WEBVTT 00:00:00.160 --> 00:00:14.080 So we hear that and we have to wonder what would it be like if that slight comment from your dad or mom or friend or coworker or boss didn't just drive you nuts? 00:00:14.320 --> 00:00:14.560 Right? 00:00:14.720 --> 00:00:25.920 I mean what would it be like if if that comment on Facebook back to you on the thing you posted didn't get under your skin and just stick with you for the rest of the day? 00:00:26.079 --> 00:00:32.320 Or that horrible, legitimately horrible word spoken to you when you were eight. 00:00:33.679 --> 00:00:35.439 And it's still on repeat? 00:00:35.679 --> 00:00:50.320 I mean maybe you haven't even told anybody that it's still on repeat, but but every once in a while when you get quiet, there's that word that was spoken to you by somebody when you were eight or you were ten or you were twelve, and for whatever reason, that thing's on repeat. 00:00:50.399 --> 00:00:54.560 And it just affects you so much more than you wish it did. 00:00:55.280 --> 00:01:03.679 So Solomon mentions this in this in this text and in chapter seven of Ecclesiastes, and it's probably not Solomon, it's probably some other guy writing in his voice. 00:01:03.759 --> 00:01:13.439 And this was the book in the Old Testament we've been going through back before Easter, before Lent, we were going through this book, and so we're jumping back to finish it off here in the next month or so. 00:01:13.599 --> 00:01:17.120 And so I read through chapter seven, and it's a whole bunch of different thoughts. 00:01:17.280 --> 00:01:22.799 I mean, that's how kind of how Solomon wrote and throughout this book is a lot of it's just like random thoughts. 00:01:22.879 --> 00:01:28.480 He's throwing stuff at you, and some of it's ranting, and some of it's a little more logical. 00:01:28.879 --> 00:01:39.680 And through this chapter, I've sort of looked at it all and I felt like we've kind of talked about that, we've talked about this, we've talked about that, but these verses really jumped out of something we haven't really talked about. 00:01:40.239 --> 00:01:41.760 And here's a guy. 00:01:42.000 --> 00:01:44.079 I mean, this is Bill Gates money. 00:01:44.239 --> 00:01:48.640 I mean, this is this is power, this is Putin power. 00:01:48.799 --> 00:01:50.640 I mean, this is like, this is it. 00:01:50.799 --> 00:01:58.560 I mean, this guy had everything, and he is disillusioned, and yet he's throwing out some wisdom for us at the end of his life. 00:01:58.719 --> 00:02:02.719 So let's read it again, Ecclesiastes 7, uh, 19 through 22. 00:02:02.879 --> 00:02:08.800 Wisdom, and wisdom is wisdom sound judgment as to like not screw up your life too much. 00:02:08.960 --> 00:02:09.759 That's what wisdom is. 00:02:09.919 --> 00:02:12.240 Sound judgment, so you don't screw up your life too much. 00:02:12.560 --> 00:02:17.439 Wisdom gives strength to the wise man, more than 10 rulers who are in a city. 00:02:17.599 --> 00:02:18.960 So he says, hey, wisdom's good. 00:02:19.120 --> 00:02:20.400 Pay attention, wisdom's good. 00:02:20.560 --> 00:02:21.199 Verse 20. 00:02:21.439 --> 00:02:25.520 Surely there's not a righteous man on earth who does good and never sins. 00:02:25.680 --> 00:02:29.039 So, like we talked about at the beginning of the service, some honesty here, right? 00:02:29.199 --> 00:02:31.759 Level playing field, none of us are perfect. 00:02:32.000 --> 00:02:40.639 Verse 21, do not take to heart all the things that people say, lest you hear your servant cursing you. 00:02:41.039 --> 00:02:43.120 And then you go, okay, yeah, I get that. 00:02:43.199 --> 00:02:45.120 Like the people around me, right? 00:02:45.199 --> 00:02:46.719 That to him, that's the people around him. 00:02:46.800 --> 00:02:47.439 Here's a king. 00:02:47.599 --> 00:02:48.879 The people around him are servants. 00:02:48.960 --> 00:02:55.280 So he's saying, hey, don't take to heart everything you hear, because people around you will say things. 00:02:55.360 --> 00:03:04.080 And if you don't understand that, you really understand verse 22, and he says, Your heart knows many times you yourself have cursed others. 00:03:04.400 --> 00:03:10.080 So people say hurtful things, and you are people. 00:03:10.800 --> 00:03:11.120 Okay? 00:03:11.759 --> 00:03:13.599 People say hurtful things. 00:03:13.840 --> 00:03:14.960 Yes, we agree. 00:03:15.120 --> 00:03:21.840 We have felt it, we have received it, and you are people, meaning, and you have done that. 00:03:22.159 --> 00:03:35.919 And so we come into this with some graciousness toward even people who speak the hurtful thing to you because you know why you speak hurtful things, because you're envious or you're insecure. 00:03:36.240 --> 00:03:39.840 Or you know, if you push them down far enough, then you feel more powerful. 00:03:40.159 --> 00:03:40.960 That's why we sit. 00:03:41.199 --> 00:03:42.879 That's why I say hurtful things. 00:03:43.120 --> 00:03:46.000 And that's why they're saying the hurtful thing back to you. 00:03:46.319 --> 00:03:49.280 And you have to wonder what Solomon had been hearing to write this. 00:03:49.439 --> 00:03:51.120 I mean, obviously he had been hearing things. 00:03:51.199 --> 00:03:55.840 He was dealing with this issue of hearing people say things about him. 00:03:56.800 --> 00:04:07.919 That he's spoiled, that if he's demanding, he's hollow, he'll never be happy, that he's inadequate, if he didn't have a title, he would be nothing. 00:04:08.080 --> 00:04:13.360 If he didn't have that money, he would be nothing, that people only like him because of his position. 00:04:13.520 --> 00:04:15.439 I mean, he had to be hearing all of that. 00:04:15.520 --> 00:04:22.560 And to that, he says, hey, wisdom is not listening to all the words that are spoken to you. 00:04:23.839 --> 00:04:31.920 Last Thanksgiving, uh, Christy, my wife, and my eight-year-old ran uh the gobble jog down the square, right? 00:04:32.079 --> 00:04:35.519 Gobble gobble, everybody's down there, and they're down. 00:04:35.759 --> 00:04:38.800 Have you been to the gobble jog on Thanksgiving morning on the square? 00:04:38.879 --> 00:04:39.759 Everybody's dressed up. 00:04:40.879 --> 00:04:41.279 It's fun. 00:04:41.439 --> 00:04:43.519 So they went down to run the 5k. 00:04:43.600 --> 00:04:45.120 My eight-year-old, amazing. 00:04:45.199 --> 00:04:47.120 I wasn't gonna run it, but she went to run it. 00:04:47.199 --> 00:04:56.959 And so they start in the square, they run down Cherokee through a neighborhood, they run up a huge hill, they're coming back down church street, and I was there with our smaller two to cheer. 00:04:57.839 --> 00:04:58.240 Go for it. 00:04:58.319 --> 00:05:00.639 And Christy's running, she's running, and they've been running the whole thing. 00:05:00.720 --> 00:05:02.160 She never she never walked any of it. 00:05:02.319 --> 00:05:04.800 She's still running, she's still running this thing. 00:05:04.879 --> 00:05:09.279 She's running down church street back into the square, and there's the finish line, right? 00:05:09.439 --> 00:05:12.000 And you know what you get when you get to the finish line. 00:05:12.160 --> 00:05:14.079 You get, you did a great job. 00:05:14.319 --> 00:05:17.279 You are great, you're incredible, you're awesome. 00:05:17.360 --> 00:05:19.519 I mean, these are the things that we're we we say to her. 00:05:19.680 --> 00:05:22.720 These are the things we still say to her about running that 5K. 00:05:23.040 --> 00:05:27.759 But what if, what if just as she nears that finish line? 00:05:28.160 --> 00:05:40.399 What if like she gets to like first pres is on the right, first Baptist is on the left, and then the finish line is up there, and you can start to hear the cheers. 00:05:40.959 --> 00:05:46.639 And what if just as she starts to get there, the finish line, it moves to like the uh the far end of the square? 00:05:47.600 --> 00:05:51.439 So she keeps running, you know, she keeps running for the finish line, you know, keeps running, keeps running. 00:05:52.000 --> 00:05:56.160 And then she gets there and then it moves, it moves down to Dobbins Air Force Base. 00:05:56.720 --> 00:06:02.319 So, you know, and she's like, you know what, I've run this far, I'm just gonna keep going, I'm gonna go for it, and they stop and grab something to eat. 00:06:02.879 --> 00:06:09.680 But they keep running, they keep running so that they get down there, and then what if it moves the finish line, they move it down to Smyrna Village? 00:06:10.079 --> 00:06:13.279 And they go, you know what, we're in it so far, let's just keep going. 00:06:13.519 --> 00:06:14.560 Let's just keep going for it. 00:06:14.639 --> 00:06:21.120 And so they run for Smyrna Village, they get to Smyrna Village, and then it moves to Midtown, they get to Midtown, and then it moves to Macon. 00:06:21.680 --> 00:06:23.360 They're forced gumping in at this point. 00:06:23.439 --> 00:06:26.240 She's she's running, she's running, just kept running and running. 00:06:26.319 --> 00:06:41.920 It just gets to Macon and it moves to Jacksonville, and it moves to Jacksonville, it moves to Miami, and she gets to Miami, and she's been running for a month at this point, and get to Miami, and it moves to Cuba, and it gets to Cuba, and it moves to Argentina, and it just doesn't stop. 00:06:42.879 --> 00:06:43.360 Right? 00:06:43.519 --> 00:06:52.720 Just waiting for that final cheer, the word, the approval that that run will mean something. 00:06:52.879 --> 00:07:03.439 Now you have a picture, now you have a picture of the cycle of what occurs when we use other people's words to attempt to make ourselves whole. 00:07:04.879 --> 00:07:06.160 Or saved. 00:07:08.079 --> 00:07:08.879 Or right. 00:07:10.160 --> 00:07:13.279 It's nothing more than a law of achievement. 00:07:13.680 --> 00:07:14.639 Merit. 00:07:16.000 --> 00:07:22.079 Validation by a set place of merit, but then you get there and it moves, right? 00:07:22.319 --> 00:07:23.759 Like you get the word. 00:07:24.319 --> 00:07:24.720 Right? 00:07:24.879 --> 00:07:26.319 Like you get a good word. 00:07:26.560 --> 00:07:29.680 The bad word breaks you down, but even you get a good word. 00:07:30.480 --> 00:07:32.000 And the line moves. 00:07:33.120 --> 00:07:47.120 Now, if we're gonna be freed from using other people's words for uh our approval, our wholeness, our redemption, then we have to know where we go to get a secure word. 00:07:47.839 --> 00:07:52.079 So two stories jumped out to me thinking about this. 00:07:52.240 --> 00:08:00.879 My mind went to two stories where Jesus spoke words of grace and approval, words of redemption to people. 00:08:01.199 --> 00:08:06.000 The first was this Jesus calls a failure a strong rock. 00:08:06.800 --> 00:08:09.680 Before Jesus' death, all the disciples bailed. 00:08:09.839 --> 00:08:10.720 They all bailed. 00:08:11.360 --> 00:08:12.720 It was a bad situation. 00:08:12.879 --> 00:08:14.319 They all bailed. 00:08:14.879 --> 00:08:26.639 And then one of them, Peter, this this one disciple, Peter, three times he's asked, maybe you've been around church, you remember this, three times he's asked, hey, aren't you one, aren't you one of the followers of Jesus? 00:08:26.800 --> 00:08:28.240 Like, aren't didn't you love him? 00:08:28.560 --> 00:08:30.079 Didn't you love that guy? 00:08:30.399 --> 00:08:30.720 No. 00:08:31.680 --> 00:08:32.720 No, I'm pretty sure. 00:08:32.799 --> 00:08:35.679 I'm pretty sure I saw you with him. 00:08:36.159 --> 00:08:38.799 Aren't you, no, no, I'm not. 00:08:39.039 --> 00:08:40.960 Are you, are you, aren't you one of him? 00:08:41.120 --> 00:08:41.600 No, I'm not. 00:08:41.759 --> 00:08:51.279 This is like, this is like someone comes up to you, guys, guys, you, and it says, isn't that your wife over there? 00:08:53.120 --> 00:08:54.480 No, I don't, I don't know her. 00:08:55.679 --> 00:08:57.759 Don't you love, don't you love her? 00:08:58.879 --> 00:08:59.679 Not really. 00:09:01.279 --> 00:09:04.159 No, no, no, I I'm pretty sure I've seen you with her a lot. 00:09:04.320 --> 00:09:06.240 Don't don't you care for her? 00:09:07.200 --> 00:09:08.720 I don't care for her at all. 00:09:10.159 --> 00:09:11.600 This is what Peter did. 00:09:12.399 --> 00:09:14.240 And he's carrying the shame. 00:09:14.480 --> 00:09:18.639 And he was already sort of this guy who asks, he's the guy who asks the dumb question. 00:09:18.799 --> 00:09:21.039 He's the guy who trips, he's the clumsy guy. 00:09:21.120 --> 00:09:24.639 Like he was already sort of that guy, and then he does this. 00:09:28.000 --> 00:09:37.440 And after the resurrection, Jesus comes to Peter and loves him, inspires him, and brings him back, redeems him back into ministry, and he becomes a force for the church. 00:09:37.600 --> 00:10:03.919 But before it all, before it all, back in John chapter 1, before any of that, before the failure, before Jesus coming back, circling back to Peter and kind of redeeming him, Jesus comes to calls the disciples, and he shows up to Peter, whose name was Simon at the time, and he says, Hey, you're Simon, son of John, you shall be called Cephas, or Petra, or Peter, or the rock. 00:10:04.960 --> 00:10:05.279 Okay? 00:10:06.159 --> 00:10:09.200 Listen, it preceded it all. 00:10:10.799 --> 00:10:18.960 Though you are neither strong, hadn't been strong yet, though you're not even not strong, hadn't even failed yet. 00:10:19.360 --> 00:10:20.399 Before it all. 00:10:20.639 --> 00:10:23.679 It preceded it all, I call you strong. 00:10:24.080 --> 00:10:28.240 See, that it wipes away even a system of merit. 00:10:28.639 --> 00:10:30.879 And it creates a relationship of grace. 00:10:31.039 --> 00:10:39.120 This means the word over you as beloved and strong is before you're devoted or before you're strong. 00:10:39.279 --> 00:10:48.639 And this word, which can define you more and more and more, the more you rest in it and let it abide in you and you live out of it, that's what will transform you. 00:10:48.879 --> 00:10:50.559 That's the transformation. 00:10:52.240 --> 00:10:55.440 Second story that jumped out to me this week, thinking about this. 00:10:56.240 --> 00:11:06.159 If we're not going to live off of the words of the servants, the people, the people around us, Jesus calls an outsider God's closest insider. 00:11:07.919 --> 00:11:13.440 So there's no outsider to God, no Greek, no Jew, no female, no male, no male, no slave. 00:11:13.600 --> 00:11:14.559 Everyone's the same. 00:11:14.720 --> 00:11:17.840 Our skin, our faces, our customs. 00:11:18.000 --> 00:11:18.639 That's all us. 00:11:18.720 --> 00:11:19.200 That's all us. 00:11:19.279 --> 00:11:20.559 That's all it's all us. 00:11:21.039 --> 00:11:24.480 To God, he's just seeing his created beings. 00:11:24.639 --> 00:11:30.159 And so Jesus tells a story in Luke 11 about a good act that someone does for somebody else. 00:11:30.320 --> 00:11:32.399 There's a traveler, he's hurting. 00:11:32.559 --> 00:11:33.279 Maybe you've heard the story. 00:11:33.440 --> 00:11:35.679 It's called the Good Samaritan story in Luke 11. 00:11:35.840 --> 00:11:37.919 A traveler's hurting, he's down on the road. 00:11:38.000 --> 00:11:41.519 It's not looking good for this guy, it's looking really, really bad. 00:11:41.679 --> 00:11:46.639 Some people walk by, religious people walk right by him, go straight by him. 00:11:47.440 --> 00:11:57.840 And then Jesus keeps telling the story, and somebody of a despised race, a Samaritan, that the religious crowd is, they would have just despised this guy. 00:11:58.080 --> 00:12:05.519 The idea of a Samaritan being deemed, being deemed worthy or good. 00:12:06.480 --> 00:12:09.440 I mean, this is this is so difficult for them to write. 00:12:09.679 --> 00:12:12.240 This is so radical to them. 00:12:12.399 --> 00:12:15.360 And Jesus in the story says, the Samaritan stops. 00:12:15.519 --> 00:12:16.480 That's the good guy. 00:12:16.639 --> 00:12:18.720 The good guy is the Samaritan. 00:12:19.039 --> 00:12:19.919 That's the good one. 00:12:20.080 --> 00:12:20.480 What? 00:12:20.720 --> 00:12:21.840 The outsider. 00:12:22.080 --> 00:12:23.679 The outsider's the good one? 00:12:23.919 --> 00:12:24.559 The Samaritan? 00:12:25.039 --> 00:12:25.840 That's the them. 00:12:25.919 --> 00:12:27.120 Like us, we're us. 00:12:27.279 --> 00:12:28.000 They're them. 00:12:28.480 --> 00:12:28.960 They. 00:12:29.200 --> 00:12:30.000 They think that. 00:12:30.080 --> 00:12:30.720 You know the them. 00:12:31.039 --> 00:12:31.679 They believe that. 00:12:31.840 --> 00:12:32.879 They do that. 00:12:33.600 --> 00:12:34.720 I'm not that. 00:12:35.039 --> 00:12:38.080 And Jesus says, you draw that line. 00:12:38.399 --> 00:12:39.600 Paul says that. 00:12:39.759 --> 00:12:41.279 You draw that line. 00:12:41.600 --> 00:12:43.919 No Greek, no Jew in Jesus. 00:12:44.000 --> 00:12:46.799 But if you draw that line, you draw that line, us and them. 00:12:46.960 --> 00:12:49.840 You draw that line, the outsider's the insider. 00:12:49.919 --> 00:12:51.600 The outsider's always the insider. 00:12:51.679 --> 00:12:53.840 It's the same story, the prodigal son. 00:12:54.639 --> 00:12:56.159 The outsider's the insider. 00:12:56.240 --> 00:12:56.799 He comes home. 00:12:56.879 --> 00:12:57.840 He's welcomed home. 00:12:58.240 --> 00:12:59.519 He's welcomed in. 00:12:59.759 --> 00:13:01.440 The broken down son. 00:13:02.159 --> 00:13:07.600 Or when Jesus sides with the prostitute rather than the religious people, they want to stone her. 00:13:07.840 --> 00:13:11.840 And Jesus says, I'm siding with her. 00:13:12.080 --> 00:13:13.840 That's the one I'm siding with. 00:13:21.200 --> 00:13:24.720 See, this is about a word that precedes it all. 00:13:27.279 --> 00:13:29.759 You're strong before you're strong or not strong. 00:13:30.000 --> 00:13:32.480 Because you're deemed that by God's word to you. 00:13:33.519 --> 00:13:39.600 You're an insider, even though you have even though maybe you have felt like an outsider your whole life. 00:13:40.639 --> 00:13:45.200 Maybe you have felt like you've never fit in, or you can never quite get it all together. 00:13:45.360 --> 00:13:49.440 And God says, yeah, yeah, you're you're you're you're the insider. 00:13:49.679 --> 00:13:50.799 You're the insider. 00:13:50.960 --> 00:13:55.279 That's the word spoken to you before you do anything. 00:13:56.240 --> 00:14:01.519 This is That's what all this is about, right? 00:14:01.759 --> 00:14:02.799 I mean, this is what all this is. 00:14:02.879 --> 00:14:10.960 This isn't about us getting together and pressing each other with our morality or spiritual disciplines and for us to give each other words of affirmation to each other. 00:14:11.120 --> 00:14:12.080 That's not what this is about. 00:14:12.159 --> 00:14:19.519 This is about us knowing redemption and God's pursuing forever love of you that precedes it all. 00:14:19.679 --> 00:14:21.039 That's what this is about. 00:14:22.159 --> 00:14:36.159 A few weeks ago, I sat next to a very good friend of mine, one of my best friends, we sat together at dinner, and he started to tell me how lately, for no reason, for no reason, he'll wake up in the morning and he'll think to himself. 00:14:36.320 --> 00:14:43.759 He'll have this fear that rushes over him and thinks, what if my church dies? 00:14:44.879 --> 00:14:50.320 What if I'm, he's a pastor, what if I'm the one that has to shut this thing down? 00:14:52.639 --> 00:14:53.919 Like we think about these things. 00:14:54.240 --> 00:14:57.120 Just like if you own a business and you think about that. 00:14:58.480 --> 00:15:00.240 What would that say about him? 00:15:00.639 --> 00:15:01.919 What would people say? 00:15:02.639 --> 00:15:07.679 Like what would the people around him say if that happened? 00:15:08.399 --> 00:15:16.559 And so he was telling me about this, and he said he was telling his counselor about this, and his counselor looked at him and said, So what? 00:15:17.840 --> 00:15:19.600 So what if that happens? 00:15:20.960 --> 00:15:22.559 And that's a great point. 00:15:23.279 --> 00:15:24.720 That's a fantastic one. 00:15:24.879 --> 00:15:25.519 So what? 00:15:26.879 --> 00:15:27.519 So what? 00:15:28.720 --> 00:15:29.840 How free is that? 00:15:30.000 --> 00:15:31.679 How freeing is that thought? 00:15:31.919 --> 00:15:32.480 So what? 00:15:32.639 --> 00:15:34.000 So what if that happens? 00:15:34.320 --> 00:15:36.480 It can all crumble down. 00:15:36.720 --> 00:15:38.480 You can never get the job. 00:15:38.720 --> 00:15:41.519 You can never get the word of approval from the neighbor. 00:15:41.679 --> 00:15:43.600 You can never hit the social status. 00:15:43.840 --> 00:15:46.480 Mom and dad can never give you the approval that you want. 00:15:46.720 --> 00:15:47.360 So what? 00:15:47.519 --> 00:15:50.080 There's a word that precedes it all. 00:15:50.240 --> 00:15:51.519 I know we want all the other words. 00:15:51.600 --> 00:15:52.159 I don't blame you. 00:15:52.240 --> 00:15:53.360 I want them too. 00:15:53.600 --> 00:15:55.840 But so what if you don't get them? 00:15:56.080 --> 00:15:57.759 And so what if you get the bad word? 00:15:58.000 --> 00:15:58.639 So what? 00:15:58.879 --> 00:16:00.960 There's a word that precedes it all. 00:16:01.120 --> 00:16:11.600 See, the old Adam, the flesh, wants to make everything about you, wants to make everything about us and our control for our wholeness, for our validation. 00:16:11.840 --> 00:16:18.639 The old Adam wants to keep you, keep you living in the energy of other people's words. 00:16:18.879 --> 00:16:20.879 That's what the old Adam wants to do. 00:16:21.039 --> 00:16:24.320 Keep you living in the energy of other people's words. 00:16:24.559 --> 00:16:29.519 And the new self created in Jesus, the spirit residing in you. 00:16:29.679 --> 00:16:38.720 The new self lives by a different word, the word that precedes it all, that was earned by Jesus' death on the cross, where your sin was put upon him. 00:16:39.120 --> 00:16:51.360 All your self-saving practices and mind, how we'd like to love, just collect everybody's words, and then I'll feel worthy enough, or maybe I, you know, impress everybody with my spirituality, and then I'll feel worthy enough as a Christian, and then I'll feel right with God. 00:16:51.440 --> 00:16:57.279 And Jesus says, I'll take all the self-saving practices, I'll take it upon the cross, I'll give you my righteousness. 00:16:57.440 --> 00:17:02.320 I will deem you worth I'll deem you strong before you're strong or not strong. 00:17:04.319 --> 00:17:08.480 And you will be redeemed and secure by my work for you. 00:17:08.640 --> 00:17:10.640 I've been doing it my whole life. 00:17:11.440 --> 00:17:17.039 Fearing failure, gauging how great I am based on people's words. 00:17:17.599 --> 00:17:19.839 I did it when I was young with sports. 00:17:21.039 --> 00:17:24.000 I did it with academics, I did it with social life. 00:17:24.319 --> 00:17:26.240 And now I do it, I do it with my job. 00:17:27.279 --> 00:17:32.079 I used to work at this great church, this great church in the wealthiest zip code in Georgia. 00:17:32.240 --> 00:17:34.160 And people, they would ask me what I did. 00:17:34.319 --> 00:17:37.039 I couldn't wait to tell them what I did and where I worked. 00:17:37.200 --> 00:17:40.319 Because you know what people because I learned what people's responses was. 00:17:40.799 --> 00:17:41.920 Oh wow. 00:17:43.039 --> 00:17:44.079 You work there? 00:17:45.039 --> 00:17:45.599 I went there one. 00:17:45.839 --> 00:17:46.559 I was there once. 00:17:47.039 --> 00:17:48.319 That place is beautiful. 00:17:48.559 --> 00:17:49.039 And it is. 00:17:49.279 --> 00:17:50.079 Man, that's amazing. 00:17:50.640 --> 00:17:53.200 Golly, how'd you how'd you get that job? 00:17:55.200 --> 00:17:56.160 That's amazing. 00:17:56.559 --> 00:17:56.880 Wow. 00:17:56.960 --> 00:17:59.599 Oh, you work you work for him? 00:18:00.799 --> 00:18:01.680 He's famous. 00:18:01.839 --> 00:18:02.720 Like, do you know him? 00:18:02.960 --> 00:18:03.599 Do you know him? 00:18:04.400 --> 00:18:05.839 Yeah, I know him. 00:18:07.519 --> 00:18:11.519 Like, like, yes, I am so look at this, I am somebody. 00:18:13.839 --> 00:18:16.559 And then I there's there's no way around it. 00:18:16.720 --> 00:18:20.000 I mean, it's strange, it was strange for me to leave that. 00:18:20.240 --> 00:18:23.519 And I love Brian and Mandy and Brad and Megan. 00:18:23.759 --> 00:18:25.839 That's only four people, you know. 00:18:27.680 --> 00:18:29.279 There's six of us. 00:18:30.319 --> 00:18:31.920 And people would say, where do you work? 00:18:32.000 --> 00:18:33.440 And I'd say, well, this is church. 00:18:33.759 --> 00:18:34.880 We're at a preschool. 00:18:35.119 --> 00:18:35.920 That's not impressive. 00:18:36.079 --> 00:18:37.599 Preschool's not impressive. 00:18:37.839 --> 00:18:38.880 It's the opposite. 00:18:38.960 --> 00:18:40.640 It's the opposite of impressive. 00:18:41.920 --> 00:18:44.319 Nobody cared where I worked. 00:18:44.640 --> 00:18:46.079 Nobody cared. 00:18:46.880 --> 00:18:50.559 And that was a weird one for those words to be stripped away. 00:18:52.559 --> 00:19:03.680 This week somebody asked me what I did and where I worked, and I told them, and they sort of moaned when I told them where the, like, oh, oh, like the back of an office part? 00:19:03.920 --> 00:19:04.960 Like, oh. 00:19:06.160 --> 00:19:09.839 Oh, like there are thousands of you. 00:19:13.599 --> 00:19:15.359 You you little churchmen. 00:19:16.480 --> 00:19:18.079 This is what it felt like. 00:19:20.720 --> 00:19:28.960 The most gracious words spoken to me since we started the church, came in the that first year in that preschool where nobody was impressed. 00:19:29.119 --> 00:19:29.920 Not impressive. 00:19:30.160 --> 00:19:31.200 Nothing impressive. 00:19:32.079 --> 00:19:34.480 You know, scattering of people showing up here and there. 00:19:34.640 --> 00:19:39.440 And we had set up, and you know, those of y'all who remember setting up, we just kept setting up, kept setting up. 00:19:39.519 --> 00:19:41.839 Sometimes there were people in the seat, sometimes there weren't. 00:19:42.000 --> 00:19:43.119 And you just never knew. 00:19:43.200 --> 00:19:48.799 And it was set up, and there was always sort of like a 20-minute period of quiet before like everything started going. 00:19:48.880 --> 00:19:56.960 And I was just sitting there, and one of our founding elders, Brad, he sat down next to me, and he just looked at me. 00:19:57.039 --> 00:19:58.000 And this was early on. 00:19:58.079 --> 00:20:05.599 I'm thinking, I'm thinking unimpressive, like if we want to talk numbers, there's like 30 people, and we're like, like, maybe it'll work, maybe it won't. 00:20:05.759 --> 00:20:08.720 I won't ever say that to anybody, but that's what I'm thinking. 00:20:08.960 --> 00:20:16.559 And he just says, he looks at me and he says, Russ, if this is all it ever is, this is great. 00:20:18.720 --> 00:20:21.440 If this is all it ever is, this is great. 00:20:21.839 --> 00:20:26.480 I mean, man, that's a word of that's a word of grace. 00:20:27.759 --> 00:20:30.079 That's the opposite of the world. 00:20:31.039 --> 00:20:31.920 But you know what? 00:20:32.160 --> 00:20:38.799 As good as that word is, and I st God, I still love that word given to me from him, it still can't deliver me. 00:20:39.279 --> 00:20:41.279 It still can't deliver me. 00:20:43.119 --> 00:20:47.680 Not from me trying to self-save, from getting another one of that. 00:20:47.920 --> 00:20:49.680 Who else will give me one of those? 00:20:49.920 --> 00:20:51.680 And that line keeps moving. 00:20:51.839 --> 00:21:00.079 That can't bring me ultimate peace inside of my heart, relieving me of self-justifying and self-saving, which is my sin. 00:21:00.400 --> 00:21:01.200 It can't. 00:21:01.359 --> 00:21:05.279 The secure word, the secure word is what lives in you. 00:21:05.519 --> 00:21:08.000 Christ, the hope of glory. 00:21:08.240 --> 00:21:09.599 I know you don't always feel it. 00:21:09.759 --> 00:21:10.559 I know you don't. 00:21:10.720 --> 00:21:12.400 Neither do I, neither do I. 00:21:12.559 --> 00:21:13.279 You don't have to. 00:21:13.359 --> 00:21:15.119 You don't always have to feel it. 00:21:15.759 --> 00:21:31.920 But know the word has been spoken to you in the beautiful name of Jesus, who speaks words of acceptance and love and approval and redemption and forgiveness and adequacy and sufficiency over you because of what he has done for you. 00:21:32.079 --> 00:21:33.440 I ran into this quote this week. 00:21:33.519 --> 00:21:34.240 I'll end with this. 00:21:34.559 --> 00:21:37.839 Martin Luther, a few hundred years old, great reformer. 00:21:38.160 --> 00:21:40.720 Pardon the old English here, hang with me. 00:21:41.200 --> 00:21:50.640 Christ, therefore, saith he, thus joined and united unto me and abiding in me, liveth this life in me, which now I live. 00:21:50.960 --> 00:21:55.119 Yea, Christ himself is this life which now I live. 00:21:55.440 --> 00:21:59.039 Wherefore Christ and I in this behalf are both one. 00:21:59.440 --> 00:22:19.759 This union or conjunction, then is the cause that I am delivered from the terror of the law and sin, and separate from myself, and translated unto Christ in his kingdom, which is a kingdom of grace, righteousness, peace, life, salvation, and eternal glory. 00:22:20.000 --> 00:22:28.160 Whilst I thus abide in him and dwell in him, what evil is there that can hurt me? 00:22:28.880 --> 00:22:36.559 So, my brothers and sisters, may you be found in his view and his word of you, not everybody else's. 00:22:36.720 --> 00:22:38.160 Let's pray together. 00:22:39.359 --> 00:22:42.640 God, thank you for your goodness and your mercy to us. 00:22:43.279 --> 00:22:48.240 We confess that we use and love to use everybody else's words. 00:22:48.400 --> 00:23:05.200 And in our insecurity, we allow those words of the people around us just to cut us to the core rather than to find our trust and security and your goodness and your acceptance and in your work for us. 00:23:07.680 --> 00:23:09.440 And we look for that good word. 00:23:10.799 --> 00:23:16.400 Trying to accumulate all the good words to justify ourselves and our worth and value. 00:23:18.079 --> 00:23:19.759 And so we confess this. 00:23:20.000 --> 00:23:22.240 We do this, I do this. 00:23:23.440 --> 00:23:25.839 Please forgive me, have mercy on me. 00:23:26.640 --> 00:23:36.079 Increase my trust in your word to me that the cross is enough, and that Jesus is the love of God for me to know. 00:23:38.960 --> 00:23:53.279 Would you help us as we wake up each day to confess over all the ways that we self-save, and to remember again our redemption, our wholeness, our salvation is in you and in you alone. 00:23:53.519 --> 00:23:55.119 In Jesus' name we pray. 00:23:55.359 --> 00:23:55.920 Amen.