WEBVTT 00:00:00.080 --> 00:00:06.240 So that first verse in our passage says you ought to keep praying. 00:00:06.639 --> 00:00:10.160 Don't stop praying because I don't want you to lose heart. 00:00:10.320 --> 00:00:12.800 This is how Luke sets up this parable that Jesus teaches. 00:00:12.960 --> 00:00:14.080 He says, Don't lose heart. 00:00:14.240 --> 00:00:16.640 It's like Luke is saying, I don't want you to lose heart. 00:00:16.800 --> 00:00:19.280 I know it's going to be easy for you to lose heart. 00:00:19.440 --> 00:00:21.760 It's going to be incredibly easy for you. 00:00:22.559 --> 00:00:24.480 It's easy to get distraught. 00:00:24.640 --> 00:00:27.440 That's the other word, maybe it's in your text, in your version. 00:00:27.679 --> 00:00:34.399 Don't lose heart because life is hard and it gets busy and it's tiring and things didn't work out and that person didn't work out. 00:00:34.479 --> 00:00:38.159 And maybe you lost a person or somebody's sick or you're sick. 00:00:38.320 --> 00:00:39.119 You didn't plan on it. 00:00:39.200 --> 00:00:40.320 Your plan didn't work out. 00:00:40.479 --> 00:00:42.079 Your dream is not working out. 00:00:42.240 --> 00:00:44.159 Don't lose heart. 00:00:45.920 --> 00:00:47.119 It's not over. 00:00:48.000 --> 00:00:49.679 Not in this life or in the next. 00:00:49.840 --> 00:00:54.719 Not for a God who loves us in pain and through pain and in difficulty and through difficulty. 00:00:54.960 --> 00:00:55.679 Don't lose heart. 00:00:56.000 --> 00:00:57.039 You're going to want to lose heart. 00:00:57.119 --> 00:01:01.280 You're going to want to move into pain and stay there and not move through it. 00:01:01.359 --> 00:01:05.359 You're going to want to just stay in some sort of apathy or throw the talon. 00:01:05.599 --> 00:01:06.079 Don't do that. 00:01:06.239 --> 00:01:06.799 Don't do that. 00:01:06.879 --> 00:01:08.000 Don't lose heart. 00:01:08.239 --> 00:01:09.680 Keep praying. 00:01:10.000 --> 00:01:16.719 And that's Luke's way of not just saying, like, you know, you're going to sit on your knees in your room and close your hands. 00:01:17.040 --> 00:01:20.400 It's his way of saying, don't stop engaging with God. 00:01:22.799 --> 00:01:24.079 So that's the setup. 00:01:24.719 --> 00:01:25.599 Don't lose heart. 00:01:25.680 --> 00:01:26.480 It's going to be easy. 00:01:26.640 --> 00:01:28.000 It'll be easy for you to lose heart. 00:01:28.079 --> 00:01:28.959 Don't lose heart. 00:01:30.560 --> 00:01:43.120 And then Jesus begins in on this teaching, and there's a woman who keeps bothering a judge for justice, probably some sort of financial issue with somebody else, and finally he gives in to her. 00:01:43.200 --> 00:01:44.400 And the woman's a widow. 00:01:44.560 --> 00:01:48.480 So right away we know in this culture she's lost her social standing. 00:01:48.640 --> 00:01:49.760 She's a nobody. 00:01:49.920 --> 00:01:52.480 She's in need, and she's begging this judge. 00:01:52.640 --> 00:01:54.480 She has she has nowhere else to go. 00:01:55.359 --> 00:01:56.879 She's in financial need. 00:01:57.840 --> 00:01:59.519 She's losing heart. 00:01:59.920 --> 00:02:01.439 She has nowhere else to go. 00:02:02.480 --> 00:02:03.519 End of a rope. 00:02:03.680 --> 00:02:06.400 And she's in front of this judge. 00:02:08.319 --> 00:02:11.360 In 2005, there was a judge in New York. 00:02:11.919 --> 00:02:14.479 A cell phone went off in his courtroom. 00:02:14.719 --> 00:02:16.719 There's 46 people in his courtroom. 00:02:16.879 --> 00:02:18.159 A cell phone went off in his courtroom. 00:02:18.240 --> 00:02:21.680 He'd already told the courtroom, everybody, have your phones on silent or turn them off. 00:02:21.840 --> 00:02:26.800 A cell phone goes off in his courtroom, and he cannot believe this in his courtroom. 00:02:26.879 --> 00:02:29.039 How dare these people not obey him? 00:02:29.120 --> 00:02:34.719 And he says, Whoever's phone went off, confess up, confess it. 00:02:35.599 --> 00:02:38.400 Nobody fesses up, nobody confesses it. 00:02:39.199 --> 00:02:41.680 So he puts everybody in jail. 00:02:41.840 --> 00:02:44.719 Out of his own gratification, true story. 00:02:44.879 --> 00:02:48.159 Out of his own, I found it, I found it on the web, it's gotta be true. 00:02:48.719 --> 00:02:55.520 Out of his own gratification and convenience, he arrests 46 people and puts them in jail. 00:02:55.680 --> 00:03:01.680 Out of his own gratification and convenience, he makes this unjust ruling. 00:03:01.840 --> 00:03:03.919 Now maybe you've been in front of a judge. 00:03:04.159 --> 00:03:06.560 Maybe you know a judge, maybe you are a judge. 00:03:07.759 --> 00:03:21.120 And maybe a judge can be short-tempered, maybe a judge can be creative, but we do expect a judge to have a respect for God and man. 00:03:22.639 --> 00:03:25.520 And to be fair in response to that foundation. 00:03:27.199 --> 00:03:37.680 And when we hear about judges who are not fair and they don't have a respect for God and for man, and fair in response to that foundation, we sort of want them off their bench. 00:03:37.840 --> 00:03:39.680 You need to move along, you need to go to another job. 00:03:39.759 --> 00:03:40.960 It's not a job for you. 00:03:41.120 --> 00:03:49.919 And then we get Luke 18, and Jesus uses an unjust judge who does not care about God or man to represent God. 00:03:55.039 --> 00:04:06.479 And it's because this judge goes in crazy favor for a woman that any other judge would not even let into their courtroom. 00:04:07.439 --> 00:04:11.439 So point number one, the unjust judge is crazy. 00:04:12.639 --> 00:04:15.120 For a while the judge tells her to take a hike. 00:04:15.280 --> 00:04:16.079 Just, you know what? 00:04:16.160 --> 00:04:17.439 Just go away. 00:04:17.519 --> 00:04:18.959 Just go away, go away, go away. 00:04:19.120 --> 00:04:20.879 And then a shift occurs in verse 4. 00:04:21.120 --> 00:04:34.319 For a while he refused, but afterward he said to himself, Though I neither fear God nor respect man, yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will give her justice, so that she will not beat me down. 00:04:34.560 --> 00:04:39.759 This is his reason, this is his reasoning, so that she will not beat me down by her continual coming. 00:04:40.000 --> 00:04:50.560 And the Lord said, Hear what the unrighteous judge says, and will not God give justice to his elect, to you, to his beloved, who cry to him day and night, will he delay long over them? 00:04:50.959 --> 00:04:54.319 So let's just review this man's train of thought. 00:04:54.560 --> 00:04:58.399 A judge, a beacon of righteousness and justice. 00:04:59.680 --> 00:05:01.920 Doesn't fear God, doesn't care for people. 00:05:02.800 --> 00:05:11.439 And just for his convenience, just to shut her up, he will grant her favor. 00:05:12.000 --> 00:05:13.040 That's it. 00:05:13.279 --> 00:05:15.279 And that's the point of this parable. 00:05:15.519 --> 00:05:24.160 He is willing to be perceived as a bad judge, perceived as a bad judge in order to grant favor upon her. 00:05:24.639 --> 00:05:34.240 This is crazy thinking for a judge whose entire career rests on just rulings based on sound arguments, not a ruling based out of his own desire. 00:05:34.560 --> 00:05:35.839 But he doesn't care. 00:05:37.199 --> 00:05:38.879 Just to grant favor upon her. 00:05:41.279 --> 00:05:44.240 Two weeks ago, we sent all three of our little girls off to school. 00:05:44.480 --> 00:05:46.160 First time all three are in school. 00:05:46.240 --> 00:05:48.079 Praise God, no more preschool payments. 00:05:48.160 --> 00:05:49.360 That's fantastic. 00:05:49.600 --> 00:05:51.519 It's a new season of a life for us. 00:05:51.839 --> 00:06:01.839 And so they're on the front porch, back, all three have their backpacks on, they're all dressed in their little navy and white school uniforms, ponytails and ribbons and all that going on. 00:06:01.920 --> 00:06:03.360 We're taking these pictures. 00:06:03.600 --> 00:06:06.319 And Christian, we just can't love them anymore. 00:06:06.480 --> 00:06:08.160 I mean, like you look in that moment, right? 00:06:08.240 --> 00:06:11.759 Like you're not you're not thinking about laundry too much in that one moment, right? 00:06:11.920 --> 00:06:19.519 Like a minute later you are, but in that one moment, you're not thinking too much about laundry or difficulty, and they're not, they're not, you know, on each other too much. 00:06:19.600 --> 00:06:24.399 And just in that one moment, you're like, I can't, I can't love them any more than this, right? 00:06:24.480 --> 00:06:41.279 There's just those moments when you're not thinking about all the difficulty, and there is harmony, and your heart is so full of love for someone, and maybe it's not your children, maybe you don't have children, maybe it's for a niece or nephew or aunt or uncle or a parent, maybe it's for your dog. 00:06:41.360 --> 00:06:42.639 Like I really love my dog. 00:06:42.720 --> 00:06:45.040 It's kind of crazy how much you can love a dog. 00:06:45.759 --> 00:06:49.199 And you can you think I just can't love any more than this. 00:06:49.839 --> 00:06:57.439 And then time passes, like a week passes or a month passes, and then you're in another moment, right? 00:06:58.399 --> 00:07:10.000 And it's a good moment, another moment where like there's harmony again, and you're not thinking about all the difficulty, and you look at that person and you're like, oh my gosh, I love them more. 00:07:10.720 --> 00:07:12.399 Like, how did that happen? 00:07:16.000 --> 00:07:21.680 We revert to measurement a lot of times in this moment where we'll say, like, I love you to the moon and back, right? 00:07:22.639 --> 00:07:24.480 But that's kind of limiting. 00:07:25.199 --> 00:07:29.120 Because that's 238,900 miles to the moon times two. 00:07:29.360 --> 00:07:32.560 So you're you've kind of limited your love a little bit. 00:07:32.879 --> 00:07:38.720 So maybe you would say something like, Well, I love you like the Milky Way, but that's still limiting because that's a measurement, right? 00:07:38.800 --> 00:07:41.120 That's 150,000 light years across. 00:07:41.199 --> 00:07:46.959 And I know a light year is really fast because light can go around the Earth seven times in a second, so that's pretty fast. 00:07:47.199 --> 00:07:49.680 And the galaxy is a hundred, our galaxy, right? 00:07:49.759 --> 00:07:54.639 Which is a small one, by the way, 150,000 light years across, but still a measurement, right? 00:07:54.720 --> 00:07:56.560 So it's still limited, it's finite. 00:07:57.120 --> 00:07:59.199 But the universe is something different. 00:08:00.639 --> 00:08:04.319 See, the universe made up of all these different galaxies, galaxies we don't even know about. 00:08:04.720 --> 00:08:10.560 The universe is actually, people believe, like real, real smart people, like scientists, believe it's still growing. 00:08:10.720 --> 00:08:13.279 The universe is actually still growing. 00:08:16.000 --> 00:08:19.360 So I love you to the moon and back, it's a little limiting. 00:08:20.319 --> 00:08:24.399 But I I love you like the universe is growing. 00:08:25.040 --> 00:08:32.320 Now, now, only then have we begin to touch into like the sort of favor and love God has. 00:08:32.480 --> 00:08:39.279 Like a crazy, a crazy God with love, finite, imperfect people. 00:08:42.080 --> 00:08:47.519 It's crazy thinking to people like us who want to put parameters on God's love. 00:08:48.320 --> 00:08:53.039 And it's just, I I love them because they're mine. 00:08:54.000 --> 00:08:56.080 Jesus didn't have to make the woman a widow. 00:08:56.159 --> 00:08:59.679 He made the woman a widow in the story on purpose. 00:09:00.000 --> 00:09:03.279 Because she would have been somebody who just didn't have her act together. 00:09:04.720 --> 00:09:09.440 Point number two, the unjust judge teaches us of God's crazy love. 00:09:11.679 --> 00:09:22.399 This strange story is telling us God is willing, God is willing to be perceived as a bad God in order to favor us. 00:09:22.960 --> 00:09:40.320 Now, he's not actually a bad God, but he's willing to be perceived as that by the religious people in order to favor broken, needy, sinful people, by which all of us are, including the religious people, that perhaps had a perception of this bad God. 00:09:41.840 --> 00:09:44.159 My favorite Jesus story is John 8. 00:09:44.320 --> 00:09:45.200 I tell it all the time. 00:09:45.279 --> 00:09:48.399 I think it comes up about every two or three months in a sermon. 00:09:48.480 --> 00:10:00.399 And you remember it, the lady was caught in adultery, and the religious folks they go and they grab her and they bring her in front of Jesus and a whole bunch of other people in the town, and they say, Hey, we caught her in adultery. 00:10:00.639 --> 00:10:03.440 The law says we we need to stone her to death. 00:10:04.559 --> 00:10:07.759 Everybody's gathered around, she's there, she's exposed. 00:10:09.200 --> 00:10:10.720 She has no case. 00:10:12.320 --> 00:10:15.039 She has no case, no standing. 00:10:15.360 --> 00:10:17.360 She doesn't even voice a case. 00:10:17.519 --> 00:10:17.919 She can't. 00:10:18.559 --> 00:10:19.840 She has nothing to offer here. 00:10:19.919 --> 00:10:21.679 She's helpless, she's helpless. 00:10:22.639 --> 00:10:25.519 And the Pharisees throw the question at Jesus, what are you going to do? 00:10:25.679 --> 00:10:27.679 I mean, the law says you need to stone her. 00:10:27.759 --> 00:10:29.039 That's what the law says. 00:10:29.279 --> 00:10:31.039 Are you going to be a good judge? 00:10:32.480 --> 00:10:35.279 Because a good judge will stone her. 00:10:35.519 --> 00:10:40.320 So the law says, Will you be a good judge, or will you decide to be a bad judge and will you do something else? 00:10:40.480 --> 00:10:41.279 Will you break that? 00:10:44.799 --> 00:10:48.399 And Jesus kneels down, stands up, and he kneels down and stands up. 00:10:48.480 --> 00:10:50.159 He does some awkward stuff there. 00:10:50.480 --> 00:10:54.399 And perhaps I've always thought maybe that's just to get the attention off of her and onto him. 00:10:54.559 --> 00:10:57.120 We don't know what he's doing, drawing pictures in the dirt. 00:10:57.519 --> 00:10:58.559 I don't know what he's doing. 00:10:58.720 --> 00:10:59.600 Nobody knows. 00:10:59.840 --> 00:11:17.360 But he moves the argument from law and justice to human experience and grace very quickly when he says, hey, okay, if any one of you, if any one of you has no sin, cast the first stone. 00:11:20.240 --> 00:11:20.559 Right? 00:11:20.799 --> 00:11:23.279 He's saying, you're no better than her. 00:11:24.960 --> 00:11:26.480 We know what the law is. 00:11:26.879 --> 00:11:29.120 We know what the law does to us, to me. 00:11:29.279 --> 00:11:34.320 The law is righteous, it's true, but we are imperfect before it. 00:11:35.919 --> 00:11:37.600 I'm not gonna stone her. 00:11:38.080 --> 00:11:39.679 You shouldn't stone her. 00:11:41.120 --> 00:11:46.399 You need a God who loves like a crazy judge, just like she does. 00:11:46.639 --> 00:11:52.240 And slowly everybody drops their stones and they leave, and then he says to her, you know, neither do I condemn you. 00:11:52.320 --> 00:11:53.919 I don't even condemn you. 00:11:54.399 --> 00:11:56.320 Go now and leave your life of sin. 00:11:56.559 --> 00:12:00.240 What a crazy proclamation to declare over this woman. 00:12:00.399 --> 00:12:01.840 I don't condemn you. 00:12:02.480 --> 00:12:12.559 Everything she just did deserved judgment and condemnation, and yet the judge decides to be perceived as a bad judge and say, I don't condemn you. 00:12:13.039 --> 00:12:14.159 Offer you love. 00:12:15.440 --> 00:12:18.240 And all of this is crazy love. 00:12:19.840 --> 00:12:21.360 But he's not actually a bad judge. 00:12:21.519 --> 00:12:23.200 That's the interesting thing about the whole thing. 00:12:23.440 --> 00:12:25.919 He's actually completely just and righteous. 00:12:26.240 --> 00:12:29.360 It's just that God decided to take it upon himself. 00:12:29.679 --> 00:12:30.000 Right? 00:12:30.159 --> 00:12:32.480 Our sin is cast upon Jesus on the cross. 00:12:32.639 --> 00:12:36.559 His righteousness is given to us that we might be forever the beloved. 00:12:37.919 --> 00:12:44.159 But that's very hard to understand to people who love merit and performance. 00:12:45.440 --> 00:12:50.240 Point number three, our hope, our hope is in God's crazy love. 00:12:50.320 --> 00:12:51.679 It's the only place for hope. 00:12:51.840 --> 00:12:54.240 Hope meaning how how will you live? 00:12:54.399 --> 00:12:58.559 How will you live in a non-anxious presence and joy and freedom? 00:12:59.039 --> 00:12:59.679 How will you do that? 00:12:59.840 --> 00:13:05.200 How will you have a confidence for tomorrow that you can handle tomorrow and not lose heart? 00:13:05.279 --> 00:13:06.159 How will you do that? 00:13:06.320 --> 00:13:08.720 How will you have that sort of hope? 00:13:10.639 --> 00:13:12.639 Well, do you know that you're loved? 00:13:13.279 --> 00:13:18.720 That you are favored rather than judged by God Himself? 00:13:19.120 --> 00:13:24.399 And this love forever lives and works in you. 00:13:26.320 --> 00:13:31.360 When Christy and I first got married, we went on a road trip and we we stopped we stopped for gas, and I can remember this. 00:13:32.720 --> 00:13:35.039 She goes in, I assume she's going in to use the restroom. 00:13:35.120 --> 00:13:38.000 She comes back out, she has a Diet Coke and hot tamales. 00:13:38.240 --> 00:13:40.000 Interesting combination, by the way. 00:13:42.320 --> 00:13:47.919 And I don't want to cause a candy split or issue here, but that's bottom shelf candy. 00:13:48.080 --> 00:13:48.639 You know. 00:13:50.080 --> 00:13:52.799 They just sell it off the floor in most gas stations. 00:13:52.879 --> 00:13:54.240 I mean, it's it's the bottom. 00:13:54.399 --> 00:13:55.039 It's the bottom. 00:13:55.120 --> 00:13:59.120 It's not respectable like Reese's Pieces or intellectual like a junior mint. 00:13:59.440 --> 00:14:01.759 I mean, that's hot tamales, let's be honest. 00:14:02.000 --> 00:14:05.840 And so she gets in the car and I share my views about her candy. 00:14:06.559 --> 00:14:09.200 And she shares with me a few words. 00:14:10.240 --> 00:14:12.559 But for me, this was also new. 00:14:13.360 --> 00:14:17.039 This was new to grab a snack at a gas station. 00:14:17.279 --> 00:14:21.200 How many of you grew up in families that grab snacks at gas stations as you grew up? 00:14:21.360 --> 00:14:21.600 Okay? 00:14:21.759 --> 00:14:23.759 How many of you you're like, what? 00:14:24.000 --> 00:14:25.279 A snack in a gas station? 00:14:25.440 --> 00:14:26.799 Dad would have never. 00:14:27.039 --> 00:14:28.559 Yeah, okay, that's me. 00:14:28.799 --> 00:14:31.600 We barely were allowed out of the car to use the restroom. 00:14:31.679 --> 00:14:32.639 We had to make good time. 00:14:32.799 --> 00:14:35.039 Time was very important more than the snack. 00:14:36.960 --> 00:14:38.639 But for me, that was new, okay? 00:14:38.799 --> 00:14:39.679 I didn't grow up in that. 00:14:39.759 --> 00:14:44.159 If you wanted food, you should have brought it in the car from the house and a little cooler. 00:14:44.320 --> 00:14:45.120 That's how it should have been. 00:14:45.200 --> 00:14:46.159 That's how it worked. 00:14:46.399 --> 00:14:48.559 And Christy's over there, she's chomping away. 00:14:48.799 --> 00:14:50.559 Hot Somalies is allowed candy. 00:14:50.639 --> 00:14:51.600 We know that. 00:14:53.120 --> 00:14:54.960 I didn't get anything, so I sat over there. 00:14:55.039 --> 00:14:59.039 I'm driving and judgment upon her and her trashy candy and all of that. 00:14:59.279 --> 00:15:04.639 And she, of course, on these road trips, she continues to get a drink and candy. 00:15:04.879 --> 00:15:05.759 Over and over again. 00:15:05.840 --> 00:15:09.679 And she would say stuff to me like, Russ, road trips are hard enough. 00:15:10.000 --> 00:15:11.840 Like, just get a snack. 00:15:12.720 --> 00:15:14.799 Like, give yourself a break. 00:15:14.960 --> 00:15:17.919 Like, we're gonna be in the car for eight hours. 00:15:18.159 --> 00:15:20.480 Just like, it's three dollars. 00:15:21.679 --> 00:15:24.240 But I have all that all this stinginess, you know. 00:15:24.320 --> 00:15:26.159 So I'm like, well, you know, she's happy. 00:15:26.240 --> 00:15:35.120 She's over there happy as can be, and I'm in judgment about her trashy candy, and you know, and I'm starving and I'm miserable, but I'm not spending three dollars. 00:15:36.399 --> 00:15:38.480 The strangest thing happened. 00:15:39.120 --> 00:15:41.600 I don't know when it happened, but it happened at some point. 00:15:41.840 --> 00:15:51.360 Some point I gassed up and I used the restroom, and I got a Coke and trail mix, something respectable. 00:15:51.440 --> 00:15:55.600 I couldn't go back to the car with just you know anything, so twizzlers. 00:15:55.679 --> 00:15:56.879 I wasn't gonna do Twizzler. 00:15:58.879 --> 00:16:04.639 And I get back in the car, my Coke, and my trail, trail mix, and you know what you got there? 00:16:04.799 --> 00:16:05.759 What you got there, Russ? 00:16:05.919 --> 00:16:06.960 She got a snack. 00:16:07.279 --> 00:16:07.919 Good. 00:16:08.240 --> 00:16:14.720 Like she'd been waiting years for this transformation out of my judgment and stinginess. 00:16:15.360 --> 00:16:18.159 And we we wear each other down, don't we? 00:16:18.559 --> 00:16:24.000 Not in demand or judgment, that doesn't work toward joy. 00:16:25.200 --> 00:16:29.120 But we do wear each other down with truth and grace and love. 00:16:29.679 --> 00:16:33.759 And a persistent crazy love is the love that we have from God to us. 00:16:34.080 --> 00:16:35.600 Because it just doesn't stop. 00:16:37.440 --> 00:16:39.919 That's why Luke set it up with don't lose heart. 00:16:40.240 --> 00:16:56.559 Because the love, this crazy judge that favors us, how he favors us in Jesus, it doesn't stop because you're imperfect or you're broken or your act's not together, or you're super stressed out, or you're fearful, or life's hard, or there's suffering. 00:16:58.159 --> 00:17:05.039 And the persistent love wears us down and it gives life to all sorts of dead places that we didn't even know were dead. 00:17:06.880 --> 00:17:11.440 We're worn down by the absurdity of it, that it doesn't need any merit. 00:17:11.839 --> 00:17:19.839 And that's absurd to any of us or to a world or any churches that are infatuated with merit or pride. 00:17:20.319 --> 00:17:27.759 A God who accepts and justifies, that's the word in the text, justifies, we justify me, we justify, will you make me right? 00:17:29.599 --> 00:17:34.240 That you would be justified by his crazy favor upon you. 00:17:35.039 --> 00:17:36.880 Though you have no case. 00:17:46.160 --> 00:17:55.039 So we circle back around that verse one, and he told them a parable to the effect that they ought always to pray and not lose heart. 00:17:56.799 --> 00:18:12.799 So, last point, point number four, prayer isn't a way to manipulate God for things, but to be in a posture where we can be worn down by God's persistent love as to have hope. 00:18:14.000 --> 00:18:26.000 So, isn't it silly that we so often base our Christian faith in what we do for God when the entire time is all about what he has done for us. 00:18:27.359 --> 00:18:30.480 His persistent love toward us. 00:18:31.119 --> 00:18:39.279 My brothers and sisters, in Jesus the Christ, he accepts you and he favors you with a crazy love. 00:18:39.759 --> 00:18:41.759 May you walk in peace. 00:18:42.000 --> 00:18:43.200 Let's pray together. 00:18:43.519 --> 00:18:46.079 God, we thank you for the gift of Jesus. 00:18:46.799 --> 00:18:56.720 That was a crazy act of justice, undeserved to people who have no case. 00:18:58.319 --> 00:19:00.079 Yet we come needy. 00:19:00.720 --> 00:19:02.720 And we show up empty-handed. 00:19:03.440 --> 00:19:06.160 We have nowhere else to go for justification. 00:19:07.920 --> 00:19:21.279 And yet, by grace, through faith, you justify us as valuable, as righteous as your beloved. 00:19:22.480 --> 00:19:27.440 Free us from all the ways that we make you really small and make your love small. 00:19:27.680 --> 00:19:33.599 All the ways we rely upon our own behaviors for our righteousness or justification in this world. 00:19:34.000 --> 00:19:42.960 Increase our faith in you that we might trust in you and walk in a non anxious joy and freedom in this world. 00:19:43.200 --> 00:19:43.759 Amen.