WEBVTT 00:00:00.640 --> 00:00:06.480 So, our sermon this morning's following, we're going through different parables of grace during the summer. 00:00:06.799 --> 00:00:08.880 Today we have two different parables. 00:00:09.039 --> 00:00:11.519 Hopefully, I'll be able to connect them a little bit. 00:00:11.759 --> 00:00:16.399 So, Tuesday night was our children's last swim meet. 00:00:16.879 --> 00:00:17.920 It was Tuesday night. 00:00:18.079 --> 00:00:19.199 Christy was volunteering. 00:00:19.600 --> 00:00:24.160 She was a lane, not a lane manager, but like she helped the kids line up. 00:00:24.239 --> 00:00:39.520 So she sort of like over all the lanes and she stood back, and a parent would bring their child down to her and sort of deliver the kid to her, and then she would deliver the kid to the right lane in the right spot to make sure the right kid jumps off the block to do the right race. 00:00:39.600 --> 00:00:42.479 And so she's constantly making sure all the kids are lined up in the right places. 00:00:42.560 --> 00:00:46.079 And so she's interacting with all these different parents and different kids, getting them lined up. 00:00:46.240 --> 00:00:50.159 So she tells me this story, she says, this one mom, she didn't know this mom, she didn't know this child. 00:00:50.240 --> 00:00:56.719 And this one mom comes down and the mom gets the child just in the right lane, got that right, got the right spot. 00:00:56.799 --> 00:00:59.520 And then the mom does what most parents do at this moment. 00:00:59.679 --> 00:01:03.520 Says, you know, uh, sweetheart, I'll be walking to the other end of the pool. 00:01:03.759 --> 00:01:04.959 It was a little six-year-old girl. 00:01:05.040 --> 00:01:06.959 So they're not swimming two ways, just one way. 00:01:07.200 --> 00:01:10.560 Sweetheart, I'll be at the other end of the pool. 00:01:10.959 --> 00:01:12.959 You know, so so you have nothing to worry about. 00:01:13.040 --> 00:01:16.400 I'll be down there, I'll be cheering for you, I'll be, I'll be waiting for you, I'll be down there. 00:01:16.480 --> 00:01:17.599 I'm gonna walk down there. 00:01:17.760 --> 00:01:18.400 That's normal. 00:01:18.560 --> 00:01:21.680 It's usually the end of the conversation, usually the parent leaves at that point. 00:01:21.920 --> 00:01:23.840 But this mom did something different. 00:01:24.159 --> 00:01:32.319 This mom then knelt down, looked the child right in the face, and said, I love you. 00:01:33.439 --> 00:01:35.040 You have nothing to worry about. 00:01:35.280 --> 00:01:38.560 I love you before you swim. 00:01:39.760 --> 00:01:41.359 Isn't that amazing? 00:01:41.840 --> 00:01:44.000 I mean, isn't that amazing? 00:01:44.239 --> 00:01:50.640 I mean, what a moment, right, for a parent to give that to her little child. 00:01:50.959 --> 00:01:53.840 And do you think this meant the child, ah, I'm not gonna swim at all? 00:01:53.920 --> 00:01:56.000 I already got the love, good to go. 00:01:56.239 --> 00:01:56.560 Right? 00:01:56.719 --> 00:01:57.920 No, of course not. 00:01:58.400 --> 00:01:59.840 But it relieved the child. 00:02:00.000 --> 00:02:02.719 What an amazing picture of the gospel. 00:02:02.879 --> 00:02:05.599 This was good news to this little girl, right? 00:02:05.840 --> 00:02:13.120 That her performance had no sway in her mom's love for her. 00:02:14.400 --> 00:02:17.520 And I start with that thought because that's the foundation of these parables. 00:02:17.599 --> 00:02:22.240 I mean, that's the gospel, that's the good news that in Jesus the love's already settled, right? 00:02:22.319 --> 00:02:28.000 Your absolution, your acceptance, all of it is already settled before you do anything, before you perform. 00:02:28.719 --> 00:02:33.360 The love is given to you because of Jesus' work for you on the cross, not any work you do. 00:02:34.240 --> 00:02:41.919 And so we come into this parable of Luke 11, and so we come into this idea of a good father who gives. 00:02:42.639 --> 00:02:45.919 And one guy's asleep, this other guy shows up in need. 00:02:46.080 --> 00:02:48.319 He doesn't show up at like 11 a.m. 00:02:48.719 --> 00:02:51.520 during Judge Judy when everybody's awake in the world, right? 00:02:51.599 --> 00:02:54.319 Like he shows up at midnight, right? 00:02:54.560 --> 00:02:56.319 I mean, this is desperation. 00:02:56.400 --> 00:03:02.879 You can't get more desperate than knocking on your friend's door in the middle of the night. 00:03:03.120 --> 00:03:08.240 I would dare say probably most of us have never done that because I'm not gonna bother them right now. 00:03:08.319 --> 00:03:09.759 I'll bother them in the morning. 00:03:09.919 --> 00:03:11.280 I'll talk to them in the morning. 00:03:11.439 --> 00:03:18.879 Like, most of us have never been to that level of desperation to wake our friend up in the middle of the night because we have some need. 00:03:19.120 --> 00:03:22.319 So there's just huge desperation here. 00:03:22.719 --> 00:03:25.280 This guy is at the end of his rope. 00:03:25.520 --> 00:03:32.800 And here's point number one: life and freedom are found in the surrendering of the self to God. 00:03:33.039 --> 00:03:40.479 Life and freedom are found in the surrendering of the self to God, not the assertion of the self apart from God. 00:03:40.800 --> 00:03:42.000 That's what Jesus is saying. 00:03:42.080 --> 00:03:45.919 He's saying, do you not see, do you not see that you're the guy at the door? 00:03:46.800 --> 00:03:51.280 Like, that's the best position for you to be in, is to be the guy at the door. 00:03:51.520 --> 00:03:58.319 His need is overriding his concern of image, his need is overriding, you know, I'm the father of friend. 00:03:58.639 --> 00:04:00.400 He's he's at a dead end. 00:04:01.280 --> 00:04:03.520 That's the persistence, right? 00:04:03.680 --> 00:04:10.159 Like, this is the persistence that we see, this persistence in prayer, this knocking, he won't go away. 00:04:10.319 --> 00:04:11.680 And it's not for more stuff. 00:04:11.759 --> 00:04:16.800 If you look at the context of this whole passage, it's not like ask and you'll get whatever you want. 00:04:16.959 --> 00:04:18.240 No, the whole context, right? 00:04:18.319 --> 00:04:19.279 You get to the end of it, right? 00:04:19.439 --> 00:04:23.360 Verse 11, what father among you, if a son asks for a fish, we'll instead give a fish, give a serpent. 00:04:23.519 --> 00:04:25.600 Or if he asks for an egg, we'll give him a scorpion. 00:04:25.759 --> 00:04:33.519 If you then who are evil know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the Heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him? 00:04:33.839 --> 00:04:36.399 The context is about life in the spirit. 00:04:36.639 --> 00:04:38.720 It's not about getting whatever you want. 00:04:39.040 --> 00:04:42.000 I mean, uh, you've probably been like me and tried, right? 00:04:42.160 --> 00:04:45.600 Like ask and you'll receive, and you're asking a whole bunch of different stuff, you don't get anything. 00:04:45.759 --> 00:04:46.959 Of course you don't get anything. 00:04:47.120 --> 00:04:48.560 That's not what this is about. 00:04:48.800 --> 00:04:54.560 This is about life in the spirit, which is what the life are really made for. 00:04:54.720 --> 00:05:11.920 Now, often we busy ourselves with like some sort of like moral, uh moral deeds or religious behavior to remove our guilt, or some achievement, try to get ourselves to the perfect body size or salary level, and then we won't have shame. 00:05:12.879 --> 00:05:24.319 But under that, under that is the desire to be known and to be loved, to be forgiven of sin, the removal of guilt, free from shame, right? 00:05:24.480 --> 00:05:30.000 To be to be fully known and to be loved, to be loved before you swim the race. 00:05:31.519 --> 00:05:33.680 And that's life in the spirit. 00:05:34.240 --> 00:05:36.720 And that's what the kingdom is always about. 00:05:38.319 --> 00:05:47.040 And the father gives it to those who desperately stand at the door and knock, and you're so desperate, you don't go away. 00:05:47.439 --> 00:05:51.040 It's just an all the time, constant, I need you. 00:05:51.199 --> 00:06:01.759 I need you in my life, I need you in this, I don't know what to do with this, I don't know how to handle this, I'm feeling ashamed, I'm afraid, I'm anxious, I feel guilty, I don't know how I'm feeling tempted, I don't know how to have your way with me. 00:06:01.920 --> 00:06:05.519 Like it's just a constant need, desperation. 00:06:07.360 --> 00:06:18.879 Point number two, our prayers and our life, our prayers are a sharing in the victory of the friend's rising, not the victory of our ability. 00:06:20.000 --> 00:06:20.399 Right? 00:06:20.639 --> 00:06:23.040 That's how this guy at the door gets anything. 00:06:23.199 --> 00:06:25.920 He gets something because the friend rises. 00:06:26.800 --> 00:06:29.519 Prayer's not the persistence of our agenda. 00:06:30.160 --> 00:06:32.240 That's not what this parable is. 00:06:32.639 --> 00:06:36.399 It's about the persistence of our need before God. 00:06:36.639 --> 00:06:39.439 So we pray for guidance and wisdom and clarity and direction. 00:06:39.519 --> 00:06:41.279 We even pray for healing, right? 00:06:41.439 --> 00:06:49.759 And we do all of that with open hands in a position of desperation, of surrender. 00:06:52.560 --> 00:07:03.360 Now, if we do that, we begin to understand what to pray for, which is just happens to be the verses right before this, Luke 11, 1 through 4, which is the Lord's Prayer. 00:07:03.519 --> 00:07:12.399 So it's like Jesus teaches the Lord's Prayer and He goes, Oh yeah, all right, now let me teach you about the position of your heart when you begin to pray. 00:07:12.639 --> 00:07:25.680 See, for you to pray on any consistent basis, will only come if you feel desperate before the Lord, that you actually need them, that you understand that position that you truly are in. 00:07:26.319 --> 00:07:30.000 Now we come to the second story, the parable of the rich fool. 00:07:30.160 --> 00:07:34.879 Someone yells out in Luke 12, 13, teacher, tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me. 00:07:34.959 --> 00:07:38.959 And Jesus starts into a parable and he says, to guard against coveting. 00:07:40.560 --> 00:07:40.879 Right? 00:07:40.959 --> 00:07:43.839 Like that, and coveting is like it's not to envy. 00:07:43.920 --> 00:07:45.839 So to envy is like, I really like that. 00:07:46.000 --> 00:07:47.199 Like I like your car. 00:07:47.360 --> 00:07:50.000 Coveting is I want your car, right? 00:07:50.079 --> 00:07:51.920 Like those are two different things. 00:07:52.079 --> 00:07:58.959 It's to want what your friend has and take it for yourself, to want your friend's house so they don't have it anymore and you have it. 00:07:59.040 --> 00:08:01.600 Like it's to that degree, and you want it. 00:08:01.680 --> 00:08:03.600 And Jesus says, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey. 00:08:03.839 --> 00:08:04.959 That's not what life is. 00:08:05.040 --> 00:08:07.279 Like you're gonna waste your whole life. 00:08:07.680 --> 00:08:10.319 Life doesn't consist in the abundance of your possessions. 00:08:10.399 --> 00:08:11.439 You're gonna waste your whole life. 00:08:11.519 --> 00:08:12.560 Don't do that. 00:08:14.000 --> 00:08:17.600 That hit me this week as I'm driving down the interstate and I see that billboard. 00:08:17.680 --> 00:08:19.279 You see them all the time, right? 00:08:19.600 --> 00:08:22.959 They said 202 million. 00:08:23.680 --> 00:08:24.240 Right? 00:08:24.560 --> 00:08:29.199 It was like 196 the day before, and then went to 202, and I don't know if anybody got it last night. 00:08:29.360 --> 00:08:30.639 Anybody in here get it last night? 00:08:30.720 --> 00:08:31.519 I don't know. 00:08:32.159 --> 00:08:36.159 And I didn't buy a ticket, but I'm thinking, I'd like to give that a try. 00:08:36.320 --> 00:08:38.879 Like, you know, I mean, I mean, I know the statistics, right? 00:08:38.960 --> 00:08:40.320 I mean, we all know the statistics. 00:08:40.399 --> 00:08:41.440 Like, you won't win, number one. 00:08:41.600 --> 00:08:43.840 Number two, if you do, you'll probably ruin your life, right? 00:08:43.919 --> 00:08:48.320 Like it's all the statistics, but I want to I I still go, I'd still like to try it. 00:08:48.399 --> 00:08:49.519 I think I can handle it. 00:08:49.679 --> 00:08:51.039 Maybe nobody else can. 00:08:51.279 --> 00:08:56.960 Because I have a hard time, and I don't know if you're like me, I have a hard time believing a car is just a car. 00:08:57.279 --> 00:09:02.000 Or a house is just a house, or a room is just a room, clothing is just clothing. 00:09:02.159 --> 00:09:04.399 I always want it to be something more. 00:09:04.559 --> 00:09:06.399 I try to use it for more, right? 00:09:06.480 --> 00:09:13.919 Like I try to use it to deliver me from my own anxiety or my guilt or my shame. 00:09:14.320 --> 00:09:17.759 To be my comforter, to be my functional savior. 00:09:20.000 --> 00:09:20.720 That's my sin. 00:09:20.799 --> 00:09:21.679 That's your sin. 00:09:21.840 --> 00:09:25.440 That's using the abundance of your possessions as a savior. 00:09:26.080 --> 00:09:28.320 And then I always need the next one. 00:09:28.480 --> 00:09:30.480 That's just that's the trap. 00:09:30.639 --> 00:09:34.559 You just always need the next one, and it keeps going. 00:09:35.440 --> 00:09:40.320 And maybe you've received your retirement report lately, your savings, and it comes in the mail. 00:09:40.399 --> 00:09:43.919 And then in January, we've got so excited every time we open those things, right? 00:09:44.000 --> 00:09:46.159 You know what I'm talking about, January and February, we're opening them up. 00:09:46.240 --> 00:09:48.240 We're feeling great, we're telling people about it. 00:09:48.480 --> 00:09:50.799 It kind of leveled off here in the middle of the year, right? 00:09:50.879 --> 00:09:53.759 The Trump bump was over, starts to level off. 00:09:53.919 --> 00:09:55.600 And you read it, it's not as exciting. 00:09:55.679 --> 00:09:58.320 I found myself not even opening it some months. 00:09:58.639 --> 00:10:01.039 Some of you don't care, some of you know exactly what I'm talking about. 00:10:01.200 --> 00:10:14.799 Some of the rest of you, you went to like a party at a friend's in a nicer neighborhood than your own, and you're in the backyard and you look at their shed and kind of the back corner of their yard, and you think, that shed is nicer than my house. 00:10:15.440 --> 00:10:18.960 You walk back there and look around it, and you're pretty sure it is nicer. 00:10:19.120 --> 00:10:20.720 It is nicer than your house. 00:10:20.960 --> 00:10:22.559 Everybody would agree. 00:10:23.440 --> 00:10:23.759 Right? 00:10:23.919 --> 00:10:26.720 You start to compare barns, right? 00:10:27.200 --> 00:10:37.519 And you realize you have like one barn, and then they have 17 barns or 37 barns, and the person, here's the here's the trick of the whole thing. 00:10:37.679 --> 00:10:40.480 The person with 37 barns, you have one, they have 37. 00:10:40.559 --> 00:10:44.320 The person with 37 seeing somebody with like 102, right? 00:10:46.879 --> 00:10:49.440 And then we always just need a few more barns. 00:10:50.080 --> 00:10:58.080 Because then, then, then you could eat and drink and be merry. 00:10:58.639 --> 00:11:12.320 And the secret is that the entire time you're chasing and managing these barns and another one, life and the spirit of God is available to you to eat and drink and be merry right now. 00:11:14.879 --> 00:11:17.279 So Jesus starts to tell this story. 00:11:18.080 --> 00:11:19.840 He says, There was a rich guy. 00:11:20.240 --> 00:11:21.840 Guy was doing really well for himself. 00:11:21.919 --> 00:11:25.759 I mean, it was the revenue was coming in, the crops were coming in. 00:11:25.919 --> 00:11:29.759 He had so much he didn't even have enough space. 00:11:30.879 --> 00:11:31.279 Right? 00:11:31.360 --> 00:11:34.159 Like one bank account at the bank wasn't enough. 00:11:34.240 --> 00:11:35.519 That the insurance ran out. 00:11:35.600 --> 00:11:41.919 He had to start opening up multiple bank accounts at different banks so they would all be insured, not just one barn, another barn, another barn. 00:11:42.000 --> 00:11:46.960 He had to keep going and going, couldn't even keep up with as much that was coming. 00:11:47.120 --> 00:11:51.919 So he tears down the small barns, he builds bigger barns, and more crops go in it, right? 00:11:52.000 --> 00:11:55.600 Because more and bigger is better. 00:11:56.480 --> 00:11:57.120 Right? 00:11:59.519 --> 00:12:01.840 I'll be more important if that would happen. 00:12:02.000 --> 00:12:03.519 I'll feel safe. 00:12:05.279 --> 00:12:08.159 And then I'll be able to do what Luke 12, 19 says. 00:12:08.480 --> 00:12:13.759 Soul, you have ample goods for many years. 00:12:14.000 --> 00:12:17.200 Relax, eat, drink, be merry. 00:12:18.399 --> 00:12:21.120 And Jesus says that this man is foolish. 00:12:22.879 --> 00:12:36.559 He says, because you'll get the barns, you'll get the house on Sea Island, the mountain house in Blue Ridge, and you'll get there, and you'll be sitting on your front porch, and you'll be bored. 00:12:37.919 --> 00:12:40.960 Or your kids hate you. 00:12:41.759 --> 00:12:48.000 Or you still have the shame that drove all of that ambition to get to that. 00:12:48.240 --> 00:12:51.120 Or you've never dealt with your sin before God. 00:12:52.080 --> 00:12:59.039 And your life had nothing of a richness and a wealth into God's call for you. 00:13:00.559 --> 00:13:04.159 See, you can be rich and you can be a fool. 00:13:05.360 --> 00:13:10.399 And point number three is this the folly is not having barns. 00:13:11.759 --> 00:13:15.440 The folly is thinking the barns will deliver you. 00:13:16.000 --> 00:13:19.200 More and better barns cannot save you from the guilt of sin. 00:13:19.279 --> 00:13:19.919 Have a barn. 00:13:20.000 --> 00:13:20.720 Have more barns. 00:13:20.879 --> 00:13:23.039 Save, be wise, give, do all that. 00:13:23.120 --> 00:13:25.200 But be rich unto God. 00:13:25.840 --> 00:13:27.679 The barns won't save you. 00:13:28.480 --> 00:13:36.000 The shame and inadequacy you live in today, the issue of eternal life before God, all of that, barns can't help you. 00:13:36.799 --> 00:13:41.120 The folly of this man is he lived his whole life waiting for something and then he gets it. 00:13:41.200 --> 00:13:42.320 And what if he dies then? 00:13:42.480 --> 00:13:43.120 That's what Jesus says. 00:13:43.200 --> 00:13:44.159 What if you just die? 00:13:44.240 --> 00:13:48.320 You live your whole life for something out there, but it's always out there. 00:13:48.399 --> 00:13:50.399 And then what if you actually got it and you died? 00:13:50.559 --> 00:13:51.840 What a waste. 00:13:54.159 --> 00:14:05.759 You see, the only rich one is God Himself, who gives wealth to us and then calls us to live a richness in life unto Him. 00:14:06.320 --> 00:14:09.200 Two weeks ago, I met a man at Blue Skies Camp. 00:14:09.279 --> 00:14:11.519 So Blue Skies is this camp we go and volunteer at. 00:14:11.600 --> 00:14:15.679 Our church supports it each year, and we go and I go as a chaplain. 00:14:15.840 --> 00:14:19.279 Sam goes and leads worship, and my family goes and we serve. 00:14:19.360 --> 00:14:22.559 And so I was there with a handful of other people from our church. 00:14:22.720 --> 00:14:31.519 And I sit in these group sessions, so three times during the week, Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, in the mornings, I sit in a circle with other parents. 00:14:31.600 --> 00:14:34.879 And these parents are parents who have a child with cancer. 00:14:35.039 --> 00:14:37.919 And I sit in this room with just these parents in a circle. 00:14:38.080 --> 00:14:39.840 And these people start to talk. 00:14:40.080 --> 00:14:41.919 And the first day they're pretty reserved. 00:14:42.000 --> 00:14:43.679 By the second day, they start to warm up. 00:14:43.759 --> 00:14:46.559 By the third day, they're pretty much just letting it out. 00:14:47.440 --> 00:14:49.279 Then this one guy started to talk. 00:14:49.440 --> 00:14:50.399 Let's call him Ron. 00:14:50.480 --> 00:14:51.440 Let's call him Ron. 00:14:51.679 --> 00:14:53.440 Ron was married, he had two little kids. 00:14:53.600 --> 00:14:59.120 They were not rich, they were lower income from a rural town, but they were fine. 00:14:59.279 --> 00:15:01.519 They could pay the bills, they could keep up. 00:15:02.159 --> 00:15:05.759 And then one of his children got cancer. 00:15:06.320 --> 00:15:06.639 Right? 00:15:06.799 --> 00:15:08.159 So his dream was demolished. 00:15:08.320 --> 00:15:11.360 Wife, two kids, paying the bills, all of that, all of his good. 00:15:11.440 --> 00:15:14.559 All of a sudden, his child gets cancer. 00:15:17.679 --> 00:15:20.080 They had attended a church, they quit doing that. 00:15:20.240 --> 00:15:21.759 The anger took over. 00:15:22.879 --> 00:15:30.799 The cycle of hospitals and treatment and watching his son just deteriorate and be sick, and then the treatment upon that. 00:15:32.559 --> 00:15:35.519 His wife had to quit work to handle all of it. 00:15:36.240 --> 00:15:38.879 So revenue dropped in the family, right? 00:15:39.039 --> 00:15:41.039 The barns are going away. 00:15:41.279 --> 00:15:42.799 There's no barns left. 00:15:43.039 --> 00:15:44.720 Hospital bills mount. 00:15:45.440 --> 00:15:49.600 And the entire time he's just watching his kid get sick and be sick. 00:15:50.879 --> 00:15:53.679 His son's in recovery now, but here's what he said. 00:15:54.960 --> 00:15:56.799 I'm angry all the time. 00:15:57.759 --> 00:16:00.480 I'm angry at God and I'm angry at everyone. 00:16:01.759 --> 00:16:03.679 My wife and I barely talk. 00:16:04.080 --> 00:16:05.519 We never get along. 00:16:05.919 --> 00:16:07.679 All I do is pay the bills. 00:16:08.000 --> 00:16:11.519 My anger is poisoned to me and is ruining my family. 00:16:12.399 --> 00:16:15.279 Now, I can't explain cancer. 00:16:16.159 --> 00:16:18.879 And most of the time when I sit in these groups, I don't say anything. 00:16:19.120 --> 00:16:21.200 It's just best not to say anything. 00:16:21.519 --> 00:16:22.639 But I do know this. 00:16:22.960 --> 00:16:31.039 I know from sitting in those groups and watching someone who's angry talk versus someone who has some measure of peace amidst this kind of suffering. 00:16:31.279 --> 00:16:36.960 I know that Ron is not showing up at the friend's house at midnight. 00:16:37.919 --> 00:16:41.440 That kind of surrender is not in his life yet. 00:16:42.320 --> 00:16:43.200 And I told him that. 00:16:43.360 --> 00:16:46.799 I said, I think your tight-gripping anger is your last bit of control in your life. 00:16:46.879 --> 00:16:52.480 And as soon as you let go of that, you'll be in acceptance and surrender, and you'll know some measure of peace. 00:16:52.720 --> 00:16:55.919 I don't know if that worked or many think to him, probably not. 00:16:56.000 --> 00:17:00.879 But another guy talked who probably had more validity to actually talk because he was one of the other parents. 00:17:01.120 --> 00:17:02.320 And let's call him Jerry. 00:17:02.399 --> 00:17:05.839 And Jerry's daughter, she got cancer when she was five years old. 00:17:05.920 --> 00:17:07.039 She's had it for 10 years. 00:17:07.119 --> 00:17:08.400 She's had 15 surgeries. 00:17:08.480 --> 00:17:13.920 She has learned to walk three different times, and now she has no short-term memory. 00:17:15.519 --> 00:17:20.720 And he looked at the guy and he said, I was angry too. 00:17:21.680 --> 00:17:23.119 I still get angry. 00:17:24.000 --> 00:17:26.960 But at some point you accept what is real today. 00:17:28.160 --> 00:17:38.559 And he said that he's prayed prayers of anger, he has prayed prayers of celebration, but most important, he has moved into some level of acceptance. 00:17:39.519 --> 00:17:40.319 Surrender. 00:17:40.559 --> 00:17:41.599 I'm in need. 00:17:42.000 --> 00:17:47.200 This is my condition, this is my life, here's what's going on, here's what's going on in my family, here's who I am. 00:17:47.359 --> 00:17:53.920 Like this is the thing that gets us at the door at midnight is understanding who we are. 00:17:54.160 --> 00:17:57.759 I do not have complete control over my life. 00:17:58.480 --> 00:18:02.799 I need the friend in there who has what I need. 00:18:03.039 --> 00:18:06.799 And it's not always a cure to cancer. 00:18:07.039 --> 00:18:07.920 That would be great. 00:18:08.079 --> 00:18:11.279 It's not always an increase of salary or a new house. 00:18:11.680 --> 00:18:14.720 A lot of times it's the stuff that's under that, right? 00:18:14.880 --> 00:18:21.759 It's the acceptance, it's the absolution, it's the peace, it's the joy, it's the life in the spirit. 00:18:24.480 --> 00:18:33.119 See, it's in the surrender, that death of self, in the acceptance of the rising friend, which is Jesus, by the way. 00:18:34.319 --> 00:18:40.880 Or you may have one barn, you may have 17, you may have 17, you go back to 13, you go up to 19, you go down to three, right? 00:18:42.799 --> 00:18:51.680 Either way, you have the wealth of God if you are his child and surrender to him. 00:18:52.880 --> 00:19:11.279 You have the wealth of being the beloved of God, secured in Jesus' work for you, where all of your sin, even all of your anxiety, all your anger, all your love for more barnes, all of that is put upon him, Jesus, and his righteousness. 00:19:11.440 --> 00:19:26.960 The way that he perfectly handles control, perfectly handles anger, perfectly handles greed and lust and suffering, the way he perfectly handles that righteousness is put upon you, given to you. 00:19:27.440 --> 00:19:32.400 So you are forever, forever the beloved and right standing. 00:19:33.759 --> 00:19:38.079 You're the child about to swim. 00:19:38.880 --> 00:19:42.640 But the swimming has nothing to do with whether you're loved or not. 00:19:44.319 --> 00:19:45.599 You're already loved. 00:19:46.319 --> 00:19:51.680 That's the good news that there is a friend who loves you before. 00:19:54.480 --> 00:19:55.680 That's what we all want. 00:19:55.920 --> 00:20:00.799 To be known and to be loved, for our sin to be handled outside of ourselves. 00:20:04.799 --> 00:20:11.039 And God always answers the door to those of us who are desperately surrendered and needing him. 00:20:11.680 --> 00:20:14.240 He holds the wealth your soul truly desires. 00:20:14.400 --> 00:20:27.359 My brothers and sisters, may you pray with great fervor, persistently, with boldness, and may you be rich unto God, because his love is forever rich to you. 00:20:27.680 --> 00:20:29.119 Let's pray together. 00:20:29.759 --> 00:20:43.680 God, thank you that you answered to the door for those of us that are in desperate surrender, and I pray that we would live in that place more, to know and see you as the rising friend. 00:20:45.440 --> 00:21:07.039 Forgive us for the ways that we want to take control with our anger, towards circumstance, with our wealth, with achievement, with just us trying to self-effort things in our lives, and the whole time there is underneath a problem. 00:21:09.279 --> 00:21:11.440 We're never satisfied without you. 00:21:12.480 --> 00:21:18.880 We can never outwork our sin, remove our guilt, be free of our shame. 00:21:20.000 --> 00:21:25.599 But you have a wealth of love for us and help us to know it in a greater and greater way. 00:21:26.160 --> 00:21:29.200 That would support on our richness unto you. 00:21:29.599 --> 00:21:31.680 We pray all things in Jesus. 00:21:32.400 --> 00:21:33.599 In his name and his word. 00:21:34.000 --> 00:21:34.640 Amen.