:09:10.159 --> 00:09:15.200 The way of the gospel is you are already accepted in Jesus. 00:09:16.399 --> 00:09:18.080 Therefore, obey. 00:09:18.480 --> 00:09:20.399 Man, that's a world of difference. 00:09:20.960 --> 00:09:24.480 Religion is the way of slavery and exhaustion. 00:09:24.799 --> 00:09:28.559 And the gospel is a way of freedom, and it's a way of growth. 00:09:29.279 --> 00:09:34.000 Point number three is this A performance-oriented life is condemnation. 00:09:34.879 --> 00:09:38.080 But life in Christ is relationship and relief. 00:09:40.240 --> 00:09:44.159 Romans 4, 15 through 17, Paul says this. 00:09:44.799 --> 00:09:47.360 For the law brings wrath. 00:09:49.120 --> 00:09:51.919 But where there's no law, there's no transgression. 00:09:52.159 --> 00:09:55.120 So he's saying that the law is holy and good. 00:09:55.200 --> 00:09:55.840 We know that. 00:09:56.000 --> 00:09:58.399 What we should be, what we should do, how we should live. 00:09:58.559 --> 00:10:00.159 That's holy and good. 00:10:00.320 --> 00:10:06.399 And yet when we come up before it, we fall short, therefore it brings wrath upon us in condemnation. 00:10:06.559 --> 00:10:27.600 Verse 16, that is why it depends on faith, in order that the promise may rest on grace and be guaranteed to all his offspring, not only to the inheritance of the law, but also to the one who shares the faith of Abraham, who is the father of us all, as it is written, I have made you the father of many nations, in the presence of the God in whom he believed, who gives life to the dead. 00:10:27.759 --> 00:10:31.039 That was going to tie in so good to my Zalea illustration that we had to skip it. 00:10:31.120 --> 00:10:32.080 It was going to be fascinating. 00:10:32.240 --> 00:10:35.519 And calls into existence the things that do not exist. 00:10:36.480 --> 00:10:43.919 So the law brings wrath, holy as it is, condemnation to us because of us, not because of it. 00:10:44.480 --> 00:10:46.000 Because we're not perfect. 00:10:46.320 --> 00:10:47.919 It shows us our need. 00:10:49.679 --> 00:10:53.679 We always come up short of the standards of God, even our own standards, standards of the world. 00:10:53.840 --> 00:10:55.200 But verse 16. 00:10:56.720 --> 00:11:00.960 That is why it depends on faith, in order that the promise may rest on grace. 00:11:01.360 --> 00:11:03.679 Back to John 3, verse 17. 00:11:04.080 --> 00:11:05.519 Listen to this good news. 00:11:05.759 --> 00:11:10.320 For God did not send his son into the world to condemn the world. 00:11:11.360 --> 00:11:12.799 And you could personalize that. 00:11:13.039 --> 00:11:16.000 God did not send Jesus to condemn you. 00:11:16.960 --> 00:11:20.159 But in order that the world might be saved through him. 00:11:22.080 --> 00:11:26.720 This week I started and finished Jack Ryan season three. 00:11:26.960 --> 00:11:28.879 Anybody been through that journey? 00:11:29.279 --> 00:11:29.759 Few of you. 00:11:29.919 --> 00:11:32.320 It's on Amazon Prime if you want to pick that up. 00:11:33.519 --> 00:11:35.200 Is Jack gonna be okay? 00:11:35.360 --> 00:11:36.080 I don't know. 00:11:36.240 --> 00:11:38.720 It was it was it was a tolling week. 00:11:38.799 --> 00:11:39.919 It was very difficult. 00:11:40.080 --> 00:11:40.799 I was consumed. 00:11:40.879 --> 00:11:42.159 It was not healthy. 00:11:43.200 --> 00:11:47.200 Will Jack save us from the rogue Russian terrorist group? 00:11:47.600 --> 00:11:58.639 This was the big question of Thursday night for me so much that it was a great idea, Thursday night in all of my Christian maturity, to just keep pressing next episode, next episode. 00:11:59.360 --> 00:12:01.840 I had to have it finished. 00:12:02.639 --> 00:12:07.279 And of course, Friday I felt horrible, felt awful, just awful. 00:12:07.360 --> 00:12:09.919 But Jack was okay because I saw that Thursday night. 00:12:10.000 --> 00:12:14.159 But also Thursday night, I couldn't go to sleep because I was so pumped up about Jack saving the world. 00:12:14.240 --> 00:12:15.360 It was amazing. 00:12:17.039 --> 00:12:19.279 Just got consumed with it. 00:12:20.000 --> 00:12:20.960 We do that, right? 00:12:21.039 --> 00:12:23.759 And we call it binging, right? 00:12:23.840 --> 00:12:25.039 Like we binge on that. 00:12:25.200 --> 00:12:27.440 We binge on that with our time and with our heart. 00:12:27.519 --> 00:12:30.639 It becomes a narrative that we just sort of take in. 00:12:31.200 --> 00:12:33.039 And we all binge on something. 00:12:33.279 --> 00:12:36.320 And sadly, condemnation can be the binge. 00:12:37.600 --> 00:12:42.480 Like a feast that I'm not enough, and there's no way this will be okay, and I'm never gonna measure up. 00:12:42.559 --> 00:12:45.120 I'll never be, you know, there's no way I can be known and loved. 00:12:45.200 --> 00:12:47.120 All that sort of condemnation. 00:12:48.240 --> 00:12:51.840 And Jesus says in John 3, that's not coming from God. 00:12:55.600 --> 00:13:02.480 My mentor Scotty Smith says this the gospel isn't merely the absence of all condemnation. 00:13:02.639 --> 00:13:05.279 I mean, that's pretty amazing in and of itself, right there, right? 00:13:05.679 --> 00:13:14.559 The gospel isn't merely the absence of all condemnation, it's also the fullness of God's delight lavished on us in Christ. 00:13:17.120 --> 00:13:24.960 We come alive to God's love by Spirit to us, and that is a healing of the heart. 00:13:25.759 --> 00:13:34.639 There's so much of our self-justification and exhaustion, the ways we're bound in different sin that it would be totally unhelpful to our lives, unhealthy, destructive. 00:13:35.120 --> 00:13:37.360 So we're healed and we're healing. 00:13:37.440 --> 00:13:45.279 And we're growing in this very lavishness of the secure identity we have as the children of God by means of application of two questions for our hearts this morning. 00:13:45.440 --> 00:13:53.360 Basically asking the Holy Spirit, Holy Spirit, would you please, as we ask these questions, would you reveal to us something that would be helpful for our growth in grace? 00:13:53.600 --> 00:13:56.080 Number one is this, Abba Father. 00:13:56.879 --> 00:14:00.240 What does it, what does my heart binge on? 00:14:01.440 --> 00:14:03.120 What does my heart binge on? 00:14:03.679 --> 00:14:08.960 Condemnation that I am not enough or acceptance and worth in Christ? 00:14:10.159 --> 00:14:21.600 And the second question, Abba Father, what would it mean for me to walk with the Spirit and the fullness of your delight lavished on me? 00:14:22.320 --> 00:14:24.639 What does that change in your heart? 00:14:26.000 --> 00:14:28.559 What does that change in your life? 00:14:29.200 --> 00:14:43.279 Two weeks ago we went out of town with some friends, and the first evening we got there, Christy and the wife of the other set of friends, they went to Trader Joe's for some groceries, and that evening I walked through the kitchen and I saw on the counter something I'd never seen before. 00:14:43.440 --> 00:14:44.480 Maybe you know about this. 00:14:44.559 --> 00:14:45.039 I don't know. 00:14:45.120 --> 00:14:49.120 I'd been stuck in, you knew I like my Reese's thin, dark chocolate thins. 00:14:49.200 --> 00:14:50.159 Y'all know about that a little bit. 00:14:50.240 --> 00:14:52.080 But I saw this for the first time. 00:14:52.320 --> 00:14:55.120 The does anybody know this yet? 00:14:55.600 --> 00:14:56.960 I don't know if you want to know it. 00:14:57.039 --> 00:14:58.159 It's amazing. 00:14:58.799 --> 00:15:06.320 Trader Joe's dark chocolate bark with pretzel and sea salt and almonds, which means it's health food. 00:15:06.399 --> 00:15:07.440 It's wonderful. 00:15:09.120 --> 00:15:14.080 And I grabbed a piece of it, and as I I just as I just walk it, I just grabbed a piece of it. 00:15:14.159 --> 00:15:15.440 I didn't think it was gonna be that big of a deal. 00:15:15.519 --> 00:15:20.639 I grabbed a piece of it, put it in my mouth, and it was spirit to spirit, a rebirth. 00:15:22.000 --> 00:15:25.120 Found a church, walked an aisle, signed a card, all that. 00:15:25.759 --> 00:15:27.600 And you know what happened? 00:15:27.919 --> 00:15:29.440 I mean, it's really good. 00:15:29.600 --> 00:15:31.440 I just need to just tell you. 00:15:31.600 --> 00:15:32.480 No royalties. 00:15:32.559 --> 00:15:34.320 No, I'm getting no royalties off that. 00:15:34.480 --> 00:15:35.200 It's just so good. 00:15:35.360 --> 00:15:41.279 And you know what happened the next morning, like after breakfast, like when nobody's looking? 00:15:41.519 --> 00:15:42.720 I I had more. 00:15:43.360 --> 00:15:46.320 At lunchtime, when everybody's outside. 00:15:47.360 --> 00:15:48.000 Yep. 00:15:48.879 --> 00:15:51.360 Just swinging back through that kitchen. 00:15:52.000 --> 00:15:53.679 It wasn't even our back. 00:15:54.159 --> 00:15:55.360 It was their back. 00:15:56.399 --> 00:15:58.639 Technically, I think I was stealing. 00:15:59.120 --> 00:16:00.159 It was amazing. 00:16:00.320 --> 00:16:04.080 I was just feasting on it like over and over and over again, right? 00:16:04.159 --> 00:16:07.440 Like to feast is to overindulge. 00:16:07.679 --> 00:16:08.960 That's what a feast is. 00:16:09.120 --> 00:16:11.519 Just to overindulge over and over again. 00:16:11.600 --> 00:16:12.720 Now, here's what I love. 00:16:12.960 --> 00:16:21.440 Sundays through Lent are known as feast days historically, because we're in that season of Lent, moving towards Good Friday and Easter. 00:16:21.840 --> 00:16:25.360 And a lot of times in Lent, historically, people give something up. 00:16:26.159 --> 00:16:31.840 As a way of trying to take the moments of sacrifice to remember Christ's sacrifice for us and what we have in him. 00:16:32.000 --> 00:16:36.480 And so a lot of people give up coffee or chocolate or maybe Instagram. 00:16:36.720 --> 00:16:37.440 I don't know, something. 00:16:37.600 --> 00:16:39.120 People give something up. 00:16:39.519 --> 00:16:44.000 And then on Sundays in Lent, they would feast. 00:16:45.039 --> 00:16:46.080 Feast days. 00:16:46.399 --> 00:16:49.200 As a way to say that we feast on the gospel. 00:16:50.080 --> 00:16:52.159 That's why we gather, that's why we have a church. 00:16:52.559 --> 00:16:54.559 That's what our lives are really about. 00:16:55.440 --> 00:17:00.879 To feast on the lavish acceptance and love of God to our weary hearts. 00:17:01.039 --> 00:17:02.799 We are born physically. 00:17:03.360 --> 00:17:07.440 And then we are born again spiritually. 00:17:08.799 --> 00:17:12.640 Psalm 18, 17 through 19 says this. 00:17:13.200 --> 00:17:21.920 Just by word of encouragement, if you're feeling stuck or in a cave or disappointed or just burdened, beat down, weary. 00:17:29.359 --> 00:17:31.519 For they were too mighty for me. 00:17:32.319 --> 00:17:37.519 They confronted me in the day of my calamity, but the Lord was my support. 00:17:38.400 --> 00:17:40.720 He brought me out into a broad place. 00:17:41.680 --> 00:17:42.960 He rescued me. 00:17:43.440 --> 00:17:45.440 Because he delighted in me. 00:17:45.759 --> 00:17:47.200 Let's pray together. 00:17:48.079 --> 00:17:51.519 God, we thank you for your grace and your mercy. 00:17:52.640 --> 00:18:09.359 Thank you that not only do we have the absence of condemnation from you to us, but we have your delight lavished on us in Christ Jesus, that all of our sin is put upon him, all of our guilt and all of our shame. 00:18:09.759 --> 00:18:16.400 And in Christ, imputed upon our souls is the full righteousness of Jesus. 00:18:17.200 --> 00:18:19.920 And that you love us like you love Him. 00:18:20.240 --> 00:18:22.319 And you can't love us anymore. 00:18:24.720 --> 00:18:28.640 God, would all the dead places in our hearts come alive? 00:18:29.759 --> 00:18:33.519 May we be asking, what would it mean to walk in your delight? 00:18:33.839 --> 00:18:42.000 What would it mean to remember we're not just physical beings and we're certainly not machines, but we are your children. 00:18:42.720 --> 00:18:46.480 Born into your family dearly loved. 00:18:46.880 --> 00:18:48.480 I pray this in Jesus' name. 00:18:48.799 --> 00:18:49.440 Amen.