WEBVTT 00:00:00.320 --> 00:00:03.759 Well, we are in week three of Lent. 00:00:03.839 --> 00:00:09.199 So maybe you've been in churches that celebrate Lent and do different passages of scriptures to work their way through Lent. 00:00:09.279 --> 00:00:11.199 Maybe it's a new idea for you. 00:00:11.439 --> 00:00:18.559 Lent is simply the season of 40 days leading up to Good Friday and to Easter. 00:00:18.719 --> 00:00:23.679 So our passage this morning is Luke chapter 13, beginning in verse 1. 00:00:24.879 --> 00:00:34.960 There were some present at that very time who told him, told Jesus about the Galileans, whose blood Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices. 00:00:35.439 --> 00:00:37.039 And he answered them. 00:00:37.359 --> 00:00:44.000 Do you think that these Galileans were worse sinners than all the other Galileans because they suffered in this way? 00:00:44.479 --> 00:00:44.799 No. 00:00:45.600 --> 00:00:50.240 I tell you, but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish. 00:00:50.640 --> 00:00:55.520 Or those eighteen on whom the tower in Siloam fell and killed them. 00:00:55.920 --> 00:01:00.960 Do you think that they were worse offenders than all the others who lived in Jerusalem? 00:01:02.000 --> 00:01:04.000 So, point number one is this. 00:01:04.159 --> 00:01:06.000 We'll work our way through this passage. 00:01:06.239 --> 00:01:12.480 Point number one is this every bad thing is not the result of us being bad people. 00:01:13.280 --> 00:01:18.239 So we could say it a different way and just say, bad stuff doesn't only happen to bad people. 00:01:19.359 --> 00:01:21.359 In the text, there's this implied question. 00:01:21.519 --> 00:01:25.439 Were those people, like the ones that had bad stuff happen to them? 00:01:25.599 --> 00:01:26.799 Like were they worse? 00:01:27.040 --> 00:01:27.760 Like worse people? 00:01:27.920 --> 00:01:30.879 Were they worse sinners than say, like me? 00:01:31.519 --> 00:01:31.840 Right? 00:01:31.920 --> 00:01:33.439 That's the question they're asking. 00:01:33.680 --> 00:01:36.640 And then Jesus goes even further, and he mentions a whole different story. 00:01:36.719 --> 00:01:39.599 He says, Oh yeah, like by the way, did you even know about the 18? 00:01:39.760 --> 00:01:41.599 The tower fell on them? 00:01:41.840 --> 00:01:43.359 Like, were they worse? 00:01:44.319 --> 00:01:44.640 Right? 00:01:44.799 --> 00:01:55.920 The people want to explain bad stuff by those people, not them, of course, but the other people where the bad stuff happens as being worse sinners. 00:01:56.079 --> 00:02:05.840 Because then maybe, maybe, I'm better than them, and then maybe I can control what kind of good stuff and bad stuff happens in my life. 00:02:06.159 --> 00:02:08.479 So the line of thinking just sort of works. 00:02:08.639 --> 00:02:14.159 Bad things happen to bad people, or they did something bad, which at first sounds really wonderful. 00:02:15.520 --> 00:02:25.360 Because it means that if you're good and hardworking and you don't smoke and you go to church and maybe even give money to church, like if you do all that, then you can control. 00:02:25.680 --> 00:02:27.439 You can control, you're safe. 00:02:27.680 --> 00:02:30.400 You can control whether bad stuff happens or not. 00:02:32.159 --> 00:02:38.879 But oh, it also means we're judgmental. 00:02:39.599 --> 00:02:50.159 Because it means that anybody who has something bad going on, you by default also believe they did something bad. 00:02:51.280 --> 00:02:57.280 So it puts us in a position of automatically being judgmental rather than compassionate. 00:02:58.719 --> 00:03:00.479 And all of it works. 00:03:01.120 --> 00:03:08.400 All that works while life is good, and while the money flows, and while the health reports are good. 00:03:09.199 --> 00:03:26.400 But as soon as the tornado hits like your neighborhood and not the other neighborhood, or cancer hits your house and not the next house, or the phone rings in your house at the time of day it shouldn't, and the news came on the other side is not what you wanted to hear, but the phone didn't ring at your friend's house. 00:03:27.199 --> 00:03:34.960 Then all of a sudden, this idea of like perform and God will reward, all of a sudden, all of it just comes back and it bites you. 00:03:35.199 --> 00:03:39.039 And Jesus in this passage just refuses to participate in this line of thinking. 00:03:39.199 --> 00:03:41.280 He just almost doesn't even enter it. 00:03:41.919 --> 00:03:45.120 He's just like, just quit looking at other people. 00:03:45.919 --> 00:03:47.439 Just look at yourself. 00:03:47.759 --> 00:03:48.879 Look at yourself. 00:03:49.120 --> 00:03:52.240 Recognize we're all sinners. 00:03:52.479 --> 00:03:53.759 We need to repent. 00:03:54.960 --> 00:03:55.280 Right? 00:03:55.439 --> 00:03:56.800 Like that's his starting point. 00:03:57.120 --> 00:03:59.120 Just look at yourself. 00:03:59.360 --> 00:04:00.800 Self-awareness. 00:04:01.280 --> 00:04:03.680 And a life of repenting. 00:04:04.000 --> 00:04:13.680 Point number two is this repentance is a sorrowful yet joyful turn into Jesus' sufficiency for us. 00:04:13.840 --> 00:04:24.879 So that word repent in verse 3, the word repentance is the word metanoia, meaning a change of mind, entering a better course of life. 00:04:25.040 --> 00:04:26.000 We've learned that before. 00:04:26.160 --> 00:04:26.800 Here it is again. 00:04:26.879 --> 00:04:29.439 Every time we come up on the word repent, we're gonna learn the same thing. 00:04:29.519 --> 00:04:30.079 That's what it means. 00:04:30.399 --> 00:04:33.360 It means a change of mind, a change of course. 00:04:33.600 --> 00:04:39.199 So this past Sunday evening a week ago, I don't know if you remember, a week ago, big news broke. 00:04:39.360 --> 00:04:43.040 It was in the evening, big news, Tom Brady. 00:04:43.360 --> 00:04:47.279 I mean, this is a divisive issue, talking about a church divisive issue, right? 00:04:47.360 --> 00:04:49.920 It's divisive in our family, Tom Brady's divisive. 00:04:50.399 --> 00:04:57.360 44 years old, seven Super Bowls, unretires, right? 00:04:58.319 --> 00:05:01.040 40 days in the wilderness, he could take no more. 00:05:02.639 --> 00:05:07.439 And the guy we should feel bad about, as you've heard it in the news, you know the guy you should feel bad about, right? 00:05:07.759 --> 00:05:12.879 Who paid five hundred and eighteen thousand dollars for his last touchdown ball? 00:05:13.040 --> 00:05:14.399 Like it's not 500. 00:05:14.639 --> 00:05:24.480 And this morning I read that Brady was like, hey, we'll, you know, me and Giselle, uh, we'll donate some money to your uh whatever charity you want us. 00:05:24.800 --> 00:05:28.160 I'm like, how about$518,000? 00:05:29.360 --> 00:05:30.800 There's the charity. 00:05:32.639 --> 00:05:40.079 So I was just like the guy who probably bought the ball, I had a very firm reaction to this news. 00:05:40.399 --> 00:05:44.240 I was what my course was set, and I I've been pro-Brady. 00:05:45.040 --> 00:05:47.360 I I became anti-Brady on this one. 00:05:47.439 --> 00:05:56.639 I was like, man, like like come on, like stick with the decision, and like it's okay to not be the center of attention for just a little bit. 00:05:56.720 --> 00:05:59.519 Like it's okay, like just just just stick with it. 00:05:59.680 --> 00:06:05.839 And then I read this very accurate, very accurate headline on Babylon B. 00:06:06.399 --> 00:06:07.519 Very accurate. 00:06:07.839 --> 00:06:14.639 Tom Brady realizes it's easier to be hit by a 300-pound lineman than to stay at home all day with young kids. 00:06:18.800 --> 00:06:22.319 And then I understood, right? 00:06:23.279 --> 00:06:27.360 I was converted back to being pro-Brady. 00:06:27.600 --> 00:06:28.399 Like I repented. 00:06:28.480 --> 00:06:37.199 I had a my course was set, I was anti-Brady, and then I thought, you know what, like that's funny, but that's actually true. 00:06:37.519 --> 00:06:38.959 Like, that's true. 00:06:39.279 --> 00:06:41.600 So now I like understood Brady. 00:06:41.839 --> 00:06:46.959 I'm like, yeah, he had 40 days with that, and then he's thinking about the future, and he's like, you know what? 00:06:47.279 --> 00:06:49.279 That other thing looks pretty good. 00:06:49.519 --> 00:06:54.879 And so I one I was headed one way and then turned around, head the other, right? 00:06:55.040 --> 00:06:55.680 Repentance. 00:06:56.480 --> 00:06:57.759 Change of course. 00:06:58.079 --> 00:07:03.040 And I always think about priest and author Henri now and his imagery for repentance. 00:07:03.680 --> 00:07:07.040 He describes repentance as being in a room. 00:07:07.759 --> 00:07:12.480 You're in a room, and the door in front of you is locked from the outside. 00:07:12.879 --> 00:07:15.279 And you go to try to open the door, and you can't. 00:07:15.360 --> 00:07:16.160 You can't open it. 00:07:16.240 --> 00:07:18.240 You try to force your way through it, and you can't. 00:07:18.720 --> 00:07:20.800 You can't get out. 00:07:21.519 --> 00:07:25.519 I mean, you are trying all your power, all your MacGyver tricks. 00:07:25.600 --> 00:07:26.800 You are trying everything. 00:07:27.040 --> 00:07:34.959 You can't get out of this room, and you are exhausted, and you are at the end of yourself. 00:07:35.600 --> 00:07:39.199 And finally, you just you just fall to the floor. 00:07:39.600 --> 00:07:44.879 And when you fall to the floor, finally you see that there's no wall behind you. 00:07:46.480 --> 00:07:52.639 And now one's point is a life of enslavement always only has three walls. 00:07:53.600 --> 00:07:55.759 But the way out is repentance. 00:07:57.279 --> 00:08:06.480 The way out is to repent from the just brutal toil of self-justification, of being your own God, of being your own savior, trying to rebel enough into happiness. 00:08:10.000 --> 00:08:16.720 The sentence about repentance that we repeat in our church all the time is a sentence spoken by a pastor and professor Jack Miller. 00:08:17.040 --> 00:08:23.680 He said, repentance is our ongoing calling to collapse on Jesus. 00:08:24.560 --> 00:08:27.600 Acknowledging our need and receiving his supply. 00:08:28.639 --> 00:08:36.399 So it's not just like repent and you become a Christian, and then it's like repentance is a life of collapsing on Jesus. 00:08:37.519 --> 00:08:44.000 And Tim Keller's article, All of Life is Repentance, he makes a distinguishment between religious repentance and gospel repentance. 00:08:44.159 --> 00:08:50.320 I went back and read it this week and I pulled three kind of like summary points from the article I found insightful. 00:08:50.480 --> 00:08:57.120 First one was this religious repentance is sorry for sin because we want to avoid pain. 00:08:58.799 --> 00:09:04.240 So religious repentance is you feel pain because of what you did or what you thought. 00:09:04.399 --> 00:09:09.200 Your only motive for getting out of this is just, I just want to avoid my own pain. 00:09:09.440 --> 00:09:11.279 So that's incredibly self-centered. 00:09:11.360 --> 00:09:13.519 It really doesn't even have anything to do with God. 00:09:14.480 --> 00:09:20.559 But in the gospel, we know we're already forgiven in Christ, already righteous by Christ's righteousness. 00:09:20.799 --> 00:09:23.440 We don't have to atone for ourselves. 00:09:23.759 --> 00:09:32.639 We're called out of that amount of like navel gazing, our repentance, our repentance has part of honoring God. 00:09:32.799 --> 00:09:35.200 That we want to honor God, be faithful. 00:09:37.279 --> 00:09:48.320 The second point was religious repentance is motivated by fear of not being good enough for God. 00:09:49.039 --> 00:09:54.000 Religious repentance is motivated by fear of not being good enough for God. 00:09:54.720 --> 00:10:02.559 So religious repentance is just threatening, like you're living in a state of being threatened because you're not secure. 00:10:03.120 --> 00:10:21.600 Because either your entire life or part of your faith is about how well you perform as to be righteous, rather than the sufficiency of the cross for your full supply, abundant forgiveness, abundant and sufficient righteousness, so you're already secure. 00:10:21.840 --> 00:10:22.159 Alright? 00:10:22.240 --> 00:10:27.759 So that's your starting point: full security, full forgiveness, full righteousness, completely safe. 00:10:27.919 --> 00:10:29.120 That's your starting point. 00:10:29.360 --> 00:10:34.879 Now you don't have to religiously repent because you're like in fear or threatened. 00:10:36.559 --> 00:10:41.440 No, like we're coming more alive to the love of God while we repent. 00:10:42.480 --> 00:10:52.399 And repentance is a life that we live about honoring God, and our lives are becoming more godly to honor Him even while we're not perfect. 00:10:53.200 --> 00:10:56.000 So we'll cry more, but we'll laugh more. 00:10:56.720 --> 00:10:58.639 We'll cry more, but we'll laugh more. 00:10:58.960 --> 00:11:02.240 Keller writes this good few sentences kind of summarizing it. 00:11:03.440 --> 00:11:07.039 Our hope is in Christ's righteousness. 00:11:07.279 --> 00:11:09.120 Now there's that third point from the article. 00:11:09.360 --> 00:11:13.519 Our hope is in Christ's righteousness, not our own. 00:11:13.759 --> 00:11:18.080 So it is not so traumatic to admit our weaknesses and lapses. 00:11:18.320 --> 00:11:21.519 In religion, we repent less and less often. 00:11:21.759 --> 00:11:28.320 But the more accepted and loved in the gospel we feel, the more and more often we will be repenting. 00:11:32.080 --> 00:11:38.559 And though, of course, there is always some bitterness in any repentance, in the gospel there is ultimately a sweetness. 00:11:38.960 --> 00:11:43.360 This creates a radical new dynamic for personal growth. 00:11:44.159 --> 00:11:48.000 So a repentant life is not just a fully sorrowful life. 00:11:48.240 --> 00:11:50.480 Oh my gosh, what pastor's calling me in a repentant life. 00:11:50.559 --> 00:11:52.639 No, it's just becoming more self-aware. 00:11:52.720 --> 00:11:55.200 It's growing in awareness inside the kindness of God. 00:11:55.279 --> 00:12:03.679 And when we become aware of a thought or motive or something that's unhealthy, it's ungodly, it's sinful, that you know in the kindness of God that you get to repentant. 00:12:03.759 --> 00:12:05.919 And it can look like being in the car. 00:12:06.080 --> 00:12:08.960 It can look like as you put your head on the pillow at night. 00:12:09.120 --> 00:12:14.480 Maybe you have a morning routine, a morning practice of prayer and scripture reading. 00:12:14.639 --> 00:12:16.159 We have a confessional time in church. 00:12:16.240 --> 00:12:17.120 I don't know if you realize. 00:12:17.200 --> 00:12:17.919 We do that every week. 00:12:18.080 --> 00:12:18.879 You realize that? 00:12:19.039 --> 00:12:20.320 That's what that's for. 00:12:20.480 --> 00:12:24.879 It's for us to have a moment of repentance during our time of communion. 00:12:25.120 --> 00:12:25.919 Perfect time. 00:12:26.159 --> 00:12:31.200 Perfect time for us to use just that prayerful time to say, God, search me. 00:12:31.360 --> 00:12:32.639 Make me more aware. 00:12:32.960 --> 00:12:36.000 In your kindness, I want to repent. 00:12:36.399 --> 00:12:39.279 Those prayers look something like, God, thank you that you already love me. 00:12:39.440 --> 00:12:41.279 God, thank you, you already redeemed me. 00:12:41.519 --> 00:12:43.679 You already declare me righteous in Jesus. 00:12:43.759 --> 00:12:46.240 I'm just so tired of finding my worth and this or that. 00:12:46.320 --> 00:12:47.679 I'm so tired of being judgmental. 00:12:47.840 --> 00:12:49.039 I'm so tired of being angry. 00:12:49.120 --> 00:12:50.320 I'm so tired of being a jerk. 00:12:50.399 --> 00:12:51.360 I'm so tired of whatever. 00:12:51.519 --> 00:12:52.399 Like, forgive me. 00:12:52.559 --> 00:12:53.279 I repent. 00:12:53.440 --> 00:12:54.159 Help me. 00:12:54.399 --> 00:12:55.279 Thank you. 00:12:56.720 --> 00:13:05.919 So it's no surprise after talking about repentance, Jesus sort of like segues over and he launches into a parable about growth. 00:13:06.559 --> 00:13:09.039 Luke 13, verse 5. 00:13:11.279 --> 00:13:16.559 Now I tell you, but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish. 00:13:16.720 --> 00:13:18.240 In the verse 6. 00:13:18.960 --> 00:13:20.879 And he told this parable. 00:13:21.360 --> 00:13:24.399 A man had a fig tree planted in his vineyard. 00:13:24.559 --> 00:13:27.679 And he came seeking fruit on it and found none. 00:13:28.000 --> 00:13:34.559 And he said to the vine dresser, Look, for three years now I have come seeking fruit on this fig tree, and I find none. 00:13:34.720 --> 00:13:35.519 Cut it down. 00:13:35.679 --> 00:13:37.679 Why should it use up the ground? 00:13:37.919 --> 00:13:46.480 And he answered him, Sir, let it alone this year also, until I dig around it and put on manure. 00:13:46.639 --> 00:13:49.440 Then if it should bear fruit next year, well and good. 00:13:49.600 --> 00:13:51.919 But if not, you can cut it down. 00:13:52.639 --> 00:13:59.759 Point number three is this Jesus is patient with you to create fruit in your life. 00:14:00.559 --> 00:14:05.440 So the vineyard owner is God or the fig tree. 00:14:05.840 --> 00:14:07.200 The gardener is Jesus. 00:14:07.519 --> 00:14:11.279 And the owner says, Well, this tree's not producing fruit. 00:14:12.000 --> 00:14:13.759 I might as well cut it down. 00:14:14.879 --> 00:14:16.960 And this is where the gardener steps in. 00:14:17.200 --> 00:14:18.080 Verses 8 and 9. 00:14:18.159 --> 00:14:19.600 And Jesus says, No, no, no, no, no, no. 00:14:20.000 --> 00:14:21.519 Oh, that beat up tree. 00:14:22.080 --> 00:14:24.240 That beat up tree is having a hard time. 00:14:25.039 --> 00:14:28.960 The one that's broken down at the end of themselves, it looks like maybe it's not gonna work out. 00:14:29.200 --> 00:14:29.759 That one? 00:14:30.080 --> 00:14:33.120 Yeah, like I know that tree. 00:14:33.679 --> 00:14:35.279 I'm committed to that tree. 00:14:35.519 --> 00:14:37.759 So you hand the tree, hand that tree over to me. 00:14:37.919 --> 00:14:39.679 I'll take care of that tree. 00:14:42.000 --> 00:14:48.080 And we just live in the surrender and stillness to Jesus, the gardener, who works in our hearts and our lives. 00:14:48.480 --> 00:14:50.000 Beautiful imagery here. 00:14:50.159 --> 00:15:00.720 A gardener digging around a tree, like mulching around, loosening up those dead roots to promote area for new growth. 00:15:01.039 --> 00:15:19.519 Like we need that unearthing inside of us to still ourselves, to quiet ourselves in God's love, to allow the Holy Spirit to dig around in the unhealthy parts of our hearts, to unearth wounds and unearth motives, to unearth that like sin under the sin. 00:15:22.080 --> 00:15:22.720 We need that. 00:15:22.879 --> 00:15:29.200 We need the Holy Spirit to do that for the joy of more freedom, for the joy of for the joy of honoring God. 00:15:30.399 --> 00:15:36.559 When I was a little boy, I planted a dogwood tree with my dad in our front yard underneath several pine trees. 00:15:36.639 --> 00:15:37.120 Here's a picture. 00:15:37.200 --> 00:15:38.799 We went back and found some pictures. 00:15:38.960 --> 00:15:41.919 So there we are, just a little russ and a little sherry. 00:15:42.080 --> 00:15:44.799 See, you didn't make the you didn't make that noise. 00:15:47.440 --> 00:15:50.320 I mean, I like teed y'all up and nothing. 00:15:50.399 --> 00:16:00.720 I mean, so and that's my dad, and um, you know, the dogwood that's right behind us, I'm pretty sure that was not the dogwood because I remember it being down kind of there's a zalea over to the left. 00:16:01.039 --> 00:16:05.440 I remember it being just passed there over to the left. 00:16:05.679 --> 00:16:10.320 And I was always really surprised by just how much it didn't grow. 00:16:10.559 --> 00:16:13.360 Like I can remember that, like being a little boy and like planting it. 00:16:13.440 --> 00:16:17.840 I'm like, let's let's let's do that, like let's go, let's do this, let's let's see you grow. 00:16:18.159 --> 00:16:29.039 And um it did, like it just sat there a lot, um and just took a really long time to grow, and it did, but just took it was a really slow process. 00:16:29.200 --> 00:16:34.240 Here's another picture of our yard I found, and that's a gift to y'all to see me. 00:16:34.799 --> 00:16:44.960 Um, and also if you're 14, you know, and and you look something like that, just to know there's a future for you is good. 00:16:46.639 --> 00:16:48.159 It's just a gift. 00:16:48.879 --> 00:16:50.720 The point is the yard though. 00:16:50.960 --> 00:16:52.960 Um, the point's the yard. 00:16:53.120 --> 00:16:57.679 My dad worked in that yard uh just every day. 00:16:58.080 --> 00:17:06.160 He was in that yard every day caring for it, just so patiently caring for that yard, pruning and mulching. 00:17:06.960 --> 00:17:09.359 I was really curious what that yard looked like. 00:17:09.519 --> 00:17:12.880 So I Googled this week, and here's what it looks like right now. 00:17:13.200 --> 00:17:14.400 There's a picture of it. 00:17:15.440 --> 00:17:18.319 Yeah, I that's exactly how I felt. 00:17:18.559 --> 00:17:18.880 Right? 00:17:19.039 --> 00:17:22.480 Somebody has stripped it, right? 00:17:23.200 --> 00:17:28.559 Now, the people who live there are probably very nice people, right? 00:17:29.200 --> 00:17:30.720 I don't know, you could live there. 00:17:30.799 --> 00:17:31.680 I don't know, right? 00:17:31.759 --> 00:17:33.759 Like you're like, that's my house. 00:17:36.559 --> 00:17:40.160 They're probably, but you ain't a gardener. 00:17:44.160 --> 00:17:44.960 You're not. 00:17:45.119 --> 00:17:47.359 That's the one big difference, right? 00:17:48.240 --> 00:17:50.160 We know it from the pictures. 00:17:51.279 --> 00:17:59.039 From 35 years ago to right then, the difference is a gardener lived there. 00:17:59.519 --> 00:18:01.119 There was a gardener. 00:18:01.440 --> 00:18:03.680 My dad tended that yard. 00:18:04.000 --> 00:18:07.119 He pruned carefully, he mulched like verse 8. 00:18:07.359 --> 00:18:12.559 He unearthed around the base of plants and put down manure and fertilizer. 00:18:13.599 --> 00:18:21.200 The point of this parable is not that you will be fruitless and you will be cut down and you should be in fear. 00:18:21.359 --> 00:18:23.039 That is not the point of the parable. 00:18:24.640 --> 00:18:31.039 It's also not that you're gonna always be flourishing or that your repentant practices will be perfect. 00:18:31.119 --> 00:18:33.839 No, the point is about the gardener. 00:18:34.960 --> 00:18:39.759 The point is that the owner never has a chance to cut you down. 00:18:40.319 --> 00:18:51.119 That the owner never, never has a chance to disown you because you are his beloved, because of a gardener who's committed to you. 00:18:51.359 --> 00:18:53.839 Because Jesus is committed to you. 00:18:55.519 --> 00:18:59.359 Jesus' response to the owner was just a call for more grace. 00:18:59.519 --> 00:19:00.319 Give me more time. 00:19:00.880 --> 00:19:02.079 Give me more time. 00:19:02.480 --> 00:19:05.119 I can work with him, I can work with her. 00:19:06.559 --> 00:19:09.920 And in all the ways, our repentance is half-hearted. 00:19:10.400 --> 00:19:12.720 Because it is, it always is. 00:19:14.240 --> 00:19:17.680 The work of Jesus on the cross is always fully sufficient. 00:19:19.359 --> 00:19:24.079 Our sin put upon him who knew no sin that we might become the righteousness of God. 00:19:25.039 --> 00:19:27.279 The parable gives us exactly what we need to know. 00:19:27.440 --> 00:19:31.680 Very simply, this is just like kind of three gospel waves washing over us. 00:19:31.839 --> 00:19:35.599 Number one, accept the reality, you are not perfect. 00:19:35.839 --> 00:19:42.079 Performancism is a trap, and you are a sinner in need of God's abundant grace. 00:19:42.559 --> 00:19:49.359 Number two, live in astonishment of that grace and repentance of anything you become aware of. 00:19:50.000 --> 00:19:57.440 And number three, trust there is a gardener who cares for you even when you're having a hard time. 00:19:57.839 --> 00:19:58.799 Let's pray together. 00:19:59.599 --> 00:20:12.400 Heavenly Father, thank you for Jesus, who loves us so wonderfully, and who defends us, and who nourishes us. 00:20:12.720 --> 00:20:38.559 Help us to be so secure in Jesus and his forgiveness and righteousness to us that we might live more contemplative, more confessional, with increased repentance of collapsing on you in greater ways, because we are already your beloved and already secure. 00:20:40.640 --> 00:20:42.319 In Jesus' name we pray. 00:20:42.640 --> 00:20:43.279 Amen.