WEBVTT 00:00:00.400 --> 00:00:07.200 Well, a few weeks ago I was sitting at uh my middle daughter's soccer game, so she's eight years old and has at her soccer game. 00:00:07.280 --> 00:00:12.640 And it's important to know at this point uh they had not won a soccer game in two years. 00:00:12.720 --> 00:00:18.480 So that's important to this story because we're two years of hard work and a lot of fun. 00:00:18.559 --> 00:00:22.480 Um sometimes I don't think they were aware of the two years running. 00:00:22.640 --> 00:00:34.880 We were we were aware of it, the parents uh sitting over there, and at some point we had just sort of like resigned it, like we're good, we're gonna hang out over here, they'll have fun, and we'll grab pizza afterward. 00:00:35.119 --> 00:00:40.640 But this game, we heard this other team was especially awful, and so that gave a lot of hope to us. 00:00:40.880 --> 00:00:48.079 There's another team out there, and so the the game started and we scored, they scored, and it was one to one at halftime. 00:00:48.240 --> 00:00:48.960 We've been there. 00:00:49.039 --> 00:00:50.640 None of us got real excited about that. 00:00:50.719 --> 00:00:54.079 We've been to this point, and so we're just still okay, whatever. 00:00:54.240 --> 00:01:01.520 Second half starts, we score again, it's two to one, and then the time starts going, time starts clicking off the clock. 00:01:01.600 --> 00:01:05.519 And at some point, one of the parents looks at us and like, how much time's left? 00:01:05.760 --> 00:01:07.359 And they're like, now what's the score? 00:01:07.439 --> 00:01:08.560 They're like, it's two to one. 00:01:08.799 --> 00:01:09.439 Yes, two to one. 00:01:09.599 --> 00:01:10.000 How much time? 00:01:10.159 --> 00:01:10.879 Did we start to realize? 00:01:11.040 --> 00:01:12.640 Oh my gosh, we might win. 00:01:12.879 --> 00:01:13.920 We might win this. 00:01:14.079 --> 00:01:17.920 And so we start getting louder and louder and louder. 00:01:18.000 --> 00:01:25.280 I mean, we are we are obnoxious loud as a group of you know soccer moms and soccer dads. 00:01:25.519 --> 00:01:29.680 We are going to will them to win out of our volume. 00:01:29.840 --> 00:01:30.959 We are so loud. 00:01:31.120 --> 00:01:34.719 Every, I mean, every girl that has a ball, we are yelling their name and we're yelling. 00:01:35.120 --> 00:01:37.599 I mean, we are gonna make this happen. 00:01:37.760 --> 00:01:42.239 And then we're getting toward the end of the game, and there's a handball in the goalie box. 00:01:42.319 --> 00:01:50.719 Now, if you don't know what that means, it means that they were just about to score on our goal, and one of our defenders handballs in the goalie box. 00:01:50.799 --> 00:01:58.239 So they have a free kick, one girl, they picked the biggest girl, mind you, one girl, and then the goalie who is my daughter. 00:01:58.400 --> 00:01:59.680 Okay, so this is the setup. 00:01:59.840 --> 00:02:01.840 Two to one, never won in two years. 00:02:01.920 --> 00:02:04.159 We haven't won in two years, and this is the setup. 00:02:04.239 --> 00:02:08.000 And I'm hiding in my chair, and everybody's nervous. 00:02:08.159 --> 00:02:11.039 One I threw up and you know, get my nerves back. 00:02:11.360 --> 00:02:14.479 So you know, this girl had to be 15. 00:02:14.560 --> 00:02:15.039 I don't know. 00:02:15.199 --> 00:02:24.319 She was she was something, and she ran at that thing, and she I mean, she creamed that, she blasted that ball, and it went dead straight. 00:02:24.400 --> 00:02:25.840 And my daughter, she didn't move. 00:02:26.000 --> 00:02:26.800 She had not moved. 00:02:26.879 --> 00:02:30.400 I don't, you know, I don't know if that was strategy or not, but she didn't. 00:02:30.800 --> 00:02:32.400 Usually the goalie moves. 00:02:32.479 --> 00:02:36.800 Uh I've watched a couple soccer games, usually they dive or something, and she didn't. 00:02:36.879 --> 00:02:41.599 She just stood there, and it came full black, and it hit her shins, and then she just fell down. 00:02:41.759 --> 00:02:43.039 And we go crazy. 00:02:43.199 --> 00:02:44.240 I mean, we are going crazy. 00:02:44.479 --> 00:02:46.400 The girls are, you would have thought we won the game there. 00:02:46.479 --> 00:02:48.800 We hadn't won the game, we just you know didn't get time. 00:02:48.960 --> 00:02:51.039 And so we're going, the parents are going crazy. 00:02:51.120 --> 00:02:56.159 It's at this point I realize I'm sitting next to a mom of the other team. 00:02:56.639 --> 00:03:08.240 And so I just I lean over to her after realizing what you know, you know, the amount of obnoxiousness that I've displayed here with a group of other parents in this church, mind you very much. 00:03:08.479 --> 00:03:16.960 And we're not wearing t-shirts, we don't have Redeemer t-shirts, and this is one reason why is when we get in public, you just don't know what our behavior is gonna be. 00:03:17.199 --> 00:03:23.439 And so I finally look at the mom and I just say, uh, I said, I'm I am so sorry. 00:03:23.599 --> 00:03:26.000 I said, We we haven't won a game in two years. 00:03:26.240 --> 00:03:34.879 And she's like, Oh, you know, like a little bit really, yeah, and I was like, I'm so sorry, we haven't won in two years. 00:03:35.039 --> 00:03:37.039 And and then we scored another goal. 00:03:37.199 --> 00:03:39.759 We're getting louder, we scored another goal, we're getting louder. 00:03:39.840 --> 00:03:46.080 It we win four to one, we we're like charged the field, the girls are going crazy. 00:03:46.240 --> 00:03:48.479 I mean, it was the feeling of victory. 00:03:48.560 --> 00:03:52.960 And I looked over at the other mom, and you know, this feeling of defeat over there, right? 00:03:53.439 --> 00:04:03.039 Like, we knew that feeling, we'd overcome it over time, but it's the feeling of victory, what a great feeling, what a relief when you win something, right? 00:04:03.520 --> 00:04:07.360 We know that feeling, and we know the feeling of loss. 00:04:07.759 --> 00:04:09.759 We know the feeling of loss in life, right? 00:04:09.919 --> 00:04:21.839 When it's that feeling where that person or that other team or that person or that habit or that feeling or that thought, it has the edge on me, and it keeps getting the edge on me. 00:04:22.160 --> 00:04:24.240 You keep getting like beaten down. 00:04:25.360 --> 00:04:27.120 So we're gonna talk about victory this morning. 00:04:27.279 --> 00:04:29.680 That's what these four verses are about. 00:04:30.160 --> 00:04:33.439 The key words in there, you know, overcome and victory. 00:04:33.680 --> 00:04:34.560 So, what does it mean? 00:04:34.879 --> 00:04:36.560 We like to throw that around in the Christian church. 00:04:36.639 --> 00:04:39.759 I mean, that's kind of like we have victory, we're gonna have victory, we have victory. 00:04:40.079 --> 00:04:40.800 What does that mean? 00:04:40.959 --> 00:04:42.079 Like, what does that mean? 00:04:42.240 --> 00:04:45.279 Because a lot of my life I don't feel like I have victory. 00:04:45.519 --> 00:04:47.199 So, what does it mean? 00:04:48.000 --> 00:04:52.800 Well, I I like to start a sermon with a quote if you haven't picked up on that. 00:04:52.879 --> 00:04:54.480 Sometimes I use that little technique. 00:04:54.560 --> 00:05:00.319 And so I got online and I and I'm searching for just a great, um, you know, I want to get a good quote for you guys. 00:05:00.399 --> 00:05:06.800 And and I I keep running into the same phrase that's within a whole bunch of quotes by different people. 00:05:06.879 --> 00:05:10.240 And here's the phrase, here's the phrase coming up. 00:05:10.560 --> 00:05:15.920 We fight from victory, not for victory. 00:05:17.040 --> 00:05:20.160 Whole bunch of different, I couldn't find out who originally said it. 00:05:20.319 --> 00:05:20.639 Right? 00:05:20.720 --> 00:05:24.879 I mean, this is this is good this is good stuff, this quote right here, this this line. 00:05:25.120 --> 00:05:28.160 We fight from victory, not for victory. 00:05:28.319 --> 00:05:28.800 Now that's good. 00:05:28.959 --> 00:05:30.079 Put that on a bumper sticker. 00:05:30.240 --> 00:05:31.759 I mean, this is this is good. 00:05:32.079 --> 00:05:33.600 But where does that come from? 00:05:33.759 --> 00:05:34.800 What does that mean? 00:05:34.959 --> 00:05:37.680 What is it, how does that happen? 00:05:39.839 --> 00:05:42.240 So we're gonna start in verse four. 00:05:42.399 --> 00:05:55.600 Not that we're gonna dismiss verses one through three, but verse four is what shines light on the empowerment of verses one through three, which talk about loving other people, loving God's ways, loving his laws, and that they're not burdens. 00:05:55.759 --> 00:05:56.639 So, well, how do you get to that? 00:05:56.720 --> 00:05:57.920 How do you get to loving other people? 00:05:58.079 --> 00:06:00.399 We've been talking a lot about that the last couple of months. 00:06:00.560 --> 00:06:05.439 And then here, John says in verse four, he just lays it out pretty cleanly. 00:06:07.439 --> 00:06:13.920 For everyone who has been born of God, this is 1 John 5, 4, for everyone who has been born of God overcomes the world. 00:06:14.399 --> 00:06:17.839 And this is the victory that has overcome the world. 00:06:18.480 --> 00:06:19.920 Oh, what is it? 00:06:20.240 --> 00:06:21.199 Our faith. 00:06:22.720 --> 00:06:30.959 So there in the first sentence, there's this word overcome, which is from the word nickeo, which means to conquer or to have victory. 00:06:32.319 --> 00:06:33.519 And so we're overcoming what? 00:06:33.680 --> 00:06:34.560 We're overcoming the world. 00:06:34.720 --> 00:06:42.560 The world is from the word cosmos, meaning all earthly goods and values which are hollow. 00:06:43.279 --> 00:06:45.600 Maybe you've been figuring that out over time. 00:06:46.399 --> 00:06:53.439 And seduce us from Christ's redeeming work and what is truly meaningful. 00:06:54.399 --> 00:06:56.959 So, this is what this means, we've kind of pieced that together. 00:06:57.120 --> 00:07:10.639 So, victory or overcoming, uh that relief over hollowness and meaninglessness comes as we rest in our identity in Christ or our rebirth. 00:07:10.959 --> 00:07:19.279 And so the point number one is this we are already victorious by position of rebirth as children of God. 00:07:19.439 --> 00:07:21.040 You say born again. 00:07:22.160 --> 00:07:34.639 So just as you're born physically, a soul becomes reborn or brought alive or born again, a rebirth to God by his love for you, by his grace for you. 00:07:34.879 --> 00:07:39.360 So that means by position, we're already victors. 00:07:39.600 --> 00:07:47.519 By position, not by experience, not by uh performance, not by pretending, not by behavior, but by position. 00:07:54.160 --> 00:07:55.839 That's our surrender. 00:07:56.879 --> 00:08:05.920 When we say stuff like, uh, all your sins have been cast upon Jesus, all his righteousness has been given to you, that's what we're surrendering into. 00:08:06.000 --> 00:08:07.360 We're surrendering into. 00:08:08.000 --> 00:08:16.720 We're done with pretending, we're done performing, we're done for earning faith, and we're receiving the gift of righteousness, the gift of faith. 00:08:16.879 --> 00:08:20.079 That's a that's a rebirth, it's a new way of life. 00:08:20.240 --> 00:08:22.879 It's the soul coming alive to God's love. 00:08:24.160 --> 00:08:27.680 Part B of uh 5.4, 1 John 5.4, part B. 00:08:27.759 --> 00:08:30.959 And this is the victory that has overcome the world, our faith. 00:08:31.120 --> 00:08:32.399 So John doubles down. 00:08:32.480 --> 00:08:43.600 Like so, if you didn't catch it in the first sentence there in this verse, here's the second sentence, and point number two is this victory is by faith in Christ with nothing to add. 00:08:45.360 --> 00:08:52.879 Maybe you've been taught in places that faith is your behavior. 00:08:54.720 --> 00:08:55.039 Right? 00:08:55.200 --> 00:08:58.080 You just constantly hear, and you hear it long enough, you start to believe it. 00:08:58.240 --> 00:08:59.919 Live out your faith. 00:09:00.559 --> 00:09:01.200 What do you do? 00:09:01.440 --> 00:09:02.960 What are you doing with your faith? 00:09:03.279 --> 00:09:06.080 How are you affecting eternity with your faith? 00:09:06.399 --> 00:09:08.080 Now, all these things are true. 00:09:08.240 --> 00:09:11.360 All those phrases I just said, those are true phrases, right? 00:09:11.440 --> 00:09:16.879 I mean, the book of James, James says, like, I'll show you my faith with my works. 00:09:18.080 --> 00:09:32.159 But, but, but, but, you hear that long enough without remembering how that faith got there, or that that faith of its own is your victory, and slowly you begin into a life of performance faith. 00:09:33.360 --> 00:09:42.080 When the whole time it's by grace alone, through faith alone, and Christ alone, victory from, not victory for. 00:09:43.600 --> 00:09:46.080 So if we go back to the soccer fields, let me explain it this way. 00:09:46.159 --> 00:09:47.679 We go back to the soccer fields. 00:09:47.919 --> 00:09:53.200 When my daughter goes to a soccer game, and she gets, she wants to win. 00:09:53.360 --> 00:10:04.960 Okay, like she wants to score, she wants to be a part of a score, she wants to win, she wants a moment of some great victorious moment, and then she wants the team to win in the end as well. 00:10:05.120 --> 00:10:06.559 She wants all of this, right? 00:10:06.639 --> 00:10:08.720 And she's gonna play her hardest. 00:10:08.799 --> 00:10:11.519 I mean, she's gonna fight, she's gonna push, she will push. 00:10:11.679 --> 00:10:16.240 We've seen her push, talked about it a little bit, and she's gonna push. 00:10:17.600 --> 00:10:20.480 And if somebody else scores, she's gonna jump up and down, they're all gonna hug. 00:10:20.559 --> 00:10:22.639 All the girls hug, they begin to hugging after scores. 00:10:22.799 --> 00:10:25.039 So they they hug, sometimes they just hug, anyways. 00:10:25.120 --> 00:10:27.279 You know, a group of eight-year-old girls playing soccer. 00:10:27.600 --> 00:10:32.480 Lots of cartwheels and twirling going on on the field, might be might be part of the losses, I'm not sure. 00:10:32.639 --> 00:10:33.919 So that's going on. 00:10:34.000 --> 00:10:35.360 But she wants to win. 00:10:35.600 --> 00:10:38.080 She's gonna fight for it, she's gonna push for it. 00:10:38.240 --> 00:10:42.320 She, you know, sometimes she's kind to the other player, sometimes she's not. 00:10:43.679 --> 00:10:48.799 But here's the thing my daughter is not her soccer. 00:10:49.679 --> 00:10:52.000 You would never, you would never do that, would you? 00:10:52.080 --> 00:10:54.480 You would never say that my daughter is her soccer. 00:10:54.639 --> 00:10:56.480 That would be an insane thing to say. 00:10:59.039 --> 00:11:01.279 But also, my daughter is not her behavior. 00:11:04.159 --> 00:11:06.080 My daughter simply her. 00:11:10.559 --> 00:11:13.519 Her behavior is a result of her. 00:11:14.960 --> 00:11:17.840 Now that distinguishment is really, really important. 00:11:19.519 --> 00:11:21.440 Because you're not your behavior. 00:11:22.080 --> 00:11:23.519 You're not your actions. 00:11:24.639 --> 00:11:28.639 Your behavior and your actions are a result of who you are. 00:11:30.799 --> 00:11:35.600 Which is you're more broken than you originally thought, but you're more loved by God than you could dare to dream. 00:11:35.679 --> 00:11:42.559 So you have a secure identity first, and now that secure identity comes, behaviors of which some are great and some aren't great. 00:11:43.919 --> 00:11:47.840 And so the point is, the point is that faith is its own thing. 00:11:48.080 --> 00:11:49.279 Faith alone. 00:11:50.320 --> 00:11:57.679 Faith is its own thing, which the Spirit births in us and empowers us to do something else. 00:11:58.240 --> 00:12:04.720 Now, when this is confused, what happens is all of a sudden Christian faith becomes more about what you do than what God has given to you. 00:12:04.799 --> 00:12:06.399 So you don't have any rest and relief. 00:12:06.559 --> 00:12:07.679 You don't really have victory. 00:12:07.840 --> 00:12:09.759 What you have is you have burden. 00:12:10.639 --> 00:12:12.720 God's ways are burdensome. 00:12:13.279 --> 00:12:15.120 Life is burdensome. 00:12:15.600 --> 00:12:17.200 A lot of exhaustion. 00:12:18.799 --> 00:12:22.480 See, we fight from victory, not for victory. 00:12:22.639 --> 00:12:26.080 Maybe you remember the verses in Ephesians, Ephesians 2, 8 and 9. 00:12:26.559 --> 00:12:30.159 For by grace you have been saved through faith. 00:12:32.159 --> 00:12:35.360 And this is not your own doing. 00:12:36.240 --> 00:12:36.639 Right? 00:12:36.960 --> 00:12:39.440 So it's not your behavior, it's not what you did. 00:12:39.600 --> 00:12:41.200 It's by grace, through faith. 00:12:41.440 --> 00:12:45.679 It is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. 00:12:45.840 --> 00:12:48.240 And the word faith there means belief, nothing more. 00:12:48.399 --> 00:12:50.080 It doesn't mean anything more. 00:12:50.320 --> 00:12:57.519 Now we're not saying that faith doesn't lead to something else or create something else, but what we are saying is just faith, just faith, faith alone. 00:12:58.960 --> 00:13:05.440 So even if you get that, maybe you're with me at this point, maybe you're not, maybe intellectually you're going, I don't know, I'm gonna fight you a little bit on all this. 00:13:06.000 --> 00:13:07.440 But maybe you're with me. 00:13:07.600 --> 00:13:13.039 Even if you're with me at this point, what's easy at this point to say, like, what degree of faith? 00:13:13.360 --> 00:13:15.200 Like, like how much belief? 00:13:17.840 --> 00:13:27.840 I was talking to a friend this week, and he told me that he decided that church wasn't for him because he could never associate with the people on stage who had so much faith. 00:13:28.480 --> 00:13:30.960 And I thought it was like, like, what church were you going to? 00:13:31.120 --> 00:13:34.080 Like, go to it, just go to a different church. 00:13:35.600 --> 00:13:44.399 Because this idea of measurement of faith, well, first off, we have all different personalities, or of course our faith is going to look different, or we're gonna verbalize it differently, and we just gotta get real on that. 00:13:44.559 --> 00:13:50.320 And then, secondly, like this idea of measuring faith, what a crazy idea. 00:13:50.639 --> 00:13:55.919 I mean, any honesty upon your own life would say, like, there's been times in your life when you just had incredible amounts of faith. 00:13:56.000 --> 00:14:04.639 There's been other times where you're like barely holding on, or maybe you realize, you know what, you weren't holding on, but God was kind of holding on to you, and then you come back, you go, Oh, there's my great faith. 00:14:06.320 --> 00:14:09.440 I think that's why Jesus teaches in Luke 17. 00:14:10.000 --> 00:14:12.000 You know, just have faith like a mustard seed. 00:14:12.080 --> 00:14:13.600 What a what a gift. 00:14:13.840 --> 00:14:22.879 What a gift in all the Bible talking about faith and all these ways, and what a gift to have this passage, just have faith like a mustard seed, the smallest of seeds. 00:14:24.399 --> 00:14:24.720 Right? 00:14:24.799 --> 00:14:31.600 And he's saying faith is not like grades in school, it's not like a tape measure, it's like a seed. 00:14:32.159 --> 00:14:35.759 Just the smallest little bit's enough, and that has great effect. 00:14:37.679 --> 00:14:41.840 So Paul teaches us faith ends the toil of earning. 00:14:43.039 --> 00:14:46.720 And then Jesus teaches us faith ends the toil of measuring. 00:14:48.159 --> 00:14:51.679 Franciscan priest and author Richard Rohr, he wrote this about faith. 00:14:52.000 --> 00:14:53.759 You don't really do faith. 00:14:54.399 --> 00:14:59.039 It happens to you when you give up control and all the steering of your ship. 00:14:59.600 --> 00:15:02.480 Frankly, we often do it when we have no other choice. 00:15:02.799 --> 00:15:07.120 And you also see why the saints always said that faith is a gift. 00:15:07.519 --> 00:15:10.559 You fall into it more than ever fully choosing it. 00:15:10.799 --> 00:15:18.399 And only then do you know how grace, love, and God sustain you and strengthen you at very deep levels. 00:15:20.000 --> 00:15:30.480 I think, at least for myself, I just keep wanting to do something to be a person of faith rather than be a person of faith who does something. 00:15:31.840 --> 00:15:32.159 Right? 00:15:32.320 --> 00:15:34.000 I mean, maybe you hear the difference there. 00:15:34.240 --> 00:15:39.440 We just we just keep wanting to do something, to be a person of faith, because then we're in control. 00:15:39.600 --> 00:15:41.759 We can measure that, we can see it. 00:15:42.000 --> 00:15:47.360 Rather than just be a person of faith, who does something? 00:15:48.399 --> 00:15:56.559 There's a story in Matthew 15, which at first it looks like this lady has enormous faith, and at first it looks like faith as action. 00:15:57.919 --> 00:16:01.440 And then we dig into the story and we get to see something else. 00:16:01.679 --> 00:16:12.159 And so what the story is, is Jesus is dining with his disciples, and while he's dining with his disciples, they're eating a meal, a non-Jewish lady comes up to ask for healing for her daughter. 00:16:12.399 --> 00:16:15.200 It's a very bad condition, and a demon is in her. 00:16:16.399 --> 00:16:24.159 And the disciples, they see this non-Jewish lady coming up, and the disciples are still tied into some old paradigm of who can approach Jesus and who can't. 00:16:24.240 --> 00:16:29.600 And this is a kosher table and a kosher mills, a non-Jewish lady, and all this is a little scandalous, scandalous. 00:16:29.919 --> 00:16:32.720 And so they say, Hey, you know, do you want us to ask her to go away? 00:16:32.879 --> 00:16:33.919 Maybe you should ask her to go away. 00:16:34.000 --> 00:16:35.440 Can we should we get rid of this lady? 00:16:35.600 --> 00:16:42.480 And then Jesus says to her, Hey, like, hey, he says, uh, I was sent only to the lost sheep of Israel. 00:16:42.720 --> 00:16:44.960 Now he's making a racial comment. 00:16:45.039 --> 00:16:46.960 She's non-Jewish, he's Jewish. 00:16:47.519 --> 00:16:49.039 But he's making a bigger comment. 00:16:49.200 --> 00:17:04.079 The bigger comment here is that he's saying, hey, I came to make to reveal myself to the people of Israel first, and then through the people of Israel, for that to be revealed to the entire world, to all people, which at the time was a huge statement because every people group had their own God. 00:17:05.200 --> 00:17:06.720 But this lady doesn't like that. 00:17:06.880 --> 00:17:08.240 Like this idea of order. 00:17:08.400 --> 00:17:09.920 Like she's not happy. 00:17:10.559 --> 00:17:12.480 That's not okay with her. 00:17:13.200 --> 00:17:17.119 Because her daughter is sick and she doesn't have anywhere else to go. 00:17:19.119 --> 00:17:24.160 And she says, Yes, Lord, but even the dogs under the table eat the children's crumbs. 00:17:24.799 --> 00:17:28.240 So, in other words, what she's saying is, she's saying, I don't have anywhere to go. 00:17:28.400 --> 00:17:30.480 Like, I'm at the end of myself. 00:17:30.960 --> 00:17:34.400 All I have left is belief that you could do something. 00:17:36.559 --> 00:17:37.519 And that's the point. 00:17:37.680 --> 00:17:44.559 The point here is that she's not there out of status, she's not there out of some performance or some righteousness resume. 00:17:44.880 --> 00:17:51.839 She's not even out of there, some like navel-gazing, self-consumed measuring of her own faith and how she's doing or how she's not doing. 00:17:52.160 --> 00:17:59.599 She's out of there completely of like, this person can do something to help me, and I don't have any ability. 00:18:00.799 --> 00:18:02.960 She knows she needs help, and she's at the end. 00:18:03.039 --> 00:18:06.640 So this is not performance, this is actually death for her. 00:18:07.279 --> 00:18:09.599 It's a dying into faith. 00:18:10.799 --> 00:18:13.440 And Jesus says, for such a reply, you may go. 00:18:13.599 --> 00:18:15.920 The demon has left your daughter. 00:18:16.400 --> 00:18:29.519 And the point is, is your faith, it's not your merit, it's not your performance, it's not your pretending, it's not your status, it's not your measurement, it's security in Christ's work for you, not your work for him. 00:18:31.599 --> 00:18:34.720 So now, if we go back and we think about verses one through three. 00:18:35.759 --> 00:18:42.640 Love other people, love God's commandments, love the way that God would have us live, I see all of that. 00:18:42.799 --> 00:18:44.400 I haven't dismissed it. 00:18:45.599 --> 00:18:49.119 It's just the only way to do that is to understand verse four. 00:18:49.680 --> 00:18:57.920 You won't do that with joy or freedom until you understand faith alone, the gift of faith alone, that you are free. 00:19:00.319 --> 00:19:16.640 And out of that secure, victorious faith that is given victory from, not victory for, comes a growth in grace and an empowerment by the Spirit to say no to the world and the hollowness and the meaninglessness of the world. 00:19:17.359 --> 00:19:20.079 Because you've tasted of a victory given to you. 00:19:21.680 --> 00:19:27.759 It's in that death that the Holy Spirit begins to work in our hearts because we're finally finished. 00:19:28.240 --> 00:19:30.160 We're like the lady, we just don't have anywhere to go. 00:19:30.240 --> 00:19:32.160 I mean, we just don't have anything left. 00:19:33.279 --> 00:19:35.279 We don't have any status to stand on. 00:19:35.680 --> 00:19:40.799 No moralistic behaviors to count up and hand over to God to say, Hey, you know, am I good now? 00:19:40.960 --> 00:19:42.079 Do you let me know? 00:19:44.319 --> 00:19:48.319 There's always victory from that empowers our victory for. 00:19:49.200 --> 00:19:52.160 19th century British pastor Charles Spurgeon. 00:19:52.240 --> 00:19:54.640 He preached on this verse, this one verse. 00:19:54.960 --> 00:19:58.799 And when he ended his sermon, this is what he said to his people. 00:20:00.000 --> 00:20:04.000 My words are powerless, my thoughts are weak. 00:20:04.319 --> 00:20:08.400 Old Adam is too strong for this young child to draw or drag. 00:20:09.119 --> 00:20:11.519 But God speak to you, dear hearts. 00:20:12.559 --> 00:20:15.839 God send the truth home, and then we shall rejoice together. 00:20:16.000 --> 00:20:20.240 Both he that soweth and he that reapeth, because God has given us the increase. 00:20:20.480 --> 00:20:21.519 God bless you. 00:20:21.839 --> 00:20:27.440 May you all be born again and have that faith that overcometh the world. 00:20:27.599 --> 00:20:28.880 Let's pray together. 00:20:29.200 --> 00:20:34.880 God, thank you for the gift of grace that births our faith. 00:20:35.839 --> 00:20:39.039 May we die into it, not earn into it. 00:20:39.279 --> 00:20:52.720 May this morning not be shame on us, more shame on us for a lack of faith or doubting in faith, but may it be more grace on us that there might be more faith birthed in us by your spirit. 00:20:53.519 --> 00:20:58.240 May we be astonished more that you would only call us to a mustard seed of faith. 00:20:58.400 --> 00:21:01.599 Would that give us even greater faith of how good you are? 00:21:04.240 --> 00:21:09.119 May we see how scandalous you are, that you would love us while we're broken. 00:21:10.640 --> 00:21:14.079 You deem us worthy when we have little faith. 00:21:17.119 --> 00:21:25.279 And we do pray that, God, whatever amount of faith we have this morning, even as small as it is, would you do great things with it? 00:21:26.160 --> 00:21:27.759 Would our lives honor you? 00:21:28.000 --> 00:21:29.119 Would we love our neighbor? 00:21:29.200 --> 00:21:30.720 Would we love our family? 00:21:33.599 --> 00:21:35.359 Would we love your ways? 00:21:36.480 --> 00:21:48.160 That call us out of the world of hollowness and meaninglessness and into a life that honors you and means something for the cause of Christ. 00:21:51.599 --> 00:21:57.839 For all of us that are here this morning, God, that that lack and feel ashamed of our faith. 00:22:00.000 --> 00:22:06.319 God, would you pour out your spirit that never condemns, but convicts and comforts. 00:22:08.480 --> 00:22:14.880 Would we find great healing as we come to our end of ourselves? 00:22:18.640 --> 00:22:21.359 We thank you that you love us wherever we're at. 00:22:24.720 --> 00:22:27.839 Help us even more to trust that you are not. 00:22:28.319 --> 00:22:29.599 In Jesus' name we pray. 00:22:29.839 --> 00:22:30.480 Amen.