WEBVTT 00:00:00.400 --> 00:00:01.360 Well, good morning. 00:00:01.520 --> 00:00:04.000 So we're continuing our way in the season of Lent. 00:00:04.080 --> 00:00:06.320 So if you remember, we talked about it last week. 00:00:06.400 --> 00:00:08.240 We were taking a break from the book of Joshua. 00:00:08.400 --> 00:00:11.839 We're gonna work our way through different passages to the season of Lent. 00:00:12.000 --> 00:00:15.679 Lent is the season of 40 days leading up to Easter. 00:00:15.759 --> 00:00:18.960 It mirrors the 40 days that Jesus was in the wilderness. 00:00:19.120 --> 00:00:27.519 I was reminded this week, thank you, uh Lindsay Williams, she reminded me that Sundays are actually not counted in those 40 days leading up to Easter and Lent. 00:00:27.600 --> 00:00:32.719 And this kind of escaped me because I grew up in a church that we didn't talk about different church seasons. 00:00:32.880 --> 00:00:34.159 And so that escaped me. 00:00:34.320 --> 00:00:36.719 Sundays during the season of Lent are called feast days. 00:00:36.880 --> 00:00:57.200 And so these passages given to us during the season of Lent are designed for us to contemplate more and more, greater and greater, the gift of Jesus and to feast on him, to feast on the lavish, lavish love that God has for us and we know in Christ Jesus. 00:00:57.439 --> 00:01:01.759 So that's the point of all these different Jesus stories building us up to Easter. 00:01:02.000 --> 00:01:05.840 Last fall, Christy and I went out to eat with a mentor couple of ours. 00:01:06.239 --> 00:01:09.120 The mentor couple, they sent us the name of the restaurant. 00:01:09.680 --> 00:01:15.040 We didn't recognize the name of it, so it sent us the name of the restaurant, and she said it's nice, but it's casual. 00:01:15.280 --> 00:01:16.959 So, okay, middle note on that. 00:01:17.040 --> 00:01:20.560 And so we were gonna have a full day and we were gonna be out hiking that day. 00:01:20.640 --> 00:01:22.719 Uh so we threw some clothes in the car. 00:01:22.959 --> 00:01:34.400 We changed in a bank parking lot on the way to the restaurant because that's the kind of respectable people we are, and we show up at the restaurant uh in jeans and a top. 00:01:34.560 --> 00:01:39.040 Well, I have on like men don't wear tops, I have on a like a button. 00:01:39.439 --> 00:01:46.719 My wife has on a top, uh, but jeans and just like a shirt, and we show up and it's nice. 00:01:46.879 --> 00:01:55.760 I mean, it's not jeans, like it's it is fancy, schmancy white tablecloth, preset courses. 00:01:55.840 --> 00:02:06.560 There are no prices on the menu, and we are looking like chilies, and we're very nervous, we're very nervous on the sidewalk looking in. 00:02:06.799 --> 00:02:09.919 And we're nervous because we're sort of wondering, we're Christy's mortified. 00:02:10.000 --> 00:02:16.000 I'm nervous, she's mortified, because we're nervous because we don't look like we should belong here. 00:02:16.400 --> 00:02:19.199 And we probably don't belong there, actually, is the truth. 00:02:19.280 --> 00:02:22.400 Uh, but we're wondering, like, like, will they let us in? 00:02:22.479 --> 00:02:25.840 I mean, I'm having a conversation with her, like, do you think they have a jacket requirement? 00:02:26.080 --> 00:02:28.879 Because it looks like a place that could have a jacket requirement. 00:02:29.039 --> 00:02:29.919 I'm not sure what I'm gonna do. 00:02:30.000 --> 00:02:31.919 I'm home with a jacket, maybe they have a jacket for me. 00:02:32.000 --> 00:02:33.039 I don't know how it's gonna work. 00:02:33.199 --> 00:02:44.000 So I we muster up all the confidence that we can just put on to walk up to the hostess and say, you know, we're with this party, and and and the hostess is nothing but welcoming. 00:02:44.319 --> 00:02:48.400 Doesn't say a word to us on the fact that we look like the dumpiest people in the place. 00:02:48.639 --> 00:02:55.120 She walks us straight through the restaurant, she seats us at our table, and here's the thing nobody cared. 00:02:55.599 --> 00:03:02.800 Not a single time, not not a not a server, not a you know, a hostess, not another person in the restaurant. 00:03:02.960 --> 00:03:04.479 Nobody looked at us. 00:03:04.719 --> 00:03:05.599 Nobody cared. 00:03:05.759 --> 00:03:08.560 Not one single time were we treated with judgment. 00:03:09.039 --> 00:03:11.759 Wouldn't it be wonderful if church was like that, number one, right? 00:03:11.919 --> 00:03:13.199 That'd be great. 00:03:13.439 --> 00:03:20.319 But here's the point we expected condemnation, but all we received was acceptance. 00:03:20.719 --> 00:03:33.919 This is actually what we see in this passage, this John passage Brian read for us, and we're gonna read some and talk some and read some and talk some to work our way through it, because Nicodemus is coming here with these questions about what does he need to do? 00:03:34.159 --> 00:03:37.840 You know, because surely he can't just be accepted, like by grace. 00:03:38.000 --> 00:03:39.759 Surely he needs to do something. 00:03:40.000 --> 00:03:44.479 So he's expecting condemnation, but all he's all he's gonna receive is love. 00:03:45.039 --> 00:03:46.400 John 3, 1 through 8. 00:03:46.479 --> 00:03:49.840 I'll reread what Brian read for us just for it to get ingrained into us. 00:03:50.000 --> 00:03:54.560 Now there was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews. 00:03:55.120 --> 00:04:04.400 This man came to Jesus by night and said to him, Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher from God, for no one can do these signs that you do unless God's with them. 00:04:04.639 --> 00:04:10.240 Jesus answered, Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. 00:04:10.639 --> 00:04:14.960 Nicodemus said to him, How can a man be born when he's old? 00:04:15.280 --> 00:04:18.560 Can he enter a second time into his mother's womb and be born? 00:04:18.800 --> 00:04:25.920 Jesus answered, Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. 00:04:26.639 --> 00:04:31.199 That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the spirit is spirit. 00:04:31.360 --> 00:04:40.480 Do not marvel that I said to you, you must be born again, the wind blows where it wishes, and you hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes or where it goes. 00:04:40.720 --> 00:04:44.639 So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit. 00:04:46.480 --> 00:04:57.120 So point number one is this our faith, Christian faith, is one of relationship and new birth, not religion and new rules. 00:04:57.360 --> 00:04:58.240 So, what does that mean? 00:04:58.399 --> 00:05:02.879 Well, Nicodemus, this guy's a religious leader, he's a man of the law. 00:05:03.279 --> 00:05:11.519 He's showing up, he has led a life of law, which means, you know, eat the right things, drink the right things, do the right things, and then you'll be accepted by God. 00:05:11.680 --> 00:05:16.800 So that would be the way of religion, obey and then be accepted. 00:05:17.360 --> 00:05:19.680 And Jesus is saying, no, no, no, no, it's not how it works. 00:05:19.920 --> 00:05:21.439 Works the other way around. 00:05:21.759 --> 00:05:29.439 By God's grace, the gospel is that you are accepted in Jesus, therefore you obey. 00:05:31.519 --> 00:05:33.920 For the past year I've been watching the sitcom Parks and Rec. 00:05:34.079 --> 00:05:35.759 Do you have any Parks and Rec people? 00:05:35.920 --> 00:05:38.240 If you if you're a Parks and Rec person, you're a Parks and Rec. 00:05:38.480 --> 00:05:40.079 It's a silly sitcom if you don't know it. 00:05:40.160 --> 00:05:41.120 It's a silly sitcom. 00:05:41.519 --> 00:05:43.519 I watch it every, you want to talk about religion. 00:05:43.680 --> 00:05:46.079 I watch it every night. 00:05:46.319 --> 00:05:48.319 I watch either one or two episodes. 00:05:48.399 --> 00:05:53.839 It's just a good way to like, you know, life's hard, and I just need to end the day with just laughing a little bit. 00:05:53.920 --> 00:05:58.800 And so every night I watch one or two of these and sort of laugh and then, you know, go get in bed. 00:05:58.879 --> 00:06:02.560 And it's silly, and I've become very loyal to Ron Swanson. 00:06:02.639 --> 00:06:04.959 I'm a huge Ron Swanson fan at this point in my life. 00:06:05.120 --> 00:06:09.360 The show revolves around, in case you don't know, the show revolves around Leslie Nove, who's there in the middle. 00:06:09.600 --> 00:06:11.040 So the show revolves around here. 00:06:11.120 --> 00:06:13.199 She's she's the leader of this whole group. 00:06:13.279 --> 00:06:17.120 Like she's the boss of most of them, but she's the leader of the entire group. 00:06:17.279 --> 00:06:21.600 She guides them, she bosses them around at times. 00:06:22.160 --> 00:06:28.639 So last Thursday, I'm watching my two episodes per day, my evening devotion of Parts and Reg. 00:06:28.879 --> 00:06:33.759 And so I'm watching, and it's the episode, I think, I think I'm in season five, and I'm lapping it, by the way. 00:06:33.839 --> 00:06:39.040 Like I'm like my third time through, so that's how bad this has become. 00:06:39.279 --> 00:06:44.160 And so it's the episode in season five where Leslie gets married. 00:06:44.399 --> 00:06:47.439 No plot spoils here, she gets married, you know, that's it. 00:06:47.519 --> 00:06:49.120 I won't ruin it any more than that. 00:06:49.199 --> 00:06:56.800 She gets married, her friends, these people, her employees who become devoted friends, throw her her wedding. 00:06:57.279 --> 00:07:06.879 And it's really sweet, and they sing this cheesy song together, and right before the song, Andy, who's a total goofball, he says, you know, if it weren't for Leslie, none of us would be here. 00:07:07.040 --> 00:07:09.759 And like I actually start to like tear, I actually start to tear up. 00:07:09.839 --> 00:07:12.879 Has anybody else you just went let I've cried during Parks and Rec. 00:07:13.040 --> 00:07:13.920 Has anybody else cried? 00:07:14.160 --> 00:07:20.000 During Park, there's a couple episodes they play a Willie Nelson song, and I'm like, oh man, like I'm falling out. 00:07:20.399 --> 00:07:22.160 Well, I start to tear up a little bit. 00:07:22.240 --> 00:07:26.959 And so there's three episodes I tear up in a Parks and Rec every time they come through. 00:07:27.279 --> 00:07:35.439 And Thursday night I started to tear up, and the reason why is because of this amount of devotion and loyalty and friendship. 00:07:36.000 --> 00:07:41.839 And what's interesting is like she's the leader of this whole group, but that's not why they have this loyalty, is it? 00:07:42.079 --> 00:07:42.720 Right? 00:07:43.519 --> 00:07:44.319 No, no, no. 00:07:44.560 --> 00:07:49.199 It's because she loves them lavishly, like throughout the show, if you watch the show. 00:07:49.360 --> 00:07:59.600 I mean, it's almost like to the point they make it comical because she's just over the top, lavishing love about how smart they are, how beautiful they are, how you know incredible they are, their future they have. 00:07:59.680 --> 00:08:03.519 Like every character, she has lavish love for them in a very particular way. 00:08:03.680 --> 00:08:06.959 And what it does, it endears them to herself. 00:08:08.000 --> 00:08:16.720 So Parson Reck this week was just another reminder of how lavish love going out endears someone back to you. 00:08:18.160 --> 00:08:18.480 Right? 00:08:18.560 --> 00:08:29.040 And that's the point here is the loving regard of the one relating to you will completely define how you do what you do or what you do in general. 00:08:30.879 --> 00:08:36.159 And so this idea that lavish unconditional love creates new life. 00:08:37.759 --> 00:08:39.759 I love this imagery here of new birth. 00:08:39.919 --> 00:08:41.679 In verse 5, there's that passage. 00:08:43.039 --> 00:08:44.799 We're born of water and spirit. 00:08:44.879 --> 00:08:48.639 So we're born in the physical, but we have to be born in the spiritual. 00:08:48.960 --> 00:08:54.559 And even the word water is the idea, it's the imagery of procreation and new life. 00:08:54.879 --> 00:09:07.759 And Jesus is saying is like, yeah, we are born into the world physically, but we also need to have a birth, a new birth, a rebirth, born again, coming into an awareness of our need. 00:09:09.120 --> 00:09:16.080 And that God has lavish love for us and all of our brokenness, all of our sin, all of our imperfection. 00:09:16.639 --> 00:09:19.679 Nicodemus has a few questions about this, picking up in verse 9. 00:09:19.759 --> 00:09:22.879 Nicodemus said to him, How can these things be? 00:09:23.440 --> 00:09:28.080 Jesus answered him, Are you the teacher of Israel, and yet you do not understand these things? 00:09:28.480 --> 00:09:36.000 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. 00:09:36.240 --> 00:09:41.519 If I have told you earthly things and you do not believe, how can you believe if I tell you heavenly things? 00:09:41.919 --> 00:09:46.960 No one has ascended into heaven except he who has descended from heaven, the Son of Man. 00:09:47.200 --> 00:09:58.080 And as Moses lifted up the serpent, this is kind of key in this passage, as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up that whoever believes in him may have eternal life. 00:09:58.159 --> 00:10:07.120 For God so loved the world that he gave his only son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. 00:10:07.759 --> 00:10:22.720 So point number two is this the temptation, your temptation, my temptation, all of us, is to provide your own justification rather than resting in Christ Jesus for it. 00:10:23.679 --> 00:10:35.519 So justification meaning your worth, your absolution, forgiveness of sin, your righteousness before God, your belovedness, your justification. 00:10:35.679 --> 00:10:45.840 The temptation is to justify yourself in this world, by yourself, by this world, but not to say, I can't do it. 00:10:46.080 --> 00:10:48.000 I need grace, I need outside help. 00:10:48.080 --> 00:10:50.480 I need to look to someone else. 00:10:51.759 --> 00:10:56.399 And so that's why this passage, verse 14, Jesus tells a story about to Nicodemus about this. 00:10:56.480 --> 00:10:57.519 It's a weird story, right? 00:10:57.600 --> 00:10:58.799 It comes from the book of Numbers. 00:10:58.960 --> 00:11:03.039 The Israelites are attacked by these serpents, and people have died. 00:11:03.120 --> 00:11:06.240 The people come to Moses and say, Hey, Moses, figure this out. 00:11:06.399 --> 00:11:08.080 Go to God, figure this out, let us know. 00:11:08.159 --> 00:11:10.639 How are we gonna dying? 00:11:10.720 --> 00:11:14.240 Help us, and God commands Moses and say, make a bronze serpent. 00:11:14.320 --> 00:11:17.919 Put the bronze serpent on a pole, put the pole up in the community. 00:11:18.159 --> 00:11:23.759 Anybody who gets bit of the serpent can go and can look at the pole, look at the serpent, and they'll be healed. 00:11:23.919 --> 00:11:25.600 Strange, strange story. 00:11:25.840 --> 00:11:27.440 Really weird story. 00:11:28.000 --> 00:11:42.480 But the point is that God gives us picture after picture in the history of Israel of what the Messiah would come to do, what Jesus comes to do, and that is to rescue us from the toil of looking to ourselves. 00:11:43.919 --> 00:11:55.200 But to look to Him, to look outside of yourself to an outside rescue for eternal life and wholeness, for salvation, to be born again. 00:11:56.480 --> 00:12:06.399 It comes from a looking past justification by your own means and to justification by faith through grace. 00:12:06.639 --> 00:12:08.399 By grace through faith. 00:12:09.039 --> 00:12:10.720 John 3, 17. 00:12:10.879 --> 00:12:18.159 For God did not send his son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. 00:12:18.559 --> 00:12:28.240 Last point the word of law eventually crushes, but the promise of God is forever acceptance and righteousness in Christ. 00:12:28.559 --> 00:12:36.879 So that word condemned means to be put under, separated from joy, separated from life, separated from peace. 00:12:38.559 --> 00:12:44.720 It's the playlist that uh just keeps rolling over and over and over again. 00:12:45.919 --> 00:12:48.960 For almost all of humanity, the playlist is the same. 00:12:49.120 --> 00:12:50.399 I'm not enough. 00:12:51.279 --> 00:12:53.120 I can save you a lot of money on therapy. 00:12:53.200 --> 00:12:53.519 That's it. 00:12:53.600 --> 00:12:54.799 That's your question. 00:12:55.120 --> 00:12:56.320 Am I enough? 00:12:57.600 --> 00:12:58.879 Am I enough? 00:12:59.279 --> 00:13:01.360 And that's a playlist of condemnation. 00:13:01.440 --> 00:13:05.279 I'm not enough, or I am that mistake that was made, or I will never be. 00:13:05.360 --> 00:13:06.320 It's all tied back. 00:13:06.559 --> 00:13:07.679 Am I enough? 00:13:09.279 --> 00:13:16.639 And then we go and we use all sorts of performance or escapism to get away from that question because we don't know the answer to it. 00:13:18.320 --> 00:13:32.639 And so it's so easy to move into performance in the world or performance in religion, trying to do enough, form a law, meet a law, form a law, meet a law, and if I accumulate enough achievement, then I'm enough. 00:13:33.919 --> 00:13:41.600 But eventually we realize that religion and rules in the world or in church, they can never deliver us. 00:13:43.279 --> 00:13:49.039 500 years ago, the reformer Martin Luther, he said this when he preached on this chapter, this same passage. 00:13:49.120 --> 00:13:50.799 This is what he said in his sermon. 00:13:51.039 --> 00:13:53.279 500 years ago, listen how relevant this is. 00:13:54.080 --> 00:13:57.759 This is how human nature is just always the same everywhere we go. 00:13:58.480 --> 00:14:03.919 There are laws enough in the world, more than people can keep. 00:14:04.240 --> 00:14:11.279 The state, fathers and mothers, schoolmasters and law enforcement persons all exist to rule according to laws. 00:14:11.919 --> 00:14:18.080 But the Lord Christ says, I have not come to judge, to bite, to grumble, and to condemn people. 00:14:18.399 --> 00:14:20.720 The world is too much condemned. 00:14:21.360 --> 00:14:24.720 Therefore, I will not rule my people with laws. 00:14:25.200 --> 00:14:38.960 I have come that through my ministry and my death I may give help to all who are lost and may release and set free those who are overburdened with laws, with judgments, and with condemnation. 00:14:41.039 --> 00:14:43.919 The way of Jesus is simply a different way. 00:14:44.080 --> 00:14:48.080 It is not obey and then be accepted, is you are accepted by grace. 00:14:48.240 --> 00:14:50.399 Therefore, obey. 00:14:51.440 --> 00:14:59.360 So that default tape that plays over and over again, that playlist of condemnation, can stop. 00:14:59.679 --> 00:15:00.879 So let's play a game. 00:15:00.960 --> 00:15:02.559 We're have a little bit of interaction here. 00:15:02.799 --> 00:15:07.440 And so I'm gonna begin a jingle, and then you're gonna help me finish, okay? 00:15:07.519 --> 00:15:08.320 So I'll begin it. 00:15:08.480 --> 00:15:09.440 You'll help me finish. 00:15:09.519 --> 00:15:12.320 Don't leave me hanging, or it's gonna get very awkward in here. 00:15:12.480 --> 00:15:15.519 I might leave and you gotta figure out communion for yourself. 00:15:15.679 --> 00:15:20.799 Uh I will say you can accomplish these as I tested them out on my daughters this week. 00:15:20.879 --> 00:15:21.519 Okay, here we go. 00:15:21.600 --> 00:15:22.399 You ready? 00:15:22.879 --> 00:15:24.320 We are farmers. 00:15:25.519 --> 00:15:26.320 Okay, very good. 00:15:26.399 --> 00:15:27.120 One for one. 00:15:27.360 --> 00:15:28.159 Great, very good. 00:15:28.240 --> 00:15:28.960 You jumped right in. 00:15:29.039 --> 00:15:29.679 That's what I loved. 00:15:29.759 --> 00:15:30.720 You jumped right in. 00:15:31.120 --> 00:15:32.879 Oh, oh, oh, Riley. 00:15:34.240 --> 00:15:34.720 Very good. 00:15:34.799 --> 00:15:35.519 Two for two. 00:15:35.679 --> 00:15:37.120 We're doing great. 00:15:37.440 --> 00:15:41.759 My daughter, several of my daughters, uh, favorite is this. 00:15:42.080 --> 00:15:44.639 Avocados from Mexico. 00:15:45.440 --> 00:15:46.399 Less, but it's fun. 00:15:46.480 --> 00:15:47.600 That's a fun one. 00:15:47.919 --> 00:15:49.120 You'll learn it. 00:15:49.759 --> 00:15:51.759 So we get these jingles in our heads. 00:15:51.919 --> 00:15:54.399 You'll have those in your head the rest of the day. 00:15:54.639 --> 00:15:57.759 And you can't get them out once they're in. 00:15:57.840 --> 00:15:58.799 They just play on a loop. 00:15:58.879 --> 00:16:01.759 And this is actually how condemnation works in our lives. 00:16:02.000 --> 00:16:04.480 It's a jingle, it's a default song. 00:16:04.720 --> 00:16:07.600 It's a default playlist that just kicks in. 00:16:07.679 --> 00:16:10.879 For our house this week, it was Dixie Chick's new song, Gaslighter. 00:16:11.120 --> 00:16:11.679 14 years. 00:16:11.759 --> 00:16:14.159 It's been 14 years since Dixie Chick's released a song. 00:16:14.240 --> 00:16:15.440 I don't know if anybody else was excited. 00:16:15.600 --> 00:16:16.159 We were. 00:16:16.399 --> 00:16:18.080 We had it on all week. 00:16:18.159 --> 00:16:19.039 It's been 14 years. 00:16:19.200 --> 00:16:21.039 Talk about resurrection, right? 00:16:21.440 --> 00:16:22.399 New life. 00:16:22.720 --> 00:16:24.080 Gaslighter is out. 00:16:24.159 --> 00:16:27.360 And it was just on replay over and over again. 00:16:27.600 --> 00:16:30.320 Well, we do this replay with condemnation. 00:16:31.039 --> 00:16:32.639 We have a default. 00:16:33.200 --> 00:16:34.320 I'm not enough. 00:16:34.559 --> 00:16:36.320 Oh, there I go again. 00:16:37.039 --> 00:16:38.559 There I go again. 00:16:39.919 --> 00:16:44.399 And usually it's about what you aren't or what you need to be, what else you need to do. 00:16:46.320 --> 00:16:48.879 But God didn't come to condemn the world. 00:16:50.080 --> 00:16:52.240 For God so loved the world. 00:16:52.559 --> 00:16:55.279 For God so loves you. 00:16:57.039 --> 00:17:04.319 My mentor Scotty Smith, he puts it this way: the gospel isn't merely the absence of all condemnation. 00:17:06.000 --> 00:17:11.200 It's also the fullness of God's delight lavished on us in Christ. 00:17:13.839 --> 00:17:19.440 See, the magic of this gospel, like legit magic, not a magic trick. 00:17:19.759 --> 00:17:28.400 Legit magic of this gospel is that inside of this delighting, lavish love, it empowers us. 00:17:29.839 --> 00:17:34.640 That the spirit is given to us, so there's a new song playing in our hearts. 00:17:35.200 --> 00:17:42.799 That empowers us to walk in the spirit and to walk toward godliness, not perfectly, but ongoingly. 00:17:44.880 --> 00:17:50.480 So by means of application, here are a few questions for our hearts, asking the Holy Spirit for insight. 00:17:50.640 --> 00:17:51.279 These are always good. 00:17:51.359 --> 00:17:53.440 This is how I process information. 00:17:53.680 --> 00:17:56.880 Um, begin to embed it inside of my heart. 00:17:58.000 --> 00:18:02.000 Abba Father, what's the dominant song in my heart today? 00:18:03.200 --> 00:18:05.839 Condemnation from the world and religion? 00:18:06.640 --> 00:18:08.960 Or acceptance and worth in you? 00:18:10.079 --> 00:18:11.599 So that kind of starts us off, right? 00:18:11.759 --> 00:18:12.720 Warms us up a little bit. 00:18:12.880 --> 00:18:25.279 Second question, Abba Father, what narrative of condemnation am I presently walking in that by the grace of God is no longer true about me? 00:18:28.880 --> 00:18:38.799 Abba Father, what would it mean for me to walk with the Spirit and the fullness of your delight in me? 00:18:41.839 --> 00:18:47.119 And I don't know the story you tell yourself, but we all tell ourselves a story. 00:18:47.920 --> 00:18:57.680 And I don't know that your version of condemnation that's on replay, but I know the story that's declared over you by the grace of God to you. 00:18:57.839 --> 00:19:08.240 And it said the cross not only took your sin, past, present, and future, and gave you his righteousness, securing you in the belovedness of God forever. 00:19:08.400 --> 00:19:12.720 Not only did it do that, it took away all condemnation and all shame. 00:19:14.559 --> 00:19:17.440 And there's a greater song being sung over you. 00:19:18.880 --> 00:19:21.599 And I close with Zephaniah 3, 17. 00:19:21.839 --> 00:19:27.920 The Lord your God is in your midst, a mighty one who will save. 00:19:29.039 --> 00:19:31.759 He will rejoice over you with gladness. 00:19:32.960 --> 00:19:35.279 He will quiet you by his love. 00:19:36.559 --> 00:19:41.519 He will exalt over you with loud singing. 00:19:42.160 --> 00:19:43.279 Let's pray together. 00:19:44.640 --> 00:19:56.640 God, thank you that in Jesus we know love that is incarnate for us to see, to never doubt how you regard us. 00:19:58.319 --> 00:20:05.680 And while we have condemnation apart from you, there's no condemnation inside of you. 00:20:08.880 --> 00:20:19.680 Thank you that you promise that you are in our midst, that you will save us, and that you rejoice over us in gladness. 00:20:21.279 --> 00:20:36.319 God, would you help us today and this week to confess and repent quicker in the kindness that you show to us when we're walking by songs and narratives of condemnation? 00:20:38.079 --> 00:20:43.359 And would you draw us back to your song of gladness and lavish love for us? 00:20:44.319 --> 00:20:56.480 That our hearts would be healed in greater and greater ways, and that we would walk in your spirit in greater and greater ways, finding freedom and godliness that we didn't even know were possible for our lives. 00:20:59.680 --> 00:21:02.480 God, would you help us to see how good you are? 00:21:02.640 --> 00:21:07.440 Would you help us to feast on your goodness this morning? 00:21:08.720 --> 00:21:09.359 Amen.