WEBVTT 00:00:00.239 --> 00:00:03.200 So I woke up yesterday incredibly anxious. 00:00:03.520 --> 00:00:04.480 I do that sometimes. 00:00:04.639 --> 00:00:06.639 Sometimes I wake up and the world is wonderful. 00:00:06.879 --> 00:00:08.960 Sometimes I wake up and I'm just anxious. 00:00:09.039 --> 00:00:10.240 I'm just anxious about whatever. 00:00:10.320 --> 00:00:14.880 And it didn't help that the night before, Friday night, I had a dream. 00:00:15.039 --> 00:00:16.640 I had two dreams at the same time. 00:00:16.800 --> 00:00:20.879 They're both stressful, and dreams are never interesting to other people, but I'll be very short on it. 00:00:20.960 --> 00:00:27.039 So one dream was I like I bought a we bought a house and like it just had constant needs, and so that sounded familiar to my life. 00:00:27.120 --> 00:00:28.480 And so I did that all night. 00:00:28.640 --> 00:00:50.719 And then as well, I was auditioning uh for a part in front of Steven Spielberg, which was very interesting because I'm not an actor, and I uh was never in drama or anything, so this was filled with incredible amount of anxiety that I just did that all night while I slept, and then I woke up incredibly anxious, and then we went to my eight-year-old soccer game, sat next to Matt. 00:00:50.880 --> 00:01:00.560 We were both very anxious throughout this eight-year-old soccer game, because here's the deal with an eight-year-old soccer game, is they all constantly almost do the thing they should do. 00:01:00.640 --> 00:01:08.319 And so the whole time you're like, oh, just uh, oh, just go kick the oh just when they're six, it's just all fun. 00:01:08.400 --> 00:01:09.840 None of them do the right thing, right? 00:01:09.920 --> 00:01:17.840 Like, and so you laugh and like, oh, look at them, you know, but when they're eight, they're oh it's just so close all the time, the whole game. 00:01:18.000 --> 00:01:25.200 And it's just like it just mounts inside of you, just uh when they're ten, they just actually start to do the right thing, like on the field, and so you move. 00:01:25.599 --> 00:01:27.920 Eight is just oh, it's just anxious and anxious. 00:01:28.000 --> 00:01:31.200 And I go home and I watch the Georgia game, and that's anxiety. 00:01:31.359 --> 00:01:40.719 I just need to quit watching these games, and so that's anxiety, and then we drive in Atlanta traffic to go to the Gwynnette County Fair. 00:01:41.920 --> 00:01:48.799 For some of you, you just got elated with joy, and for others is you just the word fair just created anxiety. 00:01:48.879 --> 00:01:54.799 And so we met Christy's family out there, and the fair is uh all my worst nightmares. 00:01:55.519 --> 00:01:56.560 Fair rides. 00:01:56.640 --> 00:02:07.439 I'm trusting the the lives of my three precious little children on uh machinery that folds up and travels down the highway, and this is what I'm entrusting. 00:02:07.599 --> 00:02:25.039 Everything's dirty, uh and I'm a little bratty, I'll just go ahead and admit that I can be a little bratty about this stuff, and so I'm a little bratty in this process, and I'm holding it within because I'm not gonna pass that on to my children, but it's in me, and I'm just just building up inside of me, and so everything's dirt. 00:02:25.120 --> 00:02:30.400 We got them home, we just we sprayed them with the hose, we burn burned the clothes, we didn't let them in the house. 00:02:30.639 --> 00:02:32.080 But it's just all this anxiety. 00:02:32.159 --> 00:02:49.680 So finally, finally, at some point within this, uh, my oldest and I we head over to like the adult big kid area of the fair, and we're walking through and we're holding hands, and so it's kind of sweet, you know, dad and daughter, and as well, it's because I don't trust any of these people at all. 00:02:49.840 --> 00:02:51.439 And so I'm holding that hand. 00:02:51.599 --> 00:02:55.039 And eventually we we go into a few fun houses. 00:02:55.280 --> 00:03:07.599 Um, like the two of us, we go into the fun houses and we do bumper cars, and she was incredibly present and joyful. 00:03:08.159 --> 00:03:16.479 And and and somewhere along the way, like inside one of the fun houses or bumper cars, I forgot to be anxious. 00:03:16.879 --> 00:03:22.560 And I I'm not kidding you, just peace washed over me. 00:03:22.960 --> 00:03:24.240 I mean, a little bizarre, right? 00:03:24.319 --> 00:03:25.680 I mean, at the Gwinnett County Fair. 00:03:25.759 --> 00:03:29.680 It's not the kind of place you expect to have like this great experience of peace, right? 00:03:29.919 --> 00:03:32.240 But it happened, a strange place to happen, but it happened. 00:03:32.319 --> 00:03:35.120 And I'll mind you, my senses were on overload, right? 00:03:35.280 --> 00:03:39.520 Like, I mean, there's lights everywhere, and there's music, and my daughter is laughing. 00:03:39.599 --> 00:03:40.639 But it happened, okay? 00:03:40.719 --> 00:03:41.840 I'm just saying it happened. 00:03:42.000 --> 00:03:43.199 An experience of peace. 00:03:43.360 --> 00:03:46.639 Now we all sort of know this, this kind of sort of peace. 00:03:46.719 --> 00:03:48.240 It's actually pretty easy. 00:03:48.639 --> 00:03:50.560 We get it everyone, we'll take it, right? 00:03:50.639 --> 00:03:51.520 Like, you'll take it. 00:03:51.599 --> 00:04:00.560 I'll I will take that piece, whether it be at the fair or a concert or a vacation, a moment on the beach, or you know, you're having a great dinner, like we will take it. 00:04:00.719 --> 00:04:01.439 We need it, right? 00:04:01.520 --> 00:04:05.759 Like, there's nothing wrong with it, we'll take it, we need it, like, yes, thank you, right? 00:04:05.919 --> 00:04:17.199 All the circumstances line up, and you get this moment where it's like, I am not anxious finally, and I am whole, and I am fully present. 00:04:18.720 --> 00:04:31.680 But if that's all there is, then like, yeah, I mean, peace could come and go as quickly as you go to a fair or have a moment at the fair, and then what if you didn't ever have that moment? 00:04:31.759 --> 00:04:59.360 Because the fair ends, or the concert ends, or the money ends, or the vacation ends, or you know, or relationships are hard, and life can get hard, and you mess up, and I mess up, and we have our past, and we have our families, and we have our extended families, or you have the lack of family, and all of that, and personal narrative and woundedness, and all of that can come back up, and it can affect whether we feel whether we feel at peace. 00:05:00.079 --> 00:05:01.600 So, what does it mean to have peace? 00:05:01.759 --> 00:05:09.759 To be at peace, to be non-anxious and whole and fully present. 00:05:10.319 --> 00:05:14.319 So, a corresponding passage with this Mark 9 is James 3. 00:05:14.800 --> 00:05:18.720 And James 3 fits so nicely with this passage in Mark. 00:05:18.800 --> 00:05:20.399 And James 3, 18 says this. 00:05:20.480 --> 00:05:22.160 You can just listen, it's not your bulletin. 00:05:22.240 --> 00:05:24.000 This is the NIV phrasing. 00:05:24.319 --> 00:05:27.439 Peacemakers, doesn't that sound nice? 00:05:27.600 --> 00:05:27.839 Right? 00:05:28.000 --> 00:05:29.519 The whole verse just sounds nice. 00:05:29.759 --> 00:05:30.560 Listen to it. 00:05:30.800 --> 00:05:36.560 Peacemakers who sow in peace reap a harvest of righteousness. 00:05:36.800 --> 00:05:38.639 Doesn't that all sound wonderful? 00:05:38.879 --> 00:05:40.000 Like, like I want that. 00:05:40.160 --> 00:05:41.920 Like that's a sentence full of things I want. 00:05:42.000 --> 00:05:51.519 Like I want, I want peace, I want to be a person of peace, I want to be a person who makes peace, and I want a life that like good things are occurring. 00:05:51.759 --> 00:05:55.360 Like a life of righteousness, a harvest of righteousness is going on. 00:05:55.600 --> 00:05:57.439 So follow the logic just a little bit here. 00:05:57.519 --> 00:06:05.920 So a good life with good in it, with righteousness in it, this good life, it comes from people of peace sowing in peace. 00:06:06.240 --> 00:06:07.360 So, what does that mean? 00:06:07.519 --> 00:06:16.160 Well, point number one: being a person of peace is about living from the wisdom of God, not the foolishness of this world. 00:06:16.399 --> 00:06:18.800 All right, so this is all in the preceding verses. 00:06:19.360 --> 00:06:20.560 You can read it later. 00:06:20.800 --> 00:06:23.439 You can read it in your Bible right now, you can read it later when you get home. 00:06:23.600 --> 00:06:27.920 The preceding verses, James lays out for us two different paths. 00:06:28.240 --> 00:06:30.800 And the first one, he calls it the world. 00:06:31.920 --> 00:06:39.680 He calls it the path of the world in these preceding verses, and he says, Hey, do you do you lack peace or do you try to find peace? 00:06:39.839 --> 00:06:42.240 And he he uses three different words. 00:06:44.319 --> 00:06:46.879 Like, do you do it by jealousy? 00:06:48.480 --> 00:06:50.079 Like, I I want that. 00:06:52.160 --> 00:06:53.040 I should have that. 00:06:53.120 --> 00:06:59.360 Like you went over to somebody's house and you said, Oh, I want that, or you get the catalog in the mail, I want that, and I want that, and I want that, and I want, because then I'll have peace. 00:06:59.519 --> 00:07:03.680 Or you're over to somebody's house and oh, I want that, and I've had that, then I'll have peace. 00:07:04.079 --> 00:07:05.759 Or, like, oh, they're so good at that. 00:07:05.920 --> 00:07:08.079 If I could only do that, then I'll have peace. 00:07:08.160 --> 00:07:11.519 Or maybe your jealousy takes the form of comparison, right? 00:07:11.920 --> 00:07:13.600 Comparison is the thief of joy. 00:07:13.680 --> 00:07:18.800 We know that because as soon as you start comparing yourself, you're just unhappy with everything you have, and none of that's peace. 00:07:19.040 --> 00:07:21.439 Or James also says, selfish ambition. 00:07:22.480 --> 00:07:22.879 Right? 00:07:23.040 --> 00:07:24.639 Like, I will get that. 00:07:25.040 --> 00:07:30.000 I will go after that, and it doesn't matter who's in my way, I will get that. 00:07:30.160 --> 00:07:32.240 I'm going after that. 00:07:32.399 --> 00:07:39.759 And James says, all of that, like way of life, for thinking that way, is foolish. 00:07:43.120 --> 00:07:44.319 It's foolish. 00:07:46.000 --> 00:07:48.720 And I think how much time, right? 00:07:48.879 --> 00:07:54.160 Just think about, just think about how much time you spend in that way of thinking. 00:07:54.639 --> 00:07:59.360 And that's the way of thinking of the world is not the wisdom of God, and it is foolish. 00:07:59.600 --> 00:08:01.680 You will waste your whole life. 00:08:01.920 --> 00:08:03.360 I will waste my whole life. 00:08:03.519 --> 00:08:08.079 The author Anne Lamont, she said this following, it was just after she got some success. 00:08:08.480 --> 00:08:11.439 She's becoming known a little bit, and she says this. 00:08:11.759 --> 00:08:17.920 I got a lot of things that society had promised would make me whole and fulfilled. 00:08:19.040 --> 00:08:26.560 All the things that culture tells you from preschool on will quiet the throbbing anxiety inside you. 00:08:26.879 --> 00:08:32.159 Stature, the respect of colleagues, maybe even kind of a low-grade fame. 00:08:32.720 --> 00:08:39.120 The culture says these things will save you as long as you also manage to keep your weight down. 00:08:39.759 --> 00:08:41.600 But the culture lies. 00:08:42.720 --> 00:08:44.399 This is what James is saying. 00:08:44.639 --> 00:08:46.159 He's saying the culture lies. 00:08:46.720 --> 00:08:47.679 The world lies. 00:08:47.919 --> 00:08:49.440 It's just it's just a lie. 00:08:49.919 --> 00:08:52.240 And we do it and I do it, but it's a lie. 00:08:52.320 --> 00:08:53.279 And it's easy, right? 00:08:53.360 --> 00:08:55.039 Like, like it'll be easy to do that. 00:08:55.200 --> 00:08:59.759 That will be the easy thing for you to do and for me to do to live as a fool. 00:09:01.120 --> 00:09:06.639 It'll be easy to just hunt and buy and accumulate and want and want more, and then think. 00:09:06.720 --> 00:09:14.559 If you had more, then it'll all of a sudden you'll you'll you'll be non-anxious and whole and fully present. 00:09:15.120 --> 00:09:16.960 And it has it ever worked? 00:09:18.559 --> 00:09:19.360 I don't know. 00:09:20.159 --> 00:09:21.360 Because it's a lie. 00:09:22.000 --> 00:09:31.279 And the entire time I do this, I'm missing, I'm missing the thing that is already given to me. 00:09:33.919 --> 00:09:44.080 So my personal narrative is one of always looking for something else to comfort me or give me satisfaction. 00:09:44.559 --> 00:09:49.519 And part of that's just me being a sinner, and part of that's my woundedness. 00:09:49.600 --> 00:09:59.840 I can distinctly remember when my household or family went from having money and like there was extra money to there being no money. 00:10:00.799 --> 00:10:04.240 And I can remember thinking, like, I don't ever want to do that. 00:10:04.399 --> 00:10:06.240 Like that's really hard. 00:10:06.639 --> 00:10:24.320 And so there's this bit in me, a little bit out of woundedness, and it's my sin and the two things working together, that's just like, okay, I will just accumulate and I'll have, and then if I can get something else, because I never had stuff, so if I can get something else, then I'll then I'll be comfortable or I'll be at peace. 00:10:25.519 --> 00:10:28.320 And so I like really, really need this sermon. 00:10:30.720 --> 00:10:35.919 Because most days I know I'm defined by God's love for me. 00:10:36.080 --> 00:10:38.000 I know that, I understand that. 00:10:38.399 --> 00:10:45.120 But there's a lot of days, like yesterday, where I'm not at peace. 00:10:45.360 --> 00:10:49.679 And it's because I'm not resting in the thing that's already true about me. 00:10:50.159 --> 00:10:53.919 That while I am a sinner and imperfect, God loves me. 00:10:54.080 --> 00:10:56.080 I don't have anything to, I don't have to prove anything. 00:10:56.240 --> 00:11:00.240 I could not prove anything the rest of my life, and it's okay. 00:11:01.679 --> 00:11:03.360 But I don't always rest in that. 00:11:03.519 --> 00:11:08.320 But imagine the freedom of that, imagine the freedom of that to already be defined. 00:11:08.720 --> 00:11:09.039 Right? 00:11:09.120 --> 00:11:13.919 You so you wouldn't need comparison, you wouldn't need jealousy, you wouldn't, you wouldn't need selfish ambition, you wouldn't need those things. 00:11:14.000 --> 00:11:16.320 That wouldn't be, you wouldn't be on the foolish path. 00:11:16.559 --> 00:11:18.879 You'd be on this other path, right? 00:11:19.200 --> 00:11:24.399 That you are loved and you're already whole, then you can own stuff. 00:11:24.720 --> 00:11:32.080 You can buy stuff or not buy stuff, you can run stuff, you can accomplish stuff, and it almost is like great, if not, great too. 00:11:32.399 --> 00:11:33.759 Imagine that kind of freedom. 00:11:33.840 --> 00:11:38.080 Now we're ready for what James calls in those preceding verses, he calls the wisdom of God. 00:11:38.159 --> 00:11:48.799 And he says, this is a life that is pure, peaceable, gentle, open to reason, full of mercy, impartial, and sincere. 00:11:49.440 --> 00:11:55.600 And we even hear those words, and it's like, oh that sounds good. 00:11:56.639 --> 00:12:04.480 Point number two, being a person of peace is a harvest of God's grace to your sinful wounded heart. 00:12:04.720 --> 00:12:08.559 Being a person of peace is a harvest of God's grace to your sinful wounded heart. 00:12:08.960 --> 00:12:09.600 Here's what I mean. 00:12:09.759 --> 00:12:21.759 Every once in a while, Christy, my wife, she'll walk out into our yard and she'll go over to our limelight hydrangeas and she'll nip off a few and she'll put them in a vase on our kitchen counter. 00:12:22.159 --> 00:12:24.080 Now the flowers are wonderful. 00:12:24.320 --> 00:12:25.600 We love flowers. 00:12:25.919 --> 00:12:28.639 She went out and she harvested the flowers. 00:12:28.720 --> 00:12:29.600 That's what she did. 00:12:29.840 --> 00:12:32.799 She gathered that which had grown. 00:12:33.200 --> 00:12:34.159 That's a harvest. 00:12:34.240 --> 00:12:41.200 A harvest is something not in of itself, but it's caused by something else. 00:12:43.440 --> 00:12:44.639 Meaning this. 00:12:45.360 --> 00:12:51.279 Peace isn't found in living up to standards of looks or accumulating or like how religious it's. 00:12:57.039 --> 00:13:00.240 It's a harvest of God's grace to you. 00:13:00.559 --> 00:13:04.159 So if you want the peace, you've got to start with the God's grace to you. 00:13:04.240 --> 00:13:06.559 You can't just try to get the peace on your own. 00:13:06.720 --> 00:13:07.840 It's a harvest. 00:13:10.320 --> 00:13:18.799 Because if you go after it with trying to look a certain way or accumulate a certain thing, or get to a certain point, and then you know what always happens, has always happened in your past. 00:13:19.200 --> 00:13:22.320 And what it is, is you realize you're not enough. 00:13:23.600 --> 00:13:24.879 And that's not enough. 00:13:24.960 --> 00:13:29.679 And somewhere along the way, you have to realize okay, I've got to root my life somewhere else. 00:13:29.919 --> 00:13:34.000 I've got to not just understand something else and be defined, but I gotta rest in it. 00:13:34.080 --> 00:13:37.039 I gotta sit my soul down in this. 00:13:37.440 --> 00:13:43.840 Because the fair ends and you get the award, or you finally, you finally fit into the dress that you wanted to fit into. 00:13:43.919 --> 00:13:48.559 You've been thinking about it for so long, and then you get into it and it doesn't just do it. 00:13:48.879 --> 00:13:56.879 You still aren't at peace because peace and righteousness is a harvest from God's love to you in Jesus. 00:13:57.039 --> 00:13:58.480 Now our text for today. 00:13:58.639 --> 00:14:00.320 Okay, now I'll start the sermon. 00:14:00.480 --> 00:14:01.600 Mark 9, 33. 00:14:02.080 --> 00:14:02.399 I'm kidding. 00:14:02.559 --> 00:14:04.320 Mark 9, 33 through 35. 00:14:04.480 --> 00:14:11.039 And they came to Capernaum, and when he was in the house, he asked them, What were you discussing on the way? 00:14:11.679 --> 00:14:13.039 But they kept silent. 00:14:13.279 --> 00:14:17.440 For on the way they had argued with one another about who was the greatest. 00:14:17.679 --> 00:14:25.600 And he sat down, he called the twelve, so he called all his disciples together, and he said to them, If anyone would be first, he must be last of all and servant of all. 00:14:25.679 --> 00:14:27.919 So he's just trying to get them to understand, like, it doesn't matter. 00:14:28.080 --> 00:14:29.440 Like you can be last. 00:14:30.320 --> 00:14:32.480 You can not succeed. 00:14:33.120 --> 00:14:40.799 And it it would be okay if you understand that you're already defined by me and following me. 00:14:40.960 --> 00:14:45.840 You could be the servant, and it would be okay. 00:14:46.639 --> 00:14:50.000 I mean, that sounds silly that they would be like having this argument, right? 00:14:50.080 --> 00:14:53.600 I mean, we read this and it almost feels like I oh, I would never. 00:14:53.840 --> 00:14:58.080 I would never have that argument with a group of my friends, right? 00:14:58.159 --> 00:15:00.000 But we sort of do it, right? 00:15:00.159 --> 00:15:01.600 Like in your mind, you do it. 00:15:01.679 --> 00:15:08.879 Like you sort of wonder in the back of your mind, you go, yeah, I wonder if I'm more valuable than he is. 00:15:09.519 --> 00:15:12.879 Like, I wonder if I'm actually more important than they are. 00:15:13.120 --> 00:15:16.480 I wonder if other people view me as that. 00:15:17.200 --> 00:15:18.639 Like, we do that. 00:15:19.120 --> 00:15:33.679 And listen, your lack of my lack of peace is in direct connection to my resistance to accept myself and that which is already true about me in Jesus. 00:15:37.039 --> 00:15:42.480 This week I I thought about buying some new vans, like high top shoes. 00:15:42.639 --> 00:15:43.679 You know what I'm talking about? 00:15:43.840 --> 00:15:46.320 Not a van, vans, high-top shoes. 00:15:46.399 --> 00:15:49.279 And and I was thinking about, I thought about for about an hour. 00:15:49.519 --> 00:15:52.960 What I'd get some high tops, what color was I gonna get? 00:15:53.679 --> 00:15:55.279 Very important at the time. 00:15:56.559 --> 00:16:04.720 And about after an hour of this deep contemplation about these new vans I'd get and how it would really make winter for me so much better. 00:16:05.759 --> 00:16:08.879 It was really gonna solve fall and winter for me. 00:16:09.840 --> 00:16:17.039 And then I realized I have two pair of vans that are clean. 00:16:17.200 --> 00:16:18.720 They're not like dirty and old. 00:16:18.799 --> 00:16:23.919 So I have two pair of vans already, and I realized I'm just anxious and bored. 00:16:25.679 --> 00:16:28.080 I had nothing to do with a pair of shoes. 00:16:28.399 --> 00:16:30.879 Alright, you know what I'm talking about, is you do it too. 00:16:31.120 --> 00:16:33.919 And we we can do it in much more harmful ways. 00:16:35.039 --> 00:16:35.679 Right? 00:16:37.039 --> 00:16:40.879 I mean, you you could do it with pornography or an affair. 00:16:42.240 --> 00:16:46.000 You could do it by like just staring at your money so much. 00:16:47.679 --> 00:16:53.440 You could do it with self-medicating in some way, some abuse to yourself in some way. 00:16:54.000 --> 00:16:59.919 You could do it like you get caught and passed shame so much, you never move out of that, you just keep revisiting that over and over. 00:17:00.080 --> 00:17:06.480 Or you can, like me, live in a dream world in the future so much that you just miss everything that's just today. 00:17:07.440 --> 00:17:12.559 Today's the only place that you could you can live non-anxious and whole and fully present. 00:17:12.720 --> 00:17:15.279 You can't do that in the future, and you can't do that in the past. 00:17:15.359 --> 00:17:19.279 You can learn from both those places, but today's the place that you can have peace. 00:17:21.279 --> 00:17:25.759 And all that toxic self-saving, it's sin, by the way, that's what it is. 00:17:26.079 --> 00:17:36.799 From the little, like consumerism, to thinking I need a third pair of vans to solve all my problems for the fall and winter, from that to something dark. 00:17:39.359 --> 00:17:41.839 All of that is taken on the cross. 00:17:42.240 --> 00:17:52.880 Jesus takes all that self-saving that we do, and all of our lack of peace, he takes it on the cross for us and he gives to us his righteousness. 00:17:53.039 --> 00:17:54.720 So we are forever his beloved. 00:17:54.960 --> 00:17:57.119 So when you lack peace, you're still his beloved. 00:17:57.359 --> 00:17:58.319 Isn't that great? 00:17:58.559 --> 00:18:02.160 When you're fighting against that, you're still his beloved. 00:18:03.680 --> 00:18:07.599 One of the guys who helped start our church in the first year of our church, it was five years ago. 00:18:07.759 --> 00:18:10.799 Some of you were here, he tragically died. 00:18:11.200 --> 00:18:17.839 It was horrible, it was sudden, it was tragic, there's an unbelievable sorrow in our community for that season. 00:18:17.920 --> 00:18:20.079 And I officiated his funeral. 00:18:20.240 --> 00:18:26.480 I went back and I think I went back because I started this week to think about this idea of rest in peace, right? 00:18:26.559 --> 00:18:28.720 Because that's what we say when somebody passes. 00:18:28.880 --> 00:18:30.960 We say, oh, would they would they rest in peace? 00:18:31.119 --> 00:18:32.079 R.I.P., right? 00:18:32.160 --> 00:18:35.599 Like, I mean, we start seeing that at Halloween, little, you know, tombstones, R.I.P. 00:18:35.839 --> 00:18:45.200 But this idea of rest in peace, and I went back to to read what I what I prayed at his funeral because I was like, I wonder what I prayed at his funeral. 00:18:45.359 --> 00:18:50.799 And this was the closing prayer, and I didn't write this prayer, I said this prayer, this is a historic prayer. 00:18:50.960 --> 00:19:01.519 Into your hands, O merciful Savior, we commend your servant, a sheep of your own fold, a lamb of your own flock, a sinner of your own redeeming. 00:19:02.079 --> 00:19:12.880 Receive him into your arms of mercy, into the blessed rest of everlasting peace, in the glorious company of the children of God. 00:19:14.319 --> 00:19:16.720 You've probably heard something like that before, right? 00:19:17.440 --> 00:19:22.799 Into the blessed rest of everlasting peace. 00:19:24.400 --> 00:19:26.960 Because death is the final rest. 00:19:27.680 --> 00:19:34.400 We get to actually experience, actually experience everlasting peace, relief from all this that we struggle with. 00:19:34.559 --> 00:19:38.880 But what James is saying, James is saying, hey, live in the wisdom of God now. 00:19:39.599 --> 00:19:46.240 Like you'll have to die a thousand deaths to jealousy and selfish ambition to do this and all that foolishness. 00:19:46.319 --> 00:19:48.240 You have to die to that every single day. 00:19:48.319 --> 00:19:58.319 You have to pray thousands of confessional prayers of you, not in order to be forgiven, but to remember you are forgiven and you are already righteous. 00:20:02.079 --> 00:20:10.240 Point number three, the image for you to hold and for you to be held by is God holding you. 00:20:10.480 --> 00:20:13.279 The image for you to hold and to be held by is God holding you. 00:20:13.440 --> 00:20:15.200 Mark 9, 36 and 37. 00:20:15.359 --> 00:20:27.680 And he took a child and he put him in the midst of them, and taking him in his arms, he said to them, Whoever receives one such child in my name receives me, and whoever receives me receives not me, but him who sent me. 00:20:27.920 --> 00:20:33.359 Well, that's a bunch of kind of religious, kind of coded language there, but here's what it means. 00:20:33.599 --> 00:20:36.240 At the time, children had no importance. 00:20:38.000 --> 00:20:39.279 They were just kind of a nuisance. 00:20:39.599 --> 00:20:40.319 They were last. 00:20:40.400 --> 00:20:42.799 And the word for children is the same word for servant. 00:20:43.759 --> 00:20:52.160 And yet, children, like what we know, we think of children it's the perfect image of beautiful and imperfect, right? 00:20:52.319 --> 00:20:57.759 Like all the time, you're like, you're so beautiful, and you're driving me nuts, right? 00:20:57.839 --> 00:20:59.039 We know that experience. 00:20:59.200 --> 00:21:01.119 Whether you have children or not, you know the experience. 00:21:01.200 --> 00:21:03.200 Maybe more if you don't have children. 00:21:03.759 --> 00:21:10.559 And God says, let those, them, that beautiful and imperfect, let them come to me and I will hold them. 00:21:10.799 --> 00:21:18.079 So here the disciples are, and they're all worried about who's the greatest, who's the greatest, and my life's gonna be all about this, get to be the greatest, I'm gonna accomplish stuff, I'm gonna be the greatest. 00:21:18.160 --> 00:21:20.160 They're killing themselves with this argument. 00:21:20.319 --> 00:21:24.960 You can't have that argument and have peace in your inner self and your heart. 00:21:25.440 --> 00:21:27.359 And then there's these children. 00:21:28.160 --> 00:21:30.559 Simply come and they allow themselves to be loved. 00:21:30.640 --> 00:21:33.039 And I'm not a child psychologist. 00:21:33.359 --> 00:21:35.599 I'm not, but I do know this. 00:21:36.000 --> 00:21:43.519 I know a child is wonderfully free and at peace when they know they are loved. 00:21:43.839 --> 00:21:48.559 My my youngest little girl, she still doesn't know what day it is. 00:21:48.640 --> 00:21:50.319 And I'm like, oh, I love that. 00:21:50.480 --> 00:21:52.400 That's amazing, right? 00:21:52.559 --> 00:21:59.039 She doesn't even know what on a Saturday, she's not sure if we've eaten lunch or dinner or like, she doesn't know. 00:21:59.680 --> 00:22:00.880 It's so wonderful. 00:22:01.119 --> 00:22:07.279 We get in the car, she doesn't know if we're going to Florida or we're going like to just Chick-fil-A for 30 minutes. 00:22:07.359 --> 00:22:09.119 She's just like, hey, where are we going? 00:22:09.920 --> 00:22:11.119 Okay, sounds great. 00:22:11.279 --> 00:22:20.400 Like because she's so secure and a love for her that she has never even thought to question. 00:22:20.880 --> 00:22:22.880 She's never even thought to question it. 00:22:23.920 --> 00:22:25.200 She's held. 00:22:26.720 --> 00:22:42.079 Will you allow yourself to be loved before you're great, before you're accomplished, before you're thin, before you're perfect enough or good enough, will you allow yourself to be defined by God's love for you? 00:22:42.799 --> 00:22:46.960 You're beautiful and yet you are incredibly imperfect. 00:22:47.440 --> 00:22:50.160 But God's love for you is even greater than it all. 00:22:50.400 --> 00:22:54.000 My brothers and sisters, may the peace of God hold you and define you. 00:22:54.160 --> 00:22:55.200 Let's pray together. 00:22:55.519 --> 00:23:02.640 God, thank you for your grace and mercy, that in your truth you lay out for us and you reveal to us how foolish we are. 00:23:03.359 --> 00:23:12.000 That we would give our lives to jealousy and selfish ambition, and the entire time we would fight the very thing we want peace. 00:23:13.519 --> 00:23:22.000 And that you give us your truth, that the peace is in the wisdom of God, in your character, and in the person of Jesus. 00:23:22.160 --> 00:23:27.680 And we thank you that while we fail before all of this, Jesus is enough for us. 00:23:28.720 --> 00:23:33.440 We don't have to do more or try harder this morning or tomorrow. 00:23:34.000 --> 00:23:40.799 Help us to live in a greater recognition that we are not as you have called us to be, and yet you are perfect for us. 00:23:41.039 --> 00:23:43.359 Your love for us is enough. 00:23:43.599 --> 00:23:48.720 May that be not just knowledge, but may it be our experience. 00:23:50.880 --> 00:23:52.799 We thank you for the gift of Jesus. 00:23:54.880 --> 00:23:57.519 May it define us in greater and greater ways. 00:23:57.759 --> 00:23:58.400 Amen.