WEBVTT 00:00:00.560 --> 00:00:07.599 So we're continuing our way through the book of Acts, and nobody else would volunteer to read, so I made my wife read because it was so long. 00:00:08.320 --> 00:00:10.640 There's a lot going on in that passage in Acts 4. 00:00:10.720 --> 00:00:14.000 I'm a zero in on just a few verses this morning. 00:00:14.240 --> 00:00:21.120 So when I graduated high school, my girlfriend at the time and myself, we ended up going to the same schools in the same town. 00:00:21.280 --> 00:00:23.120 And from the very beginning, it was over. 00:00:23.280 --> 00:00:24.879 Classic freshman breakup. 00:00:25.199 --> 00:00:28.079 We were forming two different lives, going different ways. 00:00:28.160 --> 00:00:30.000 We couldn't keep anything together. 00:00:30.160 --> 00:00:30.879 I knew that. 00:00:30.960 --> 00:00:32.000 I didn't want to admit it. 00:00:32.159 --> 00:00:32.719 She knew that. 00:00:32.799 --> 00:00:33.840 She was willing to admit it. 00:00:33.920 --> 00:00:45.759 So one day she came over to my campus for a dreaded DTR to find the relationship talk, which we all love and how long they drag out. 00:00:46.000 --> 00:00:54.399 And so we're there, we're going for a walk, we sit down at a bench in front of the campus chapel, and she broke up with me. 00:00:54.640 --> 00:00:57.200 Alright, so here's what's interesting about that. 00:00:57.439 --> 00:01:04.719 While I knew it was the right path forward, and I probably would have even chose it, it still hurt. 00:01:05.120 --> 00:01:05.439 Right? 00:01:05.519 --> 00:01:12.400 It's kind of like you want to make the tennis team, but then once you start trying out, you don't really want to make the tennis team. 00:01:12.719 --> 00:01:14.879 And then you don't make the tennis team. 00:01:15.120 --> 00:01:16.239 And it hurts. 00:01:16.480 --> 00:01:17.920 But you're like, why does that hurt? 00:01:18.079 --> 00:01:19.599 I didn't even want to be on the team. 00:01:19.760 --> 00:01:23.680 But there's something about being rejected. 00:01:24.640 --> 00:01:24.959 Right? 00:01:25.120 --> 00:01:29.760 Like, why would this breakup hurt so much if I just really wasn't into it anymore, anyways? 00:01:29.920 --> 00:01:35.840 Well, it's because it reminded me of something I desperately do not want to face. 00:01:36.400 --> 00:01:38.719 And that is this question. 00:01:38.879 --> 00:01:44.799 Is the rejection I feel within the truth about me? 00:01:46.640 --> 00:02:06.480 And we've all felt rejection by a job that we had, we thought we were in, and then we were on the out, or a job we didn't get, or a sports team we didn't make, or we got kicked off of, or a friendship that went wrong, or a romance that didn't happen, or a romance that went wrong, or maybe a parent wounded you, or a church wounded you. 00:02:07.680 --> 00:02:12.159 Maybe you're like Michael Scott on the office, always trying to get people to come over to your house. 00:02:12.319 --> 00:02:14.960 You can't get anybody to come to your house. 00:02:15.120 --> 00:02:16.479 And you can feel that rejection. 00:02:16.719 --> 00:02:20.240 I mean, you order a pepperoni pizza, Papa John's won't even deliver to your house. 00:02:20.400 --> 00:02:23.039 And you just feel it, rejected by the delivery boy, right? 00:02:23.199 --> 00:02:26.960 I mean, you feel it, the rejection, and that rejection hurts. 00:02:27.280 --> 00:02:33.039 It reveals something about us, the fact that we feel it so much. 00:02:33.280 --> 00:02:35.520 And perhaps maybe we run from those feelings. 00:02:35.599 --> 00:02:39.599 It's possible that you try to perform your way out of those feelings. 00:02:39.759 --> 00:02:47.520 But we're all wondering: is there a saving for me as a person who feels such rejection? 00:02:48.080 --> 00:02:53.680 And in a way, sometimes we even feel rejection from our own selves because we don't perform up to what we know we should. 00:02:53.919 --> 00:02:59.039 We don't perform up to what we want to be, or and we also don't perform up to what God asks of us. 00:02:59.120 --> 00:03:00.879 That's what makes us a sinner. 00:03:01.520 --> 00:03:04.639 And so even that is a rejection. 00:03:06.080 --> 00:03:10.400 I'm not who I want to be, my resume isn't that great, my body's weird, I'm weird. 00:03:10.639 --> 00:03:15.039 She didn't want to be with me, he doesn't care for me, Papa John's doesn't like me, nobody likes me. 00:03:15.120 --> 00:03:15.919 Can I be whole? 00:03:16.080 --> 00:03:16.879 Can I be whole? 00:03:17.759 --> 00:03:22.319 That's this word, salvation is the word means wholeness. 00:03:23.360 --> 00:03:31.280 Now, I was taught early on in my spiritual journey that salvation was just about getting rid of God's anger toward me. 00:03:31.439 --> 00:03:32.240 That's all it was. 00:03:32.400 --> 00:03:33.919 That was the summation. 00:03:34.879 --> 00:03:46.159 And just about avoiding an eternal place called hell, repenting and accepting Jesus, and suddenly my life would be better, or at least I needed to act like it was better. 00:03:46.479 --> 00:03:53.280 And I'm probably oversimplifying what I actually heard, but it's definitely what I felt. 00:03:55.120 --> 00:04:06.879 I would walk around saying things like, and maybe you grew up the way I did, and say, Well, well, I'm saved, or you say something like, Well, you know, Janet got saved at fifth quarter in the youth room Friday night, right? 00:04:06.960 --> 00:04:10.080 And you're, oh, he's saved, or oh, they're not saved, right? 00:04:11.199 --> 00:04:12.639 That was the language I grew up. 00:04:12.719 --> 00:04:21.199 And the irony about this for me was I had no idea how profound salvation was. 00:04:22.319 --> 00:04:25.920 I had limited it so greatly. 00:04:26.160 --> 00:04:34.639 I never learned that salvation is about being whole forever into eternity, but also now. 00:04:35.519 --> 00:04:37.680 See, salvation, I'll give you definition. 00:04:37.839 --> 00:04:50.319 Salvation is awakening and resting in the beloved position you have in the Trinitarian God because of the work of Christ made applicable to your soul by the Spirit. 00:04:50.560 --> 00:04:52.560 I'll say it again, that was a lot. 00:04:52.879 --> 00:05:04.560 Salvation is awakening and resting in the Trinitarian God because of the work of Christ made applicable to your soul by the Spirit. 00:05:04.720 --> 00:05:06.959 And you go, oh, that's a lot of theological talk. 00:05:07.040 --> 00:05:09.199 How could that possibly help me? 00:05:09.439 --> 00:05:20.079 Well, in Acts chapter 4, Peter and John are talking to a crowd of people, and they're talking about Jesus as being the Messiah, the salvation for their souls that they've been waiting for, the final sacrifice. 00:05:20.240 --> 00:05:22.720 These people have been sacrificing over and over and over again. 00:05:22.879 --> 00:05:29.279 A lot of merit going on as they're producing, they're producing over and over and over again. 00:05:29.759 --> 00:05:32.480 And they come and they say, hey, Jesus is the final sacrifice. 00:05:32.560 --> 00:05:33.839 He did all the work. 00:05:35.040 --> 00:05:41.759 And these religious folks who are in charge here in this passage we read about, they're called the Sadducees, and they were elitists and they were in charge. 00:05:41.920 --> 00:05:42.879 They held power. 00:05:43.040 --> 00:05:45.279 They held power over theological thought. 00:05:45.439 --> 00:05:47.600 They held power over the police. 00:05:47.680 --> 00:05:49.360 They held power over the courts. 00:05:49.439 --> 00:05:51.920 And these guys, they didn't care what happened. 00:05:52.160 --> 00:05:58.319 They didn't care what happened about Jesus on the cross and the resurrection, who saw Jesus after resurrection. 00:05:58.399 --> 00:06:00.000 They didn't care about that miracle. 00:06:00.079 --> 00:06:06.959 They didn't care about the fact that that miracle actually met up with all the teaching they actually believed for thousands of years. 00:06:07.199 --> 00:06:08.720 Never mind any of that. 00:06:08.879 --> 00:06:17.199 The only thing they cared about was to maintain a system that benefited them and their friends and their family. 00:06:20.000 --> 00:06:40.399 See, this grace message that Jesus was enough by what he did for them, that was a threat to their system of people working for their salvation, trying to merit their way into absolution and righteousness, trying to make themselves whole by what they do. 00:06:40.879 --> 00:06:45.759 And the grace of Jesus is a threat to that system because the grace of Jesus says, no, no, no, no, no, no. 00:06:46.319 --> 00:06:51.920 You are whole, you are saved by what I did for you. 00:06:53.279 --> 00:06:58.399 And so Peter and John are arrested for preaching Jesus being the salvation from God. 00:06:58.560 --> 00:07:02.959 And we get this conversation in Acts chapter 4, 7 through 12. 00:07:03.360 --> 00:07:05.439 And here's how this conversation plays out. 00:07:05.600 --> 00:07:07.680 By what power or by what name did you do this? 00:07:07.759 --> 00:07:11.839 And either questioning them, and because Peter and John healed a guy, we talked about that last week. 00:07:12.000 --> 00:07:12.800 Verse 8. 00:07:13.439 --> 00:07:37.759 Then Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, said to them, rulers of the people and elders, if we are being examined today concerning a good deed done to a crippled man, by what means this man has been healed, let it be known to all of you and to all the people of Israel that by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified, whom God raised from the dead, by him this man is standing before you well. 00:07:39.199 --> 00:07:57.199 This Jesus is the stone that was rejected by you, the builders, which has become the cornerstone, and there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved. 00:07:57.920 --> 00:08:02.399 So the leaders hear all of this and they are amazed. 00:08:02.480 --> 00:08:15.040 And they're partly amazed because they just can't believe these two hicks from up north in the countryside could come into the city and actually put together some intellectual thoughts. 00:08:15.279 --> 00:08:31.839 This is like, this is like a handful of New Hampshire boarding school elitists, Yale grads living on the upper west side of Manhattan, being intellectually whooped by some Southerners who did not manage to graduate from Marietta High School. 00:08:31.920 --> 00:08:33.440 That's what this scene is. 00:08:33.600 --> 00:08:37.360 And so these guys are amazed, going like, look, listen to these guys. 00:08:37.440 --> 00:08:39.600 They actually are putting thoughts together. 00:08:39.840 --> 00:08:40.720 This is amazing. 00:08:40.879 --> 00:08:44.240 They don't agree with them, but they're amazed at this. 00:08:44.480 --> 00:08:49.519 And Peter was quoting Psalm 118, verse 22, which these guys knew this. 00:08:50.639 --> 00:08:55.679 Open to me the gates of righteousness that I may enter through them and give thanks to the Lord. 00:08:56.000 --> 00:08:57.519 This is the gate of the Lord. 00:08:57.679 --> 00:08:59.120 The righteous shall enter through it. 00:08:59.200 --> 00:09:02.720 I thank you that you have answered me and have become my salvation. 00:09:02.960 --> 00:09:07.759 The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone. 00:09:08.159 --> 00:09:09.919 So we get this imagery going on here. 00:09:10.080 --> 00:09:12.879 Peter's alluding to it back from Psalm 118. 00:09:13.120 --> 00:09:21.360 Peter views Christ, just as King David talked about him in Psalm 118, as the building stone, the cornerstone. 00:09:21.759 --> 00:09:27.440 And that means by which all wholeness and goodness is built. 00:09:28.559 --> 00:09:33.279 Christ is that which created all, sustains all, and redeems all. 00:09:33.360 --> 00:09:35.759 And Peter says, Y'all rejected him. 00:09:36.080 --> 00:09:41.600 Y'all rejected the source by which all things are created and sustained and redeemed. 00:09:43.039 --> 00:09:46.240 And God chose to know that humiliation and rejection. 00:09:46.480 --> 00:09:47.759 Because that's what love does. 00:09:47.919 --> 00:09:49.519 I mean, have you ever loved? 00:09:49.840 --> 00:09:51.759 Pretty much it's all humiliation. 00:09:52.639 --> 00:09:52.960 Right? 00:09:53.039 --> 00:09:58.799 It's a constantly, it's a constant humbling yourself before the person you love is what love is. 00:09:59.600 --> 00:10:01.279 That's what the cross is. 00:10:01.600 --> 00:10:05.360 The crowd said, kill that guy, and they rejected him. 00:10:05.519 --> 00:10:14.960 He goes to the cross, and there in the rejection is the source of our salvation where our sin is put upon him and his righteousness is put upon us. 00:10:15.200 --> 00:10:16.080 So we get two points. 00:10:16.240 --> 00:10:20.000 Point number one, rejection is always a part of salvation. 00:10:20.480 --> 00:10:22.639 Rejection is always a part of salvation. 00:10:22.879 --> 00:10:33.600 Priest and author Robert Capin says this as long as the most important thing in your life is to keep finding your way, you're going to live in mortal terror of losing it. 00:10:34.639 --> 00:10:38.399 Once you're willing to be lost, though, you'll be home free. 00:10:38.559 --> 00:10:43.919 Your lostness is one thing no one will ever be able to take away from you. 00:10:44.159 --> 00:10:49.600 The only ticket anybody needs is the one ticket everybody already has. 00:10:50.639 --> 00:10:52.639 So what's he talking about here? 00:10:53.039 --> 00:11:02.559 Well, he's saying fighting your entire life to act like you don't know failure, you don't know rejection, will never lead you to wholeness. 00:11:02.799 --> 00:11:05.360 You'll just be delusional and really busy. 00:11:05.919 --> 00:11:18.480 But if you recognize that the entire time you are in fact not perfect and you do know rejection, then you become awakened to your need of a savior outside of yourself. 00:11:19.039 --> 00:11:25.279 And there we see that honesty and confession of the rejection is the birthplace of salvation for us. 00:11:28.080 --> 00:11:37.519 See, it's in facing what's going on inside of us that we finally see that saving, wholeness, will only come when we're done trying to fix ourselves. 00:11:38.480 --> 00:11:46.000 That you aren't perfect, I'm not perfect, we're never going to be perfect, and God absolutely loves and accepts us in Christ. 00:11:46.240 --> 00:11:55.919 This very radical message was a threat, was a threat to the system back then, and it's a threat to a lot of thought today. 00:11:58.320 --> 00:12:09.519 But Jesus really is enough for the absolution of your sins, the redemption of your beings, the shame you feel, security of your belovedness now and forever into eternity. 00:12:09.759 --> 00:12:16.559 And that great unending love has the power to transform not just behavior, but from within. 00:12:17.120 --> 00:12:23.840 Point number two, salvation is God's work in Christ of making us and this world whole. 00:12:24.559 --> 00:12:30.080 Salvation is God's work in Christ of making us and this world whole. 00:12:30.879 --> 00:12:40.799 Maybe you've heard this text in Acts chapter 4 used to create teams, kind of like us and them, like you're in and you're out, you know, you're saved, or I'm saved and you're not. 00:12:40.879 --> 00:12:43.120 Usually that's what it is, not usually like you're saved and I'm not. 00:12:43.279 --> 00:12:45.440 Usually it's I'm saved and you're not. 00:12:45.600 --> 00:12:50.080 Like, oh, Janet, she didn't really get saved Friday night at fifth quarter. 00:12:50.240 --> 00:12:53.360 I know she said she got saved, but she really didn't. 00:12:53.519 --> 00:12:57.840 And I'm not sure how anybody could actually know something like that about somebody else. 00:12:58.080 --> 00:13:00.080 But that's what we tend to do. 00:13:01.600 --> 00:13:06.799 But this point of this text is not a judgment lens for us to put on other people. 00:13:06.960 --> 00:13:08.879 They're saved, they're not, they're in, they're not. 00:13:09.039 --> 00:13:11.519 That's not what this text, this text is not about that. 00:13:11.679 --> 00:13:20.639 This text is about pointing us to Christ as the cornerstone, the source of all wholeness and goodness. 00:13:21.519 --> 00:13:26.080 One of my favorite passages is Ephesians 1, verses 7 through 10. 00:13:26.320 --> 00:13:48.320 In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace, which he lavished upon us in all wisdom and insight, making known to us the mystery of his will, according to his purpose, which he set forth in Christ as a plan for the fullness of time to unite all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth. 00:13:48.559 --> 00:13:52.639 So that last phrase, God set forth in Christ to unite all things in him. 00:13:52.879 --> 00:13:55.440 That phrase, to unite all things in him. 00:13:55.840 --> 00:14:00.399 That's a phrase used in the scriptures just one time, and it comes from the world of math. 00:14:00.559 --> 00:14:02.639 Or at least it's used in the world of math. 00:14:02.720 --> 00:14:08.240 And it's saying to take two fractures and add them together to get a whole. 00:14:08.879 --> 00:14:13.279 One half and one half, and you put them together to get one. 00:14:13.519 --> 00:14:22.320 It means that in Christ, God is bringing together all fragmented things under one head. 00:14:24.240 --> 00:14:29.440 This past year, my brother-in-law moved to Nashville to take a large hurting church. 00:14:29.519 --> 00:14:37.360 And the church was on the men, the church was healing up after about a year of hurt and woundedness from a leadership disappointment. 00:14:37.519 --> 00:14:39.679 And they were on the good side of being healed. 00:14:39.759 --> 00:14:44.639 But his first sermon to them, I went back this week to look at the titles of the first two sermons. 00:14:44.960 --> 00:14:51.120 I was curious, what did he preach on the first two sermons of walking into a hurting church? 00:14:51.279 --> 00:14:57.679 And the first sermons he preached was about telling them they are never too far. 00:14:58.879 --> 00:15:03.840 They've never gone too far away, no matter how many turns or disappointments they've had. 00:15:04.080 --> 00:15:04.879 That was number one. 00:15:05.200 --> 00:15:08.879 Second week, he told them their heavenly father has not left them. 00:15:09.519 --> 00:15:11.440 Now, why would he begin with this? 00:15:14.159 --> 00:15:18.720 Because they needed to be regathered under one story. 00:15:20.639 --> 00:15:27.440 One half and one half to make one all the fragments under one head. 00:15:28.000 --> 00:15:30.320 See we're fragmented. 00:15:30.639 --> 00:15:32.480 You're fragmented, I'm fragmented. 00:15:33.279 --> 00:15:35.440 We're not whole on our own. 00:15:35.759 --> 00:15:39.200 We need to be brought under one head. 00:15:39.440 --> 00:15:50.720 And it's only there in the place of our death, dying to ourselves, under Christ's authority, can we have peace where we're not our own saviors. 00:15:53.200 --> 00:16:03.279 Another way to think about this same word here in the end of this Ephesians 1, verse 10, is that Christ is retelling your story. 00:16:03.440 --> 00:16:04.320 So let's say this. 00:16:04.399 --> 00:16:08.559 Just imagine you and your family, or maybe your imaginary family, you can play along with me. 00:16:08.720 --> 00:16:11.440 You decide to take a Saturday and go into Atlanta. 00:16:11.600 --> 00:16:21.679 So you load the car up, all the kids are in the car, you and the spouse are in the car, and you're in the driveway, and right away, first thing, there's a disagreement. 00:16:21.840 --> 00:16:23.519 Are you gonna watch a video? 00:16:23.600 --> 00:16:25.279 Are you gonna listen to the radio? 00:16:25.360 --> 00:16:26.639 And you go, let's listen to the radio. 00:16:26.720 --> 00:16:28.000 We've been watching too much screens. 00:16:28.080 --> 00:16:28.240 Okay. 00:16:28.320 --> 00:16:30.320 So you go, what's what are we gonna listen to on the radio? 00:16:30.399 --> 00:16:31.600 So there's a disagreement about that. 00:16:31.759 --> 00:16:42.799 Finally, you get going and you have a reasonably peaceful ride down the interstate to Atlanta, and you stop at the varsity first to eat there at the varsity, but you forgot. 00:16:42.879 --> 00:16:45.360 There is a Georgia Tech home football game. 00:16:45.519 --> 00:16:53.840 And you walk in, you have nothing against Georgia Tech, except at the bottom of those stairs, there is a massive crowd in front of that counter. 00:16:54.080 --> 00:17:06.160 And you got these little kids, and your kids are hungry, and you're hungry, and you're worried you're gonna lose them in that crowd down there in front of that counter, and you're smooshed up against that by you can't even tell if there's lines or not, and you're frustrated. 00:17:06.319 --> 00:17:13.519 Eventually, you make your order and they put your family of four, that food on about seven trays for you to attempt to carry back to your table. 00:17:13.680 --> 00:17:20.079 And finally, you get back to your table, and you you you really did enjoy those chili slaw dogs. 00:17:20.400 --> 00:17:23.599 I mean, that was a good moment of the day. 00:17:24.000 --> 00:17:25.920 So you load the car back up. 00:17:26.160 --> 00:17:35.279 Another little disagreement, you get back into the car about what you're gonna listen to, of course, and you get over that, and then you get to the aquarium because that's what you're aiming to get at all day. 00:17:35.359 --> 00:17:44.480 And so you get to the aquarium, but when you get to the aquarium, your kids have to have a 10-minute uh timeout because they poured their varsity orange in your purse in the back seat. 00:17:45.039 --> 00:17:49.119 And so there's another little wait along your journey here to get to the aquarium, 10 minutes. 00:17:49.200 --> 00:17:53.599 You're just sitting in the car, you make them sit on the sidewalk out there, hoping somebody will just take them away. 00:17:53.680 --> 00:17:56.240 It'll be fine with you at this point of the day. 00:17:57.680 --> 00:18:12.079 And then you wait in line for tickets to get in the aquarium, and then you wait another line to enter into the aquarium, and then another line to go through the exhibits of the aquarium, and then you see those tanks and those fish and the dolphins and the whales, and it is amazing. 00:18:12.319 --> 00:18:13.759 It's amazing. 00:18:14.720 --> 00:18:26.960 And you see all of that, and then you're walking back to your car after all of this, and you're tired, and your kids are tired, you get in your car, you're gonna head home, and so you buckle up, and everybody's tired. 00:18:28.000 --> 00:18:36.559 And you Instagram a picture that y'all got taken by a stranger in front of that big tank, and it's the four of you, and there's a whale swimming in the back. 00:18:36.640 --> 00:18:38.240 It's a perfect picture. 00:18:38.400 --> 00:18:42.799 And you post it and you write, a perfect family day in Atlanta. 00:18:43.039 --> 00:18:44.799 Love these little ones. 00:18:46.799 --> 00:18:49.039 Hashtag live in the dream. 00:18:51.759 --> 00:18:53.279 What are you doing? 00:18:54.000 --> 00:18:54.400 Flying. 00:18:54.960 --> 00:18:55.680 Flying. 00:18:57.519 --> 00:19:07.759 Well, if you work with me a little bit here, you're taking broken pieces and proclaiming it as whole. 00:19:08.079 --> 00:19:13.599 Now you are lying because you don't really have the power to redefine something in reality. 00:19:13.759 --> 00:19:18.400 You have the power to redefine it on Instagram, which we love to do, but not in reality. 00:19:18.559 --> 00:19:23.440 But the fact that we want to do this even shows that our hearts desire it. 00:19:24.000 --> 00:19:31.759 Our hearts are waiting to know a power that can actually take one half and one half and declare it as one. 00:19:32.480 --> 00:19:36.079 To heal, to make whole, to be saved. 00:19:36.799 --> 00:19:44.079 See, in Christ, God takes you fragmented as you are, not perfect, a sinner. 00:19:44.640 --> 00:19:51.440 And in Christ, He rightfully, in grace, declares over you a new you. 00:19:52.880 --> 00:19:55.039 Not a fragmented one, but a new one. 00:19:57.359 --> 00:19:59.200 And it's who you fully are. 00:20:00.079 --> 00:20:01.920 And you still have to learn to be it. 00:20:02.559 --> 00:20:03.920 But you've been retold. 00:20:05.119 --> 00:20:11.599 You have been gathered under one head in Christ, and you're saved. 00:20:12.240 --> 00:20:17.839 So, my brothers and sisters, God is retelling a story about you in Christ. 00:20:18.160 --> 00:20:20.160 You are the forever beloved. 00:20:20.480 --> 00:20:21.839 Let's pray together. 00:20:22.640 --> 00:20:24.480 God, thank you for your goodness to us. 00:20:24.720 --> 00:20:34.160 That is by no other name that we are saved, we are made whole for into eternity and for today. 00:20:35.599 --> 00:20:38.960 Help us to learn that which is already true about us. 00:20:39.759 --> 00:20:50.400 That we are righteous, absolved of our sin, fully yours and beloved, by what you did for us, not what we do for ourselves. 00:20:50.640 --> 00:20:59.759 And that the work of Christ on the cross, that great act of love, is enough for our righteousness and forgiveness and value. 00:21:01.279 --> 00:21:11.599 Help us to know you in a greater way and forgive us for all the ways we try to continue to save ourselves rather than rest in that which has been always true about us in Jesus. 00:21:12.720 --> 00:21:18.880 For those of us here that do not know salvation in you or continue to struggle with how we are made whole. 00:21:19.440 --> 00:21:25.839 Give them eyes to see this morning the greatness and the amazing work of Jesus for them. 00:21:26.160 --> 00:21:27.440 In Christ's name we pray. 00:21:27.599 --> 00:21:28.000 Amen.