WEBVTT 00:00:00.880 --> 00:00:08.320 So uh we have we have some kiddos uh in here with us because it's holiday weekend. 00:00:08.480 --> 00:00:18.320 We give our children's ministry volunteers the Sunday off, which means we're only operating off of our Sunday workers, which means we welcome elementary school kids in here. 00:00:18.480 --> 00:00:20.399 So, parents, you can relax a little bit. 00:00:20.559 --> 00:00:23.120 There's no noise they can make that's gonna surprise me. 00:00:23.280 --> 00:00:27.359 I have children, they were younger, still have some young children, it's fine. 00:00:27.440 --> 00:00:28.320 They move around. 00:00:29.039 --> 00:00:29.600 I'm going. 00:00:36.479 --> 00:00:40.560 So if something happens and you need to walk out or whatever, that's fine, no worries. 00:00:40.799 --> 00:00:42.159 Also, kind of interesting. 00:00:42.320 --> 00:00:49.759 This morning we have a sermon switcheroo because we're supposed to cover the last three chapters of the book of Judges. 00:00:50.320 --> 00:00:55.679 Now, most of you have not read the last three chapters of the book of Judges, but especially chapter 19. 00:00:55.840 --> 00:01:07.840 Chapter 19 is known as the most vulgar chapter in the Bible, which is not problematic most Sundays, except the Sunday where there's elementary school children in the service. 00:01:07.920 --> 00:01:13.760 And so when Amy came on Wednesday, she's like, hey, remember there's elementary school kids in the service. 00:01:14.079 --> 00:01:19.519 I was like, Oh, um, all right, well, can I tell you like a few of the things that I'm gonna have to like say? 00:01:20.000 --> 00:01:22.959 Um, and she's like, Yeah, can't say that. 00:01:23.359 --> 00:01:26.560 I was like, Well, let me say, can't say that one, can't say that. 00:01:26.640 --> 00:01:30.239 I got to like 15 or 20, and it was like, it's not gonna work. 00:01:30.400 --> 00:01:32.319 Um, so sermon switch. 00:01:32.799 --> 00:01:35.439 So the sermon series are gonna start next week. 00:01:35.519 --> 00:01:36.400 Well, the next week. 00:01:36.560 --> 00:01:45.920 Next week is gonna be judges, the end of judges, and then this week is the beginning of Sermon on the Mount, and then we'll go back and cover the judges, which is so vulgar, it's just disgusting. 00:01:46.079 --> 00:01:46.879 Like, just wait. 00:01:46.959 --> 00:01:48.879 I mean, just pre-read it if you need to. 00:01:48.959 --> 00:01:54.560 It's just the most awful, horrendous Netflix series you could imagine, all in a chapter in the Bible. 00:01:54.640 --> 00:01:55.280 It's just awful. 00:01:55.439 --> 00:01:57.840 You've never heard a sermon on it, I can guarantee. 00:01:58.000 --> 00:01:58.879 Like, I haven't. 00:01:59.120 --> 00:01:59.599 I haven't. 00:01:59.760 --> 00:02:00.799 I'm like, I got to it. 00:02:00.879 --> 00:02:04.959 I'm like, this is why people don't preach through books of the Bible, is because you end up in stuff like this. 00:02:05.280 --> 00:02:06.480 You gotta figure it out. 00:02:06.640 --> 00:02:08.240 Um, but there's actually a good lesson. 00:02:08.400 --> 00:02:09.520 Anyways, all right, I'll stop there. 00:02:09.680 --> 00:02:13.840 The Sermon on the Mount is the core of Jesus' teaching. 00:02:14.479 --> 00:02:20.000 Some think it was one long sermon, other people think it's a collection, a summary of his teachings. 00:02:20.159 --> 00:02:20.719 Professor A. 00:02:20.879 --> 00:02:20.960 B. 00:02:21.120 --> 00:02:32.479 Bruce called it almost like a holiday summer school, like a condensed teaching of Jesus' teaching for us, kind of like the teachings on the hill, Jesus' prime teachings for us. 00:02:32.639 --> 00:02:41.599 And so, either way, whether it's a summary that's been put together or it was one kind of elongated sermon, it's here for us and it's really good for us. 00:02:41.680 --> 00:02:45.199 And so we're gonna jump in just after the Beatitudes. 00:02:45.599 --> 00:02:51.199 And so Matt read the passage, I'll reread it as we chat our way through it this morning. 00:02:51.439 --> 00:03:00.000 Matthew 5, 13 through 16, you are the salt of the earth, but if salt has lost its taste, how shall its saltiness be restored? 00:03:00.159 --> 00:03:04.400 It is no longer good for anything except to be thrown out and trampled under people's feet. 00:03:04.719 --> 00:03:06.080 You are the light of the world. 00:03:06.240 --> 00:03:14.719 A city set on a hill cannot be hidden, nor do people light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a stand, and it gives light to all in the house in the same way. 00:03:14.960 --> 00:03:22.879 Let your light shine before others so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven. 00:03:23.120 --> 00:03:27.039 So everybody would have known these items, salt and light, right? 00:03:27.120 --> 00:03:31.680 For these listeners of Jesus, salt was the preservation. 00:03:31.919 --> 00:03:35.840 You've probably been in church, you know this, the preservation of meat for these people. 00:03:36.000 --> 00:03:38.800 So it preserved, it preserved something for them. 00:03:38.879 --> 00:03:44.159 So Jesus is saying, you are the preservation, you are the preservation of people's hearts. 00:03:44.400 --> 00:03:46.879 And also you are light. 00:03:47.439 --> 00:03:55.439 When I was a little boy in my neighborhood, especially on summer evenings, right when it would get dark, we would play hide and seek. 00:03:55.599 --> 00:03:56.719 Perfect illustration for this morning. 00:03:56.879 --> 00:03:58.960 Elementary school kids, you can listen to the next five minutes. 00:03:59.039 --> 00:04:05.680 And we play hide and seek once it got dark out, and all of us would go hide, and then whoever was it had a wet sponge. 00:04:05.759 --> 00:04:15.520 And I don't know how that developed into it, but at some point that that's how you tagged the other person through this nasty wet sponge and got dirt all over it, all onto the other person. 00:04:15.680 --> 00:04:17.839 But we had to wait to play till it was dark out. 00:04:17.920 --> 00:04:24.000 That was the key because that you know that upped everything, the anticipation, the excitement, everything was so exciting. 00:04:24.160 --> 00:04:31.199 And that half acre lot of ours on Shannon Way, that thing at night, when I was a little boy, that was the size of a national park. 00:04:31.360 --> 00:04:32.639 That place was huge. 00:04:32.720 --> 00:04:34.480 There's so many hiding places. 00:04:34.720 --> 00:04:38.639 My favorite hiding place was over in the side yard. 00:04:38.720 --> 00:04:52.079 We lived on the corner of Shannon Way and Chris Circle, and it was on the Chris Circle side of the lot, and is where the English ivy came all the way up to the fence line, and then there were these trees with these long tree limbs that came down almost all the way down to the ivy. 00:04:52.319 --> 00:04:55.519 And you could climb under those tree limbs and you could nestle. 00:04:55.600 --> 00:05:08.160 I would nestle myself in that English ivy all the way up against the fence, and you just get so low down in there, and the limbs are all it was pitch black under there. 00:05:08.879 --> 00:05:12.720 And kids, y'all know what happens as soon as you hide, right? 00:05:13.199 --> 00:05:14.639 What you feel. 00:05:16.639 --> 00:05:18.639 What all of a sudden you have to do. 00:05:21.680 --> 00:05:22.319 You know. 00:05:22.720 --> 00:05:24.399 Does anybody want to say that? 00:05:26.480 --> 00:05:29.120 Your parents, some of your parents did it in their pants. 00:05:29.279 --> 00:05:32.319 They don't want to tell you, but it happened. 00:05:32.560 --> 00:05:33.920 They haven't confessed that yet. 00:05:34.000 --> 00:05:34.959 It's a safe space. 00:05:35.120 --> 00:05:37.439 Maybe later today they'll tell you, right? 00:05:37.680 --> 00:05:50.319 So you're in that dark place, you need to pee so bad you can't believe it because you're hiding, you're so excited, you're in the dark, maybe your hiding spot is under the bed, it's in the closet. 00:05:50.480 --> 00:05:58.800 And what always happens, we all know it, because we've all been in that hiding spot, is that light eventually breaks through, doesn't it? 00:05:59.040 --> 00:06:07.199 I mean, you can be in the darkest place in that closet, and that little bit of light comes from underneath that door and sneaks in. 00:06:07.519 --> 00:06:11.439 You can be under the bed, that light eventually starts to find its way back. 00:06:11.680 --> 00:06:19.360 I'd be nestled in that English ivy up against the fence, and the street light on Chris Circle would cut through all those branches. 00:06:20.240 --> 00:06:24.480 Because light always invades darkness. 00:06:24.720 --> 00:06:32.800 Now, these people listening to Jesus, they didn't have streetlights and they didn't have flashlights on their phone, which is incredible, right? 00:06:32.959 --> 00:06:36.879 I mean, all they had was the sun and they had fire, they had candles. 00:06:37.360 --> 00:06:42.240 But even then, always light illuminates and invades darkness. 00:06:42.399 --> 00:06:51.120 And Jesus is saying, you are the illumination by which cuts through and invades dark places. 00:06:51.680 --> 00:06:55.360 And then verse 16 is telling us, hey, do that. 00:06:55.920 --> 00:06:57.120 Like, do that. 00:06:57.920 --> 00:07:01.199 Do that with how you speak and how you live in this world. 00:07:01.360 --> 00:07:02.879 Now that's quite a calling. 00:07:03.040 --> 00:07:10.639 I mean, like, some of us can hear these verses and go, like, that season's up for me because you have no idea how I live for four years. 00:07:11.120 --> 00:07:11.439 Right? 00:07:11.600 --> 00:07:13.600 Or you don't know about the other day. 00:07:13.839 --> 00:07:17.120 And you don't know what I didn't do or what I should have done, right? 00:07:18.000 --> 00:07:19.759 That's quite a calling. 00:07:20.079 --> 00:07:21.120 Quite a calling. 00:07:21.439 --> 00:07:23.360 But there's also a promise here for us. 00:07:23.519 --> 00:07:24.480 Here's point number one. 00:07:24.720 --> 00:07:28.959 Our calling assault and light is a promise, then a mission. 00:07:29.600 --> 00:07:34.319 For too long, I related to this passage just about what I should do. 00:07:35.279 --> 00:07:42.160 And sort of like, I'm not quite that yet, but I need to be a little bit more, I'm not quite enough of a Christian to be like light enough. 00:07:42.319 --> 00:07:44.879 I need to be a little bit lighter to be light enough for the world. 00:07:44.959 --> 00:07:51.600 And sort of like sent me in this like performance checklist, be light enough for somebody else kind of spiral. 00:07:51.759 --> 00:07:53.839 But this isn't about that. 00:07:54.000 --> 00:07:58.160 This is Jesus primarily affirming us for who we are, right? 00:07:58.240 --> 00:08:00.399 That's why he says, you are light. 00:08:00.720 --> 00:08:02.000 You are soul. 00:08:04.399 --> 00:08:05.600 So be that. 00:08:06.480 --> 00:08:10.720 He never says you have to be perfect, he never says you have to pretend. 00:08:11.279 --> 00:08:18.399 He says, You are this, I deem you this, even as you're not always this. 00:08:18.560 --> 00:08:19.360 It's so interesting. 00:08:19.439 --> 00:08:31.680 This passage is wedged between the beatitudes, which we can sum up the context there, the beatitudes, which is saying, um, blessed are all of you who just can't get your acts together because you'll know God. 00:08:31.920 --> 00:08:32.240 Okay? 00:08:32.480 --> 00:08:33.679 That's what just came. 00:08:34.000 --> 00:08:37.919 That was the teaching that just showed up, and then he says, and you're salt and light. 00:08:38.080 --> 00:08:42.559 So blessed are all of you who can't get your acts together all the time because you'll know God. 00:08:43.120 --> 00:08:45.919 Like you'll finally be able to get that you need God. 00:08:46.559 --> 00:08:51.360 And now, because of that, you can be salt and light. 00:08:53.600 --> 00:09:00.480 The two friends that I look up to the most are being salt and light, and they they can be salty, mind you. 00:09:00.559 --> 00:09:01.120 They can't, really. 00:09:01.200 --> 00:09:03.360 In the modern sense, they can be salty. 00:09:03.600 --> 00:09:07.200 But they're the most honest and vulnerable people I know. 00:09:07.360 --> 00:09:09.840 I I just I can't surprise them. 00:09:10.399 --> 00:09:11.519 Is how I think about it. 00:09:11.600 --> 00:09:16.000 Like, I'll call them, it's like, hey, here's what I'm feeling, here's what happened, here, what should I do? 00:09:16.240 --> 00:09:17.519 I can't surprise them. 00:09:17.600 --> 00:09:18.720 It's so annoying. 00:09:18.799 --> 00:09:19.840 I can't surprise them. 00:09:19.919 --> 00:09:25.039 That just every time it's like, oh yeah, yeah, man, I know what that feels like. 00:09:25.200 --> 00:09:26.399 Yeah, me too. 00:09:26.559 --> 00:09:27.840 Yeah, I'm with you. 00:09:28.080 --> 00:09:29.120 I'm with you. 00:09:30.000 --> 00:09:31.120 Okay, okay. 00:09:31.279 --> 00:09:32.720 Let's let's let's talk about that. 00:09:32.879 --> 00:09:33.600 Let's pray for that. 00:09:33.679 --> 00:09:40.480 Yeah, and it's like, man, God, that's I mean, and that is that's preservation, that's elimination. 00:09:41.120 --> 00:09:44.080 And what they know is they really know those beatitudes. 00:09:44.639 --> 00:09:49.519 They really know what we're gonna look at in verses 17 through 20, that they are not their own savior. 00:09:49.759 --> 00:09:53.120 And they really need Jesus, and they have Jesus, and Jesus has them. 00:09:53.360 --> 00:10:00.559 They just keep siding on compassion and not judgment, which is also so annoying to me because I love to judge people, right? 00:10:00.639 --> 00:10:02.000 And so do you most of the time. 00:10:02.080 --> 00:10:05.200 We all do because it makes us feel so good about ourselves. 00:10:06.080 --> 00:10:10.720 But man, when I need truth and grace, I think about those two friends of mine. 00:10:10.799 --> 00:10:12.720 I think I need truth and grace. 00:10:13.519 --> 00:10:16.879 Like, they're not even close to perfect, these two guys. 00:10:17.360 --> 00:10:19.759 But man, are they salt and light for me? 00:10:20.240 --> 00:10:26.480 Point number two, freedom in our mission comes after embracing our radical acceptance in Christ. 00:10:26.639 --> 00:10:33.919 That's the context here going from Beatitudes into salt and light, and then even within the salt and light, he's saying, You are salt, you are light. 00:10:34.159 --> 00:10:43.919 So it's always bringing us back to the gospel of our radical acceptance in Jesus by his work for us, that God wants your heart before he wants your service. 00:10:45.919 --> 00:10:49.039 And if he has your heart, he'll have your service. 00:10:49.919 --> 00:10:54.480 But all of it is about doing with him, not doing for him. 00:10:56.639 --> 00:11:01.759 He already loves you, he already accepts you, and he already walks with you. 00:11:02.240 --> 00:11:10.799 So out of that affirmation of being salt and light, and out of that call to be salt and light, we get Matthew 5, 17 through 20. 00:11:11.120 --> 00:11:17.200 Do not think that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets, I have not come to abolish them, but to fulfill them. 00:11:17.360 --> 00:11:26.559 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. 00:11:26.720 --> 00:11:32.480 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 in heaven. 00:11:32.639 --> 00:11:35.919 But whoever does them and teaches them will be called great in the kingdom of heaven. 00:11:36.000 --> 00:11:42.559 For I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds the scribes and the Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. 00:11:42.799 --> 00:11:44.720 Man, this passage is like back and forth. 00:11:44.799 --> 00:11:53.120 I mean, it's like, all right, so law, who we should be, what we should do, all of it upholds to the fullest extent, and you should do it. 00:11:53.279 --> 00:12:02.799 And by the way, unless you're like the Pharisees who are like the most religious of the religious and the most righteous of the righteous, unless you're like them, and even more so, you don't have a shot. 00:12:02.960 --> 00:12:06.559 So he's like, upholds the law, and then he crushes us. 00:12:06.720 --> 00:12:08.639 Like all in the same passage. 00:12:09.600 --> 00:12:23.039 We also have law that's this, all that ceremonial religious stuff in the Old Testament, and we read it, and it's like ritual rules and sacrifices, and Jesus fulfilled all of that as the final priest and the final sacrifice. 00:12:24.639 --> 00:12:27.519 But law is also that standard of who we should be. 00:12:28.320 --> 00:12:40.559 Like be kind, be faithful, love other people, be moral, don't covet, be giving, be someone who honors God and loves people. 00:12:40.879 --> 00:12:44.080 It's like the shoulds of the Christian life. 00:12:44.960 --> 00:12:47.600 So law is good and we need law. 00:12:47.919 --> 00:12:48.720 We need it. 00:12:49.039 --> 00:12:52.320 Not an iota, not a God is relaxed. 00:12:52.559 --> 00:12:56.159 It tells us how life is best lived. 00:12:58.000 --> 00:13:04.559 So law can show us godliness, but it cannot deliver us to godliness. 00:13:04.960 --> 00:13:06.879 That's what Jesus is teaching us. 00:13:07.120 --> 00:13:10.720 Jesus actually uses a Sermon on the Mount to heighten the law, right? 00:13:10.799 --> 00:13:12.559 That's what we're gonna see in the coming weeks. 00:13:12.879 --> 00:13:16.480 He says stuff like, and you know it, like he says, like, oh, don't commit adultery. 00:13:16.639 --> 00:13:20.399 It's not just don't commit adultery, don't even lust. 00:13:20.559 --> 00:13:22.399 I mean, he heightens it. 00:13:23.440 --> 00:13:28.799 Jesus equates motives in our hearts with our behavior. 00:13:29.279 --> 00:13:31.120 Just devastating, isn't it? 00:13:31.200 --> 00:13:36.399 Isn't that just devastating if you've ever wanted to use your behavior to feel righteous? 00:13:36.960 --> 00:13:38.799 To come into touch with that. 00:13:39.360 --> 00:13:44.080 I mean, then we have no shot of like really living self-righteously. 00:13:44.480 --> 00:13:50.399 So the law guides and then the law drives us to our need of God's grace and Jesus. 00:13:51.519 --> 00:13:55.679 So when he says he fulfills the law, he fulfilled all that ceremonial stuff. 00:13:55.759 --> 00:13:56.240 That's all over. 00:13:56.399 --> 00:13:58.159 Final priest, final sacrifice. 00:13:58.799 --> 00:14:03.519 But he also lived the godly life that we just don't quite pull off. 00:14:04.399 --> 00:14:07.519 And we need a righteousness outside of ourselves. 00:14:08.399 --> 00:14:14.799 This week, Christy and I drove down to Vinings for date night, and we drove by some like super nice homes. 00:14:14.879 --> 00:14:20.399 So we'll always go out to eat and then to like buy a little bit more time so our children are bathed at least by the time we get home. 00:14:20.480 --> 00:14:21.440 Y'all know that trick. 00:14:21.600 --> 00:14:38.720 Uh like we drove through some neighborhoods and we drove through some like really incredible homes and like some really nice cars, and like and there's a just as little bit of me, like there's is, it's just as bit of me, it's just like things like man, like then, right? 00:14:38.879 --> 00:14:40.320 Like then I will be. 00:14:40.559 --> 00:14:43.039 Like, if only then I would be. 00:14:43.200 --> 00:14:47.039 Like if I could have that, then it would be, which is so silly. 00:14:47.279 --> 00:14:48.879 Like it's so silly. 00:14:49.279 --> 00:15:02.399 We actually used to live down there and um like we had to like save all of our money, like it works, uh just get like the smallest house in that area, and somebody said to us, Well, we all have to start somewhere. 00:15:06.639 --> 00:15:09.440 So that was our status there. 00:15:11.679 --> 00:15:14.879 I have a nicer car now than I had when I was 16. 00:15:15.120 --> 00:15:18.399 I had a 1985, like beat-up four-wheel drive truck. 00:15:18.480 --> 00:15:18.799 You know what? 00:15:18.879 --> 00:15:20.240 I'm no happier now. 00:15:20.639 --> 00:15:21.360 I'm not. 00:15:21.519 --> 00:15:22.960 I think about that truck all the time. 00:15:23.120 --> 00:15:32.480 If I could find that truck, it's probably like in Honduras somewhere, if I could find it, I would buy it and ship it home and drive it every day. 00:15:34.080 --> 00:15:35.919 And Christy has a nicer car than me. 00:15:36.080 --> 00:15:38.960 When I drive it, I'm no happier in her car than I am in mine. 00:15:40.559 --> 00:15:41.519 I'm not. 00:15:42.000 --> 00:15:43.120 Isn't it silly? 00:15:43.279 --> 00:15:47.840 The law of the world, even the law of the world is endless and exhausting. 00:15:48.960 --> 00:15:55.919 Instagram has me figured out because all I follow is national parks and five fishermen and bears. 00:15:56.000 --> 00:15:57.120 Like that's it. 00:15:57.440 --> 00:15:59.039 And so they have me figured out. 00:15:59.120 --> 00:16:09.039 And so all the ads are just the most beautiful adventure travel and gear from Orvis and like refurbished airstreams. 00:16:09.759 --> 00:16:13.360 And I just it's so it's just devastating because I love it all. 00:16:13.600 --> 00:16:15.840 I just absolutely love it all. 00:16:16.000 --> 00:16:17.919 Like, I'll just pause and look at it. 00:16:18.159 --> 00:16:20.480 Like, it's like, man, that really would do it. 00:16:20.720 --> 00:16:25.120 Like everything else hadn't done it, but I'm pretty sure that airstream would do it. 00:16:25.279 --> 00:16:26.399 It's just awful, isn't it? 00:16:26.480 --> 00:16:29.120 It's just all awful how much we love it, right? 00:16:29.519 --> 00:16:32.960 It's like we've been talking about these idols of our hearts. 00:16:33.279 --> 00:16:38.639 How we trick ourselves to think if we only had a little bit more money, more house, more influence, more beauty, more experience. 00:16:38.879 --> 00:16:41.120 How ourselves together a little bit more. 00:16:41.279 --> 00:16:43.360 We're all looking for perfection. 00:16:45.279 --> 00:16:48.960 To be a perfect person, have a perfect life, to be a perfect Christian. 00:16:50.559 --> 00:16:55.360 To be a perfect parent, perfect student, a perfect body, perfect employee, perfect preacher. 00:16:55.679 --> 00:16:59.519 That's not to say we shouldn't try to be good. 00:17:01.120 --> 00:17:02.639 But we'll never have the perfection. 00:17:02.720 --> 00:17:03.440 That's exhausting. 00:17:03.759 --> 00:17:05.119 Perfection is for God. 00:17:05.599 --> 00:17:09.200 It is the law that always puts us to work. 00:17:10.240 --> 00:17:12.400 It guides us, but then it crushes us. 00:17:12.640 --> 00:17:15.759 And this is, of course, is true in faith because we felt it. 00:17:16.000 --> 00:17:27.839 I mean, if all we did was stay in the salt and light passage and didn't remember the Beatitudes and didn't read on to verses 17 through 20 and just thought all you were supposed to do, your whole faith, was just about being salt and light, it'd be absolutely exhausting. 00:17:29.519 --> 00:17:33.519 I don't even think you'd be all that like good for the world. 00:17:33.759 --> 00:17:35.599 What message would you actually have? 00:17:35.920 --> 00:17:47.359 The message we have is blessed are those who don't have their whole acts together because you'll understand you need God and Christ is enough for us so we can be salt and light. 00:17:49.920 --> 00:17:52.960 Here's how Paul makes sense of this when he writes to the Galatians. 00:17:53.200 --> 00:17:59.599 Galatians were people who came to know the gospel and then went back into performance faith by ritual and rules and all that kind of stuff. 00:17:59.759 --> 00:18:02.960 Here's what he says to them Galatians 3, 23 through 26. 00:18:03.119 --> 00:18:11.839 Now, before faith came, we were held captive under the law, imprisoned under the coming faith would be revealed. 00:18:12.160 --> 00:18:15.119 Imprisoned until the coming faith would be revealed. 00:18:15.440 --> 00:18:21.359 So then the law was our guardian until Christ came, in order that we might be justified by faith. 00:18:21.599 --> 00:18:25.359 But now that faith has come, we are no longer under a guardian. 00:18:25.519 --> 00:18:30.640 For in Christ Jesus you are all sons of God through faith. 00:18:32.160 --> 00:18:40.079 This morning, while you're deemed and called to be saw and light, what I'm wondering is, is what is the what does the Savior's voice sound like to you? 00:18:41.440 --> 00:18:45.359 Is God's voice demanding and disappointing? 00:18:46.799 --> 00:18:49.519 Is his voice law and more law? 00:18:50.480 --> 00:18:56.079 Or is God's voice accepting and affirming and empowering and calling? 00:18:56.880 --> 00:18:58.559 Is his voice law? 00:19:00.240 --> 00:19:01.519 And then grace. 00:19:01.920 --> 00:19:06.240 One of my favorite preachers, Paul Walker in Charlottesville, he said this about this passage. 00:19:06.480 --> 00:19:15.519 Those who belong to his sheep and hear his voice find a kind of sweet relief in being recognized for who and what we are. 00:19:15.759 --> 00:19:19.839 It's like going to the doctor and getting an accurate diagnosis of your illness. 00:19:20.079 --> 00:19:22.559 At least you know what you're dealing with. 00:19:22.720 --> 00:19:26.559 And this good shepherd also happens to be the great physician. 00:19:26.720 --> 00:19:33.119 For if the voice of the law is the wound, then the voice of grace is the healing salve. 00:19:34.079 --> 00:19:36.960 This week I heard Ann Lamont on the Tim Ferris podcast. 00:19:37.039 --> 00:19:38.720 She's a Christian faith writer. 00:19:38.960 --> 00:19:40.240 She's an ex-addic. 00:19:40.319 --> 00:19:43.119 She cusses like a sailor, and she's a Sunday school teacher. 00:19:43.200 --> 00:19:45.680 So you can't put her in a box, and you may not even like her. 00:19:45.839 --> 00:19:50.640 But I listened to her for two hours, and then I listened to it again for another two hours. 00:19:51.119 --> 00:19:56.240 Because she begins with the belief that we're all beautiful in God's image. 00:19:57.440 --> 00:20:01.440 And we're all imperfect, and like underneath, we're pretty much just all a mess. 00:20:02.319 --> 00:20:08.160 And I and you, Billy Graham, and the cousin that you don't you can't even talk about because of your cousin, right? 00:20:08.240 --> 00:20:11.599 Like that cousin, you can't believe what they're still doing, right? 00:20:11.759 --> 00:20:15.440 Like all of us, all of us are in need of God's help. 00:20:16.000 --> 00:20:23.680 And she said, Grace is amazing like this, it meets us exactly where we are, and then it tricks us because it doesn't leave us there. 00:20:23.920 --> 00:20:28.160 And here's what she says Grace meets you exactly where you are. 00:20:28.240 --> 00:20:29.279 And we could say Jesus. 00:20:29.359 --> 00:20:30.400 We can go ahead and just say that. 00:20:30.559 --> 00:20:31.440 We'll take that step. 00:20:31.680 --> 00:20:33.359 Jesus meets you exactly where you are. 00:20:33.599 --> 00:20:44.240 At your most pathetic and hopeless, and it loads you into its wheelbarrow and then tips you out somewhere else in ever so slightly better shape. 00:20:45.759 --> 00:21:09.359 See, the Holy Spirit in you will use the wealth, the wealth of your security in Christ, and his sufficiency for you to welcome you and affirm you with such lavish, ridiculous, radical assurance that you can risk loving somebody. 00:21:11.039 --> 00:21:13.519 That you could risk speaking truth. 00:21:14.400 --> 00:21:17.920 That you could risk being vulnerable to somebody. 00:21:18.319 --> 00:21:20.000 I mean, that's what the world needs. 00:21:21.359 --> 00:21:26.319 That that sort of gospel that's that assuring and empowering. 00:21:26.960 --> 00:21:31.200 Three contemplative questions for us for growth and grace as I close. 00:21:32.000 --> 00:21:34.079 What should in faith? 00:21:35.839 --> 00:21:38.000 What should, like the thing you should do? 00:21:38.079 --> 00:21:39.279 You always think you should do it. 00:21:39.359 --> 00:21:46.240 What should in faith or should in the world does your heart use to feel like you are finally enough? 00:21:47.519 --> 00:21:50.160 So that would be a movement out of law. 00:21:50.720 --> 00:21:54.880 To recognize what law do you use to be your salvation. 00:21:55.680 --> 00:22:06.720 Number two, what message do you hear more loudly in your heart than the Holy Spirit reminding you of your acceptance with God through the gospel? 00:22:07.680 --> 00:22:10.000 That would be a movement toward peace, wouldn't it? 00:22:10.160 --> 00:22:17.839 To be able to recognize what is the message in your heart you keep hearing more loudly than your radical acceptance with God. 00:22:18.880 --> 00:22:30.799 And number three, what might a freer and lighter you, so free of laws of enslavement and the light of grace, what might that look like to those around you? 00:22:31.279 --> 00:22:36.079 Because that would be a movement for us of being salt and light. 00:22:36.240 --> 00:22:37.119 Let's pray together. 00:22:37.440 --> 00:22:44.000 God, thank you for your grace and mercy to us that not only do you call us, but you affirm us. 00:22:44.880 --> 00:22:47.680 That we're not just called, but we're already yours. 00:22:48.559 --> 00:22:55.119 That you call us salt and light before you call us to be an act of salt and light. 00:22:56.480 --> 00:23:06.720 Thank you that you radically accept us, radically affirm us, and assure us in the great sufficiency that you are the fulfiller of the law. 00:23:06.960 --> 00:23:20.480 And in all the ways that we fail to be who we should be in front of you, and we should be in all those ways that in your grace you fully are that for us, and so we are forgiven and fully righteous in the gospel. 00:23:21.599 --> 00:23:37.039 May that be such rescuing truth for us that our hearts are revolutionized to be more in awe of you and to respond in greater love for you and greater love and compassion for our neighbor. 00:23:37.200 --> 00:23:38.559 In Jesus' name we pray. 00:23:38.799 --> 00:23:39.359 Amen.