WEBVTT 00:00:01.520 --> 00:00:04.000 So we are in our second week of Lent. 00:00:04.160 --> 00:00:08.080 Lent is the season on the church calendar leading up to Easter. 00:00:08.240 --> 00:00:21.199 So we have taken a break from going through the book of Ecclesiastes, which we did for a couple of months, and now we are taking our different passages for Sunday morning from this historic church document called the Lectionary. 00:00:21.359 --> 00:00:25.760 And so each Sunday we get a different passage leading us up to Easter. 00:00:25.839 --> 00:00:31.039 And so today we get John chapter 3, this great, great story that we're gonna unpack. 00:00:31.280 --> 00:00:37.520 So when I was 12 years old, I attended my first overnight church retreat. 00:00:37.840 --> 00:00:42.479 About a hundred middle schoolers and high schoolers from the church I was going to at the time. 00:00:42.640 --> 00:00:45.920 We went to Panama City Beach to this nasty retreat center. 00:00:46.079 --> 00:00:47.200 It was disgusting. 00:00:47.280 --> 00:00:48.079 But it didn't matter. 00:00:48.240 --> 00:00:49.200 I was in sixth grade. 00:00:49.359 --> 00:00:54.799 They had a full court basketball court with a swimming pool next to it, which meant it was everything I ever wanted, right? 00:00:54.880 --> 00:00:58.719 I mean, just run and run and run and play and play and play and play and then jump in the pool. 00:00:58.799 --> 00:01:02.000 So you didn't have to take a shower all week because you go to a sixth grader, you had a swimming pool. 00:01:02.079 --> 00:01:03.119 So you didn't have to shower all week. 00:01:03.200 --> 00:01:14.319 And so you play basketball, jump in the pool, go seeing Kumbayan, the little gathering area with the overhead projector, then come back to the swimming pool and then go back to the you know basketball court just over and over again, all week. 00:01:14.400 --> 00:01:21.920 And I was I was jacked up all week, so pumped up, excited, barely slept the entire week. 00:01:22.079 --> 00:01:28.799 The end of the week comes, my parents come and pick me up, and we spend that weekend at a beach condo just down the beach. 00:01:28.959 --> 00:01:31.680 We get to the condo, it's late afternoon. 00:01:31.920 --> 00:01:34.719 I say, Mom, dad, I'm gonna late, I'm gonna take a nap. 00:01:34.799 --> 00:01:37.359 I'm kinda kind of tired, kind of been run down this this week. 00:01:37.519 --> 00:01:39.200 I've been doing a lot, been pretty active. 00:01:39.359 --> 00:01:42.480 So I lay down late in the afternoon, about four o'clock. 00:01:42.560 --> 00:01:45.359 I sleep all the way through to the next morning. 00:01:45.599 --> 00:01:53.760 I wake up in the morning, my family's already down on the beach, so I go down to the beach, I spend about 30 minutes on the beach, I'm still exhausted. 00:01:53.920 --> 00:02:01.359 And so I go back up to the condo, I go to sleep again, I sleep from that morning all the way till dinner time. 00:02:01.519 --> 00:02:02.239 I'm not sick. 00:02:02.400 --> 00:02:05.280 Now remember this, I'm not sick, I'm just exhausted. 00:02:05.519 --> 00:02:14.080 I wake up at dinner time, I wake up, I eat dinner, and then I go back to sleep and I sleep all the way through to the next morning. 00:02:14.159 --> 00:02:18.080 I sleep something like 36 hours straight, pretty much. 00:02:18.240 --> 00:02:19.520 And I was and I wasn't sick. 00:02:19.599 --> 00:02:21.439 I was never sick, it wouldn't have nothing to do with illness. 00:02:21.599 --> 00:02:24.159 I was just exhausted, right? 00:02:24.400 --> 00:02:27.520 Like it's like I couldn't catch up with my exhaustion. 00:02:27.680 --> 00:02:28.800 Maybe you know what I'm talking about. 00:02:28.879 --> 00:02:29.840 Some of you are feeling it right now. 00:02:29.919 --> 00:02:32.400 Joe and Allison, you're feeling it right now because you're in the student retreat. 00:02:32.479 --> 00:02:33.120 I can see it in your eyes. 00:02:33.199 --> 00:02:34.639 You're about the eyes are shutting. 00:02:34.800 --> 00:02:35.280 I can see it. 00:02:35.360 --> 00:02:35.840 It's okay. 00:02:35.919 --> 00:02:37.439 I gave you permission to take a nap. 00:02:37.919 --> 00:02:40.159 It's the feeling like you can't catch up. 00:02:40.240 --> 00:02:42.400 And maybe you felt this physically. 00:02:42.639 --> 00:02:46.719 Maybe you have felt this feeling like I just can't catch up with my exhaustion. 00:02:46.879 --> 00:03:04.639 Maybe you felt that emotionally because school has been hard, or friends have been hard, or romance has been hard, or marriage, or parenting, or your parents are aging and that's hard, or you're aging and that's hard, or you're sick, or you're depressed, or somebody died, and emotionally you can get just exhausted. 00:03:04.719 --> 00:03:08.159 You can get like you can't catch up with it. 00:03:08.400 --> 00:03:10.240 And then there's this whole other exhaustion, right? 00:03:10.319 --> 00:03:24.400 Like so we have physical, we have emotional, then we have this whole other exhaustion, which is like this this spiritual soul exhaustion, and it's this feeling like your soul is worn out, and it's being worn out by the things you're doing. 00:03:25.439 --> 00:03:34.960 And every once in a while you you sort of you you wake up and you you want to feel alive, like on the on the inside of you, you want to feel alive, and you just can't catch up to it. 00:03:35.120 --> 00:03:37.599 You can't catch up to the exhaustion. 00:03:37.759 --> 00:03:46.240 And I mentioned all of that to say I think Nicodemus in this story in John 3 may be feeling something like that. 00:03:46.879 --> 00:03:52.800 Because he's this religious guy, and he's showing up to Jesus in the nighttime. 00:03:52.960 --> 00:03:54.479 So he doesn't want to get caught. 00:03:54.560 --> 00:03:58.400 He doesn't want to be, he doesn't want to be seen by the other religious guys, but just showing up. 00:03:58.479 --> 00:04:07.680 There's some confession here, like the thing I'm doing, the way I'm living out life, uh, by rules, living up to rules, in order to feel accepted by God. 00:04:07.840 --> 00:04:08.879 It's not working. 00:04:09.039 --> 00:04:13.439 And so Jesus is teaching something, and I'm gonna go ask him some some questions. 00:04:13.919 --> 00:04:16.879 Because that's different than what I'm doing. 00:04:17.120 --> 00:04:25.519 And and I love this passage because in some way I've been thinking back to what we were talking about the last two months with with Solomon and Ecclesiastes. 00:04:25.600 --> 00:04:30.240 If you've been around the last couple months, this this king who who had everything. 00:04:30.399 --> 00:04:42.000 He had power, he had he had money, he's having lots of sex, he's having it all, and to all of it, he's saying, Havel, Havel, it's vapor. 00:04:42.160 --> 00:04:51.360 I'm trying all of these things to fulfill myself and to feel whole and to feel redeemed, and all of this secular path, Havel, meaningless. 00:04:51.439 --> 00:05:05.279 And now we get Nicodemus, a religious man, and he's going the way of religiosity and merit and living up to rules to feel accepted by God and valued and redeemed, and he's showing up going, I need some help also. 00:05:05.439 --> 00:05:10.319 And so we have the secular way not working, and we have the religious way not working. 00:05:10.480 --> 00:05:13.759 And Jesus comes in and he speaks to Nicodemus. 00:05:13.839 --> 00:05:17.600 And I love it because it shows you no matter where you've been, right? 00:05:17.759 --> 00:05:33.759 Whether you can associate with you can associate with Solomon or you can associate with Nicodemus, or you know what, you were like Solomon, and then you became like Nicodemus, or you were like Nicodemus early in life, and then you said, Oh, I'm disillusioned with all this, I'm walking away, and then you became like Solomon no matter where you've been, or a mix of both. 00:05:34.079 --> 00:05:35.839 We all need rescuing. 00:05:36.319 --> 00:05:42.560 We all need a path different from secular merit or religious merit. 00:05:43.439 --> 00:05:45.360 So we get this great conversation. 00:05:45.600 --> 00:05:48.959 So I'll reread a few verses and make some points as we go. 00:05:49.680 --> 00:05:51.040 John 3, 1 through 3. 00:05:51.199 --> 00:05:55.199 Now there was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews. 00:05:55.519 --> 00:06:03.519 This man came to Jesus by night and said to him, Rabbi, so teacher, teacher, we know that you are a teacher that come from God. 00:06:03.759 --> 00:06:08.480 For no one can do these signs that you do unless God is with them. 00:06:08.639 --> 00:06:15.040 And Jesus answered him, Truly, truly I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. 00:06:15.360 --> 00:06:19.199 So Nicodemus is that Pharisees living out by these rules. 00:06:19.839 --> 00:06:23.759 If I fulfill the rules, then I'll be accepted by God. 00:06:25.360 --> 00:06:26.720 And here's his confession. 00:06:26.800 --> 00:06:27.519 He's showing up. 00:06:27.680 --> 00:06:28.720 I don't have it all together. 00:06:28.800 --> 00:06:32.079 And if anybody has it all together, at least by appearance, it's this guy. 00:06:32.240 --> 00:06:37.680 I mean, this is the guy who has the appearance of having it together, and yet he's here. 00:06:37.920 --> 00:06:47.279 And maybe you do feel like Nicodemus, because you've been in places, you've lived in places where you were constantly trying to hold it together. 00:06:47.600 --> 00:06:53.680 And that is exhausting to constantly try to pretend that you're okay when you're not okay. 00:06:54.160 --> 00:07:10.720 And see, if you're not allowed to confess your humanity, which has sin involved in it, which is your imperfection and your rebellion from God, if you're not allowed to confess that, you will always perform or pretend. 00:07:10.800 --> 00:07:11.839 There's no other choice. 00:07:12.079 --> 00:07:13.680 You have no other choice. 00:07:15.920 --> 00:07:28.720 And yet here Nicodemus is, and he's been performing a lot, and he's had to pretend because he has he has some awareness of his sinfulness, and he just keeps on with these rules and living up to the rules because that's what the Pharisees did. 00:07:28.879 --> 00:07:30.959 And Jesus begins to speak into his life. 00:07:31.199 --> 00:07:33.199 He says, Hey, it's only by God. 00:07:33.279 --> 00:07:34.800 You've got to be born again by God. 00:07:34.879 --> 00:07:41.040 And then verse 4, Nicodemus says, back to Jesus, how can a man be born when he's old? 00:07:41.360 --> 00:07:44.480 Can he enter a second time into his mother's womb and be born? 00:07:44.560 --> 00:07:45.759 And there's probably some humor here. 00:07:45.839 --> 00:07:49.199 Like, you know, that's a little disgusting as well, if we're just honest about it. 00:07:49.279 --> 00:07:50.240 And he's just saying, I don't get it. 00:07:50.319 --> 00:07:52.480 What are you like, what are you talking about? 00:07:52.800 --> 00:07:53.920 Born again? 00:07:54.240 --> 00:07:55.680 A second birth? 00:07:57.759 --> 00:08:05.199 So, point number one, God's grace, God's unmerited favor to you, God's grace is not logical to our default thinking. 00:08:06.399 --> 00:08:08.800 That's not what we're gonna start with when we wake up in the morning. 00:08:08.959 --> 00:08:11.759 You're when you wake up in the morning, you're gonna start with self-justification. 00:08:11.839 --> 00:08:16.399 You're gonna justify your worth and your value and even your faith by what you do. 00:08:16.560 --> 00:08:25.279 God's grace is not your default thinking, but it is the only way you are given a new identity as God's forever beloved. 00:08:25.839 --> 00:08:35.679 God's grace is not logical to our default thinking, but is the only way you are given a new identity and new birth as God's forever beloved. 00:08:38.639 --> 00:08:39.440 Verse 5. 00:08:39.679 --> 00:08:47.600 Jesus answered him, back to him, truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. 00:08:47.840 --> 00:08:49.840 That which is born of flesh is flesh. 00:08:50.000 --> 00:08:52.720 He's saying there's the first birth, right? 00:08:53.200 --> 00:09:02.799 You're born from Mama, first birth, and then he says, and that which is born of spirit is spirit, so there's a second birth, and that's the thing we're all looking for. 00:09:03.120 --> 00:09:09.840 Solomon, Nicodemus, you, me, wherever you're at on these two, we're all looking for this second birth, this new life. 00:09:10.000 --> 00:09:13.600 We want life, we want to feel redeemed, we want to be redeemed. 00:09:16.159 --> 00:09:19.200 Verse 7, do not marvel that I said to you, you must be born again. 00:09:19.360 --> 00:09:25.200 The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. 00:09:25.279 --> 00:09:28.879 So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit. 00:09:29.759 --> 00:09:41.919 On January 18th of this year, a dad with two little kids and his wife, they're at a resort in the mountains in central Italy. 00:09:42.240 --> 00:09:44.080 And there was an earthquake. 00:09:44.799 --> 00:09:52.480 There's about 40 people at this hotel, and they're hunkered down in the lobby of this riding out this huge snowstorm. 00:09:53.120 --> 00:10:01.360 And then, so dad has one of his kids is sick, and so he walks out to the parking lot through the snowstorm at night, it's 5 p.m., it's dark out. 00:10:01.519 --> 00:10:07.840 He walks out to his car to get some medicine for his son, and then the earthquake hits and he hears this rumbling. 00:10:08.000 --> 00:10:10.240 And so he hears it, it's so jolting. 00:10:10.399 --> 00:10:13.360 He takes off and he runs and he gets behind a tree. 00:10:13.440 --> 00:10:28.960 And then after the rush of all of this noise, he's buried in some snow, but he crawls out, he looks back, and when he looks back, the cars in the parking lot have been kind of moved around, and then beyond the parking lot, he looks back and the hotel is gone. 00:10:29.279 --> 00:10:30.399 It's gone. 00:10:30.720 --> 00:10:36.000 It's under 120,000 tons of snow and trees. 00:10:36.879 --> 00:10:42.320 And his wife and his two kids that are in there, and 36 other guests. 00:10:42.960 --> 00:10:52.399 And so he yells out a little bit, he's yelling out into the darkness, you know, if anybody else is out there, and finally finds one other guy and they hunker in his car for 10 hours. 00:10:52.559 --> 00:10:55.679 They get in the car and they just hope somebody shows up. 00:10:56.559 --> 00:10:59.039 Like, is anybody gonna show is anybody gonna show up? 00:10:59.360 --> 00:11:02.240 Ten hours later, 14 men show up. 00:11:02.480 --> 00:11:06.080 14 men put on snowshoes through the darkness. 00:11:06.159 --> 00:11:13.679 They snowshoe through a snowstorm through the darkness and show up at this isolated resort in the middle of the night at 3 a.m. 00:11:14.000 --> 00:11:15.440 to come and rescue people. 00:11:15.679 --> 00:11:16.240 Studs. 00:11:16.399 --> 00:11:18.559 I mean like absolute studs. 00:11:18.960 --> 00:11:21.440 Saviors is what these guys are. 00:11:21.679 --> 00:11:24.399 And they show up and they just begin to dig. 00:11:25.039 --> 00:11:26.960 And they start digging. 00:11:30.000 --> 00:11:35.279 By the next morning, there's teams of 34 men coming in and out to just dig and dig and dig. 00:11:35.360 --> 00:11:41.200 And under there, for days, under there for days, are 11 alive people. 00:11:41.360 --> 00:11:42.960 There's 11 of them. 00:11:44.159 --> 00:11:46.559 And for those days, they could do nothing to get themselves out. 00:11:46.639 --> 00:11:47.919 They would never get themselves out. 00:11:48.000 --> 00:11:58.480 They are under 120,000 tons of snow, and they're in these pockets of ice and tree limbs, and they can sort of hear each other, and so all they can do is sit there. 00:11:58.639 --> 00:12:01.519 All they can do is talk to each other and sing some songs, but that's it. 00:12:01.840 --> 00:12:03.120 That's all they can do. 00:12:05.360 --> 00:12:08.879 And they have to receive rescue from outside of themselves. 00:12:08.960 --> 00:12:10.720 It's the only way it's gonna happen. 00:12:10.960 --> 00:12:11.200 Right? 00:12:11.279 --> 00:12:12.799 That's my point out of this whole story. 00:12:12.960 --> 00:12:15.759 The only way they will be rescued is outside of themselves. 00:12:15.919 --> 00:12:17.919 And it's not that they can't do some things. 00:12:18.159 --> 00:12:19.759 They can do some things. 00:12:20.000 --> 00:12:21.039 They can sing. 00:12:21.759 --> 00:12:22.080 Right? 00:12:22.399 --> 00:12:23.919 They can talk to each other. 00:12:24.639 --> 00:12:26.559 They can rearrange the snow. 00:12:27.120 --> 00:12:30.159 They can do a few things, but it's very limited on what they can do. 00:12:30.240 --> 00:12:31.519 They can't rescue themselves. 00:12:32.240 --> 00:12:34.480 They can't regenerate life. 00:12:36.080 --> 00:12:37.440 So the point is, is you can. 00:12:37.600 --> 00:12:38.639 You can do some things. 00:12:38.799 --> 00:12:45.039 Like Solomon, he did some things, like Nicodemus, he's doing some things, but you can't regenerate life inside of you. 00:12:45.200 --> 00:12:47.519 You can't redeem yourself unto God. 00:12:50.799 --> 00:12:54.720 The thing that we're doing, this self-justification, which is that's our sin. 00:12:54.879 --> 00:12:55.759 That's our sin. 00:12:56.000 --> 00:13:02.559 Justifying our souls to the world and to God by what we do, merit salvation. 00:13:04.000 --> 00:13:07.600 It's like us being in an ice pocket, just doing a few things. 00:13:08.240 --> 00:13:12.399 But never really, never really receiving life. 00:13:13.360 --> 00:13:20.080 Sin is the process by which we hijack the attempt to rebirth our souls by performance. 00:13:20.240 --> 00:13:21.120 That's what sin is. 00:13:21.279 --> 00:13:23.600 It's the process that we hijack. 00:13:25.759 --> 00:13:29.679 To attempt to rebirth our own souls by our performance. 00:13:30.960 --> 00:13:32.639 And this is point number two. 00:13:32.960 --> 00:13:38.720 We are born, and then by God's grace, we're born again. 00:13:39.039 --> 00:13:42.240 Point number two, we are born, and then by God's grace we are born again. 00:13:42.320 --> 00:13:44.399 I love all that poetic wording in verse six. 00:13:44.639 --> 00:13:47.519 That which is born of the spirit is spirit. 00:13:47.679 --> 00:13:52.240 Jesus is saying, God's spirit grants life in our spirits. 00:13:55.120 --> 00:14:01.200 And it's like Jesus knew Nicodemus and the path Nicodemus was on, all this just the religiosity, the merit. 00:14:01.360 --> 00:14:07.440 If I just do the next thing, if I do enough, the next thing, and enough, and the next thing, then God will accept me. 00:14:07.519 --> 00:14:15.279 Rather than God has already accepted me by Jesus' work, a gift of grace, and then out of that, what does my life look like? 00:14:15.919 --> 00:14:17.679 Two very different lives. 00:14:17.840 --> 00:14:22.399 One is a life of grace and peace, the other is a life of merit and exhaustion. 00:14:26.080 --> 00:14:28.320 Maybe you're here, you relate to Nicodemus. 00:14:28.480 --> 00:14:30.720 Maybe you're swinging between the two. 00:14:32.000 --> 00:14:36.159 But what we need is what Jesus is teaching and what he's going to do with his life. 00:14:36.559 --> 00:14:39.600 For years, I for years I knew I was saved by grace. 00:14:40.080 --> 00:14:41.200 I knew that. 00:14:41.759 --> 00:14:44.399 But I wasn't sure what it meant for today. 00:14:44.639 --> 00:14:46.480 Like, what did it mean for Tuesday morning? 00:14:46.639 --> 00:14:48.159 What did it mean for a Wednesday meeting? 00:14:48.639 --> 00:14:52.159 What did it mean for me and my family on Thursday night? 00:14:52.480 --> 00:14:54.000 What does it mean then? 00:14:55.279 --> 00:14:55.679 Right? 00:14:56.000 --> 00:15:02.159 I had really had not learned what it meant to appropriate the belief I had into my life. 00:15:02.480 --> 00:15:04.080 I just had it had the belief. 00:15:04.240 --> 00:15:12.399 Like I'm in, I'm in the dance by God's grace, and then I just really need to dance well to stay in the dance, or I might get kicked out. 00:15:12.639 --> 00:15:29.919 So I lacked security, there's anxiety, there's judgment, I judgment on myself, and therefore judgment on others, lack of compassion, and then self-righteousness if I'm doing well, exhaustion when I'm not doing well, condemnation. 00:15:32.639 --> 00:15:32.960 Right? 00:15:33.039 --> 00:15:36.399 And over time, it's it's just it's a religious exhaustion. 00:15:37.679 --> 00:15:45.360 Nicodemus is not showing up here with these real questions unless he's feeling some measure of religious exhaustion. 00:15:46.080 --> 00:15:49.120 I've gone, like, I've been doing it this way, but you're saying a few things. 00:15:49.200 --> 00:15:51.519 I need to ask you a few questions about this. 00:15:53.759 --> 00:15:58.000 Verse 9, then Nicodemus says back to Jesus, How can these things be? 00:15:58.720 --> 00:16:04.080 And Jesus answered him, Are you, are you the teacher of Israel, and yet you do not understand these things? 00:16:04.240 --> 00:16:06.080 He's like, Hey, you're you're the one teaching people. 00:16:06.159 --> 00:16:07.759 Like, how do you not understand this? 00:16:08.080 --> 00:16:15.360 Jesus keeps saying, Truly, truly I say to you, we speak of what we know and bear witness to what we have seen, but you do not receive our testimony. 00:16:15.519 --> 00:16:20.639 If I have told you earthly things and you do not believe, how can you believe if I tell you heavenly things? 00:16:20.879 --> 00:16:26.159 No one has ascended into heaven except he who descended from heaven, the Son of Man. 00:16:27.279 --> 00:16:30.960 And then Jesus makes a point here with a story that Nicodemus would know. 00:16:31.200 --> 00:16:40.080 Verse 14 And as Moses lifts up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him may have eternal life. 00:16:40.240 --> 00:16:41.679 So this is a story back in Numbers. 00:16:42.000 --> 00:16:43.200 Nicodemus would have known it. 00:16:43.360 --> 00:16:49.039 And the Israelites are attacked by all these poisonous serpents, and and so it's strange, really, strange story. 00:16:49.120 --> 00:16:55.039 And God comes, he says, Hey, um, make a make a bronze image and hold the image up. 00:16:55.200 --> 00:17:06.319 Hold this image up made of metal, hold this image up, and then anybody who's bit can look up, look upon, look to the image and will be healed. 00:17:06.640 --> 00:17:08.000 Strange story. 00:17:08.720 --> 00:17:12.319 But the story makes a lot of sense when Jesus gets to tell it in Nicodemus right here. 00:17:12.400 --> 00:17:29.279 All of a sudden, that story that's so strange in the Old Testament, when Jesus tells it here, it makes perfect sense because the point is life is not found in your own means to rescue yourself, but in looking outside of yourself to the gift of God, which is the Son of Man, which is Jesus. 00:17:29.440 --> 00:17:32.799 Now all of a sudden, the number stories, you're going like, brilliant, that was brilliant. 00:17:32.960 --> 00:17:34.079 Place it in history. 00:17:34.319 --> 00:17:39.279 Jesus comes along and gets to tell it to a teacher of Israel for it to make sense for him. 00:17:41.519 --> 00:17:43.920 And then Jesus keeps going in John 3.16. 00:17:44.000 --> 00:17:45.200 You've never heard this verse before. 00:17:45.359 --> 00:17:57.119 For God so loved the world that he gave his only son, that whoever believes in him should not perish, but have eternal life. 00:17:57.440 --> 00:17:59.359 Verse 17, I love it just as much. 00:17:59.519 --> 00:18:06.559 For God did not send his son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. 00:18:07.519 --> 00:18:12.079 So this word life, eternal life, this is the word zoe. 00:18:13.039 --> 00:18:14.319 This is the word zoe. 00:18:14.559 --> 00:18:17.599 It's life now that extends into the afterlife. 00:18:17.680 --> 00:18:19.200 It's not just the afterlife. 00:18:19.359 --> 00:18:22.960 It's life now that extends into the afterlife. 00:18:23.119 --> 00:18:32.240 And it's not life, it's not life that makes up your life, uh, like your family and your work and your school. 00:18:32.400 --> 00:18:33.839 Like that makes up your life. 00:18:34.000 --> 00:18:34.880 That's not what it is. 00:18:35.119 --> 00:18:37.920 This is life that makes you up. 00:18:38.559 --> 00:18:38.880 Right? 00:18:39.039 --> 00:18:40.000 You get the difference there? 00:18:40.160 --> 00:18:40.799 Two different things. 00:18:40.880 --> 00:18:42.720 This is life that makes you up. 00:18:42.880 --> 00:18:44.319 It is your, here's the definition. 00:18:44.559 --> 00:18:54.000 Zoe is your state as you become vital and whole and animated by God. 00:18:54.799 --> 00:19:05.440 Your state, the core of your being as you become vital and whole and animated by God through God's Spirit because of God's Son. 00:19:06.640 --> 00:19:09.039 And here's the last point, point number three. 00:19:09.519 --> 00:19:13.920 The great transformative joy of life. 00:19:15.119 --> 00:19:23.599 The great transformative joy of life is to remember that you are God's beloved by God's finished work for you. 00:19:24.559 --> 00:19:28.000 It's not gonna be the secular path and it's not gonna be the religious path. 00:19:28.079 --> 00:19:32.799 It's gonna be the path of the gospel of grace, the work of Jesus. 00:19:33.119 --> 00:19:34.400 And I need this. 00:19:35.759 --> 00:19:40.640 I was excited about telling you guys this this morning because I'm going like I'm Nicodemus. 00:19:40.960 --> 00:19:44.079 Like I've lived out Nicodemus a whole lot. 00:19:44.319 --> 00:19:47.839 I still live out Nicodemus a whole lot. 00:19:48.960 --> 00:19:51.519 And none of us do this perfectly, right? 00:19:51.680 --> 00:19:53.680 None of us do it perfectly. 00:19:54.640 --> 00:19:57.200 You didn't last week, you're not gonna do it perfectly this week. 00:19:57.359 --> 00:20:15.119 The hope is that you grow in your awareness that in God's grace, which is fully sufficient for you, that finished work, your secure identity, that in that you can freely confess as soon as you recognize that you're on that path of secular self-justification or religious self-justification. 00:20:15.279 --> 00:20:19.039 You just you could confess it freely right then and return back into God's generation. 00:20:19.680 --> 00:20:21.279 Oh, yeah, that's right, that is who I am. 00:20:21.440 --> 00:20:23.440 I'm already redeemed, I'm already whole. 00:20:23.519 --> 00:20:29.599 I don't have to try to find myself vital and whole and redeemed by this other path. 00:20:31.680 --> 00:20:35.839 And there we find peace, grace and peace, grace and peace. 00:20:37.599 --> 00:20:51.200 So, my brothers and sisters, may you grow in your awareness of the Zoe, the life, the Zoe that has been birthed in you by God's work for you. 00:20:51.759 --> 00:20:53.279 Let's pray together. 00:20:56.559 --> 00:21:16.160 God, would you help us to confess freely that which we use to justify ourselves rather than your work for us, the ways we find value outside of you, all the ways that manifests in unhealthy behaviors. 00:21:17.200 --> 00:21:21.599 Would you help us to receive the Zoe that the life of God? 00:21:22.480 --> 00:21:27.440 And to all the tired and worn places. 00:21:28.880 --> 00:21:33.680 Some of us on the paths of religious merit religious exhaustion. 00:21:34.559 --> 00:21:39.920 And we feel like the core of who we are spirit, spirit.