WEBVTT 00:00:02.000 --> 00:00:02.959 Well, good morning. 00:00:03.120 --> 00:00:07.120 So we are breaking from our journey through the book of Ecclesiastes. 00:00:07.200 --> 00:00:12.880 We've been doing that for the past couple of months, just working our way through different passages in the Book of Ecclesiastes. 00:00:13.039 --> 00:00:16.640 But the season of Lent began this past week with Ash Wednesday. 00:00:16.719 --> 00:00:19.839 And the season of Lent, Lent means springtime, is what it means. 00:00:20.239 --> 00:00:26.719 Not really a you know special word, but it's about the 40 or so days leading up to Easter. 00:00:26.879 --> 00:00:31.359 And it's designed for us in church history to lead up to Easter. 00:00:31.440 --> 00:00:40.560 And a lot of times, maybe you've been in a church and uh people gave up coffee for Lent or chocolate, you know, like real sacrificial things or wine or Netflix or something. 00:00:40.799 --> 00:00:45.280 And all of that is designed for maybe you gave something up, maybe you gave up those things. 00:00:45.359 --> 00:00:45.840 That's good. 00:00:45.920 --> 00:00:48.079 I'm not saying don't do it, good, like great. 00:00:48.159 --> 00:01:00.719 And it's designed to help you remember during the season a measure of sacrifice so that when we get to Easter, you remember that it is it is God's grace in Jesus that we feast on. 00:01:00.880 --> 00:01:03.200 And so the season of Lent is just this preparation. 00:01:03.359 --> 00:01:14.480 So we're gonna use the passages in the lectionary, which is this set aside of this book of scriptures set for different Sundays throughout the calendar year. 00:01:14.560 --> 00:01:19.120 We're just gonna follow different passages set for different Sundays leading up to Easter. 00:01:19.280 --> 00:01:24.719 So this morning, the the passage set aside in the lectionary, this historic document, is Matthew 4. 00:01:24.879 --> 00:01:27.599 And so that's what we're gonna be digging into. 00:01:27.840 --> 00:01:43.359 So Ash Wednesday begins, uh begins Lent, and Ash Wednesday is about us remembering what we really just we so badly want to forget, and that is that we're imperfect, and we're going to one day die. 00:01:43.760 --> 00:01:46.159 That all of us will one day die. 00:01:47.040 --> 00:01:48.879 So, you know, happy Sunday. 00:01:49.040 --> 00:01:51.200 Hey, welcome, welcome to Christ the Redeemer. 00:01:51.280 --> 00:01:54.719 Uh, but this will be incredibly healthy for our souls. 00:01:54.959 --> 00:02:03.200 Last Sunday I spent in the afternoon, I went to a hospice remembrance service with my mom for my grandmother. 00:02:03.280 --> 00:02:11.840 So the hospice service that served us and served my grandmother in her closing months, uh, her last months at the end of last year. 00:02:12.000 --> 00:02:19.759 We went to this hospice remembrance service that they were holding, and it was for all the all the people that they cared for and their families. 00:02:20.319 --> 00:02:24.400 For 2016, we all gathered together and we remembered them. 00:02:24.479 --> 00:02:26.639 And we went to thank these people. 00:02:26.800 --> 00:02:42.639 We went to thank these volunteers who sat with my granny in her closing months and cared for her and talked to her and loved her and wheeled her out of her assisted living place and down by the pond for you know an hour of sunshine, and they did this. 00:02:42.719 --> 00:02:46.240 And so we went to thank these people for that. 00:02:46.400 --> 00:03:01.280 And there's about a hundred people or so in this room, and it was a Jewish organization, hospice service was a Jewish service, and this lady gets up who's running the service, and she sings the psalm in Hebrew, and it is unbelievable. 00:03:01.439 --> 00:03:06.960 And so, you know, Sam's working on his Hebrew because I mean that's something we're gonna be incorporating as seeing the Psalms. 00:03:07.360 --> 00:03:10.639 I mean, it was it was awesome, it was incredible, it was so good. 00:03:10.879 --> 00:03:19.680 And then after that, they just they start reading out loud the names of everybody that they had served and everybody who had passed away in 2016. 00:03:19.759 --> 00:03:26.479 It's just name after name after name after name after name, and it's a lot of names. 00:03:26.639 --> 00:03:32.560 And it's just every single one, these people cared for and helped die. 00:03:33.520 --> 00:03:44.560 And it hit me like while the rest of us are trying to ignore this reality, that's before all of us, we're trying to ignore this reality and eat enough kale and run enough miles to escape it. 00:03:44.800 --> 00:03:46.080 These people are doing this. 00:03:46.240 --> 00:03:50.000 Like this group of people are giving their lives to this. 00:03:50.080 --> 00:03:54.479 And they're up there talking about what an honor it is to do this. 00:03:55.680 --> 00:03:58.560 It's like they know something that we don't. 00:03:59.120 --> 00:03:59.439 Right? 00:03:59.520 --> 00:04:13.520 And I think it has to do with the same thing that the historic church knew when they said, you know what, we're gonna set aside about 40 or something days leading up to Easter, and we're just gonna think about sin and death is what we're gonna think about. 00:04:14.479 --> 00:04:16.800 Because death is not a drag. 00:04:17.600 --> 00:04:23.120 That's kind of what I want you to grab hold of, and what last Sunday I was learning sitting in that service. 00:04:23.279 --> 00:04:24.879 Death is not a drag. 00:04:25.040 --> 00:04:27.279 To be in touch with that is not a drag. 00:04:27.519 --> 00:04:29.600 It actually brings life. 00:04:30.399 --> 00:04:47.040 Because it means that thing that we fear the most and ignore, if we actually face it and deal with it and embrace it, it means you can actually live right now rather than just trying to constantly escape the one great reality we will all go through. 00:04:47.360 --> 00:04:53.680 So, Matthew 4, 1 through 3, we'll reread some of these verses as we make a few points. 00:04:54.240 --> 00:04:59.199 Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. 00:04:59.360 --> 00:05:05.360 Devil means liar, it's the personal force of lying and evil in the world. 00:05:05.600 --> 00:05:12.720 So the liar, every time I hear devil, I think liar, and after fasting 40 days and 40 nights, he was hungry. 00:05:13.199 --> 00:05:19.680 And the tempter, the liar, came and said to him, If you are the Son of God, right? 00:05:19.759 --> 00:05:20.879 That's how always how it starts. 00:05:21.040 --> 00:05:28.000 Like, hey, if if you if you're this, hey, if command these stones to become loaves of bread. 00:05:28.560 --> 00:05:32.800 So this liar comes along and says to Jesus, hey, Jesus, you can be the provider. 00:05:33.040 --> 00:05:36.000 You can provide for yourself, you can take control. 00:05:36.319 --> 00:05:38.240 You can have control. 00:05:38.879 --> 00:05:40.079 Provide for yourself. 00:05:40.319 --> 00:05:42.800 Provide for your own soul. 00:05:42.959 --> 00:05:45.120 And this is where we get our first point. 00:05:45.519 --> 00:05:50.879 And that's this we live with the temptation to provide for our own souls. 00:05:51.360 --> 00:05:56.560 What does your soul crave and feed on to feel redeemed? 00:05:57.279 --> 00:05:59.120 What does I love what Rob said. 00:05:59.360 --> 00:06:00.800 We all have our systems, right? 00:06:00.959 --> 00:06:07.519 In middle school it's one system to self-save, in high school, it's another system to self-save at age 30, age 60, age 80. 00:06:07.680 --> 00:06:09.759 We all have our systems of self-saving, which is sin. 00:06:09.839 --> 00:06:10.639 That's what sin is. 00:06:10.879 --> 00:06:13.920 It's us trying to self-save apart from God's work in Jesus. 00:06:14.079 --> 00:06:20.000 What does your soul feed on to feel redeemed and valued and whole? 00:06:20.959 --> 00:06:30.240 On a daily basis, do we feed ourselves via merit and performance and achievement, or do we feed on God's grace to us in Jesus? 00:06:30.560 --> 00:06:42.879 And Jesus responds to this liar in verse 3, but he answered, it is written, Jesus answered, it is written, man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God. 00:06:45.199 --> 00:06:55.759 And this is sort of a nod to the Old Testament when God fed the Israelites in the desert, the wandering around the desert, and God feeds them with manna, and we go, oh, what a great story. 00:06:55.839 --> 00:07:04.959 And in the New Testament, that story gets even bigger and more profound because in the New Testament it's used as a metaphor to say, hey, God feeds us. 00:07:05.199 --> 00:07:09.600 It's God that feeds our souls, it's not us that feeds our souls. 00:07:10.000 --> 00:07:11.439 Jumping back in in verse 5. 00:07:11.600 --> 00:07:16.480 Then the devil took him to the holy city and set him on the pinnacle of the temple. 00:07:16.720 --> 00:07:25.519 Jesus up on the pinnacle of the temple, and said to him, If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down, for it is written, He will command his angels concerning you. 00:07:25.680 --> 00:07:30.800 And on their hands they will bear you up lest you strike your foot against a stone. 00:07:31.120 --> 00:07:33.040 He said, Hey, you can do this. 00:07:33.360 --> 00:07:34.720 Test God, you can do this. 00:07:34.800 --> 00:07:39.680 And Jesus said to him, again, it is written, You shall not put the Lord your God to the test. 00:07:40.560 --> 00:07:42.319 So the liar comes to him. 00:07:42.560 --> 00:07:44.160 Second temptation here. 00:07:44.480 --> 00:07:47.279 Says, you can be the overcomer, Jesus. 00:07:47.519 --> 00:07:53.759 You can control your future apart from the Father, apart from God the Father, you can control your future. 00:07:53.920 --> 00:07:59.680 Just reach for more power, reach for more control, because that will be the thing that will help you. 00:07:59.759 --> 00:08:03.600 That will be the thing that saves you, is you having control. 00:08:03.839 --> 00:08:05.120 And this is point number two. 00:08:05.199 --> 00:08:07.839 We live with the temptation to control our futures. 00:08:09.120 --> 00:08:14.160 We want to make that thing happen when we want it to happen, right? 00:08:15.279 --> 00:08:35.840 Maybe you know the feeling of constantly wanting to control your situation or your environment or that person, and you exhaust yourself in making sure everyone is happy or everything is safe or that bad thing is turning to good quicker than it really is going to. 00:08:36.799 --> 00:08:43.200 Or maybe you're like me and you want to control things to the point of like you hear that a friend is hurting and you just want to fix it. 00:08:43.279 --> 00:08:44.639 You're like, how can I fix it? 00:08:44.799 --> 00:08:46.480 Maybe money can fix it. 00:08:47.120 --> 00:08:50.399 Maybe I can step in, I'll I'll fix it, I'll be the fixer. 00:08:50.639 --> 00:08:50.960 Right? 00:08:51.039 --> 00:09:00.399 And we reach for more and more control rather than sort of a measure of passivity to go like, oh, I actually can't. 00:09:00.639 --> 00:09:01.919 I actually can't fix everything. 00:09:02.159 --> 00:09:04.480 I actually can't control everything. 00:09:04.799 --> 00:09:12.080 I actually need God Himself to be involved in these situations, environments, and peoples and families and groups. 00:09:12.639 --> 00:09:15.840 Because it turns out you don't have control over everything. 00:09:16.159 --> 00:09:20.080 And isn't that freeing to come to grips with that? 00:09:20.879 --> 00:09:21.200 Right? 00:09:21.279 --> 00:09:25.039 Right rather than exhausting yourself trying to control everything. 00:09:27.039 --> 00:09:30.080 Verse 8, again the devil took him to a very high mountain. 00:09:30.159 --> 00:09:36.159 So this is a third temptation coming, a very high mountain, and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory. 00:09:38.000 --> 00:09:38.960 Are you noticing yet? 00:09:39.039 --> 00:09:43.039 These are all things that Jesus could rightly do. 00:09:43.440 --> 00:09:46.480 And all things that at other points in time he did. 00:09:48.639 --> 00:09:54.559 And the liar said to him, All these I will give to you, all these kingdoms I'll give to you if you fall down and worship me. 00:09:54.720 --> 00:10:01.679 Then Jesus said to him, Be gone, Satan, for it is written, You shall worship the Lord your God, and him only shall you serve. 00:10:01.840 --> 00:10:06.240 Then the devil left him, and behold, angels came and were ministering to him. 00:10:06.559 --> 00:10:08.879 So the liar says, Hey, bow to me. 00:10:09.759 --> 00:10:10.879 Bow to me. 00:10:12.399 --> 00:10:12.799 Right? 00:10:12.960 --> 00:10:14.159 And this is point number three. 00:10:14.320 --> 00:10:19.360 We live with the temptation to bow to something other than God Himself. 00:10:22.799 --> 00:10:35.200 Every night, Christy and I, we we put our girls to bed and we crawl up in their bunks and we, you know, you tuck them in, you whisper sweet things to them, and you pray for them, and we try to escape out of those rooms before they ask for something else. 00:10:35.600 --> 00:10:36.960 We make it back to the den. 00:10:37.120 --> 00:10:43.120 We make it back to the den and we talk for a few minutes, and then I I reach, you know, I reach for the the remote control. 00:10:43.840 --> 00:10:45.279 And I reach for the remote control. 00:10:45.440 --> 00:10:50.480 Now, every once in a while she gets back to the den before me. 00:10:52.159 --> 00:10:54.559 And she's already there and she's established. 00:10:54.639 --> 00:10:58.799 So if you're married or you have a roommate, you know these how this stuff works. 00:10:59.039 --> 00:11:00.080 You've been here. 00:11:00.399 --> 00:11:04.399 Now, here's the amazing thing about my wife. 00:11:04.879 --> 00:11:11.039 She does this amazing, amazingly selfless thing in that moment. 00:11:11.679 --> 00:11:13.600 She doesn't say anything. 00:11:13.919 --> 00:11:17.759 She just puts the remote on the ottoman. 00:11:19.039 --> 00:11:20.559 That's all she does. 00:11:22.080 --> 00:11:27.279 She stays laying on the couch, she puts the remote on the ottoman, I walk by and I pick it up. 00:11:29.919 --> 00:11:34.399 And I tell myself this is because I have great clicker intuition. 00:11:35.279 --> 00:11:36.320 I'm very good. 00:11:36.480 --> 00:11:38.080 I have a lot of practice. 00:11:38.320 --> 00:11:47.279 I also tell myself this is because I sit closer to the hallway, and if you know that little four-year-old, little six-year-old comes around that corner, I'm quick. 00:11:47.440 --> 00:11:54.000 I'm really quick to turn that TV off just in case you never watching 60 Minutes and there's children buried under bomb buildings or something. 00:11:54.159 --> 00:11:56.559 Like we're gonna hit that off before they turn that corner. 00:11:56.720 --> 00:11:58.000 And so I'm on it, right? 00:11:58.080 --> 00:12:00.159 And I tell myself, this is why. 00:12:00.399 --> 00:12:01.919 This is why she's giving it to me. 00:12:02.080 --> 00:12:03.279 But actually, it's not. 00:12:03.440 --> 00:12:11.360 The reason why she's giving it to me is the same reason why I demand to drive the entire way when we go on vacation, every time, no matter how tired I am. 00:12:11.600 --> 00:12:12.480 I love control. 00:12:12.960 --> 00:12:13.679 I love it. 00:12:13.919 --> 00:12:16.159 I don't know what to do when I'm not in control. 00:12:16.480 --> 00:12:18.080 Sam and I went to lunch this week. 00:12:18.159 --> 00:12:23.200 We get out to the parking lot, and I forget why, but Sam said, Oh, I needed gas. 00:12:23.279 --> 00:12:24.559 I need gas in my car. 00:12:24.720 --> 00:12:26.559 And he says, Well, I can drive. 00:12:26.720 --> 00:12:28.720 And I just, I don't know if he picked up on it. 00:12:28.799 --> 00:12:32.240 Literally, I stood there for a second, like, what is that gonna be like? 00:12:34.159 --> 00:12:36.879 So I'm riding with like with him. 00:12:38.320 --> 00:12:44.000 And I like sit down and over in that seat over there, there's nothing to do over there. 00:12:45.039 --> 00:12:46.320 But I love control. 00:12:47.759 --> 00:12:59.919 And I sort of hate the fact, and maybe just on some level, that I can't control the provision of redemption for my soul. 00:13:01.279 --> 00:13:03.120 And I really fight it. 00:13:03.679 --> 00:13:19.279 Because I use, like Rob said, lots of different systems to just, alright, I accepted Christ as Savior, but today I'll remove him and I'll put in a new system to feel redeemed, to feel valued before God. 00:13:21.440 --> 00:13:26.159 I'm not sure if you watched the Oscars uh or the news in the last like two weeks. 00:13:26.240 --> 00:13:27.519 There's a little mistake made. 00:13:27.600 --> 00:13:28.639 Are you aware about this? 00:13:28.960 --> 00:13:30.080 I'll fill you in. 00:13:30.320 --> 00:13:41.440 So uh a PwC employee who runs the Oscars uh hands the wrong envelope to the to the right person at the wrong time. 00:13:41.600 --> 00:13:44.000 The right is the right envelope, nothing wrong with the envelope itself. 00:13:44.240 --> 00:13:46.480 Just went to the at the wrong time he handed it. 00:13:46.559 --> 00:13:52.480 So the wrong movie is called out for like film movie of the year, kind of a big moment in the in the night. 00:13:52.639 --> 00:13:54.159 Uh it's been all over the news. 00:13:54.320 --> 00:13:58.480 This poor PWC employee, and he's getting killed in the media. 00:13:58.639 --> 00:14:00.879 I mean, really, I mean, it's just, you know what? 00:14:01.120 --> 00:14:02.480 It was his fault. 00:14:02.799 --> 00:14:03.440 It was. 00:14:03.840 --> 00:14:06.559 Like, there's no there really is nobody else to blame. 00:14:06.720 --> 00:14:10.399 Like, like it really was he handed this his job. 00:14:10.559 --> 00:14:13.919 He didn't have to make a speech, not to dance like JT. 00:14:14.240 --> 00:14:18.879 Like, all he has to do is stand there and hand the right envelope to the person. 00:14:19.039 --> 00:14:19.679 This is it. 00:14:19.840 --> 00:14:21.120 24 envelopes. 00:14:21.200 --> 00:14:22.000 Just get it right. 00:14:22.159 --> 00:14:22.799 This is it. 00:14:22.960 --> 00:14:24.080 This is the job. 00:14:24.320 --> 00:14:26.559 And he he doesn't get it right. 00:14:26.720 --> 00:14:28.080 He meant he failed. 00:14:28.240 --> 00:14:29.919 He couldn't pull it off. 00:14:30.559 --> 00:14:33.919 And it doesn't help that he was told, hey, like, no social media. 00:14:34.159 --> 00:14:36.320 And then he tweeted a picture of Emma Stone. 00:14:36.399 --> 00:14:36.960 But you know what? 00:14:37.039 --> 00:14:38.159 Like, can you blame him? 00:14:38.320 --> 00:14:40.080 He's an accountant, right? 00:14:40.320 --> 00:14:45.279 He's an accountant on the side of a stage, and Emma Stone is there. 00:14:45.440 --> 00:14:47.759 Of course he tweeted a picture, right? 00:14:48.000 --> 00:14:49.759 They shouldn't have allowed him to have his phone. 00:14:49.840 --> 00:14:57.279 I mean, clearly the people running this thing don't believe in the doctrine of the bondage of the will because they would have known he would have tweeted the picture. 00:14:57.440 --> 00:15:04.399 And that's just a big theological term to say if Emma Stone is there, you will tweet a picture or you'll want to tweet a picture. 00:15:04.480 --> 00:15:05.759 That's what bondage of the will is. 00:15:05.840 --> 00:15:06.399 Is that right there? 00:15:06.480 --> 00:15:07.360 That sentence. 00:15:07.840 --> 00:15:13.440 Now this guy's probably, he's in his, you know, he's in a closet with 20 boxes of tag-alongs, is what he's doing now. 00:15:14.639 --> 00:15:16.480 And here's what he's wishing. 00:15:16.799 --> 00:15:20.320 Because we're this guy, by the way, if you haven't picked up on it. 00:15:20.799 --> 00:15:24.240 He's wishing he had been perfect that day. 00:15:25.039 --> 00:15:27.919 Or he's wishing he had had a substitute. 00:15:28.559 --> 00:15:29.840 One or the other. 00:15:31.120 --> 00:15:34.399 And this is where Matthew 4 is so good for us. 00:15:34.879 --> 00:15:40.320 Because I'm just constantly trying to put myself into Matthew 4. 00:15:40.399 --> 00:15:48.240 Instead of Jesus living this out and being righteousness for me, I'm trying to wake up and be my own righteousness. 00:15:48.879 --> 00:15:50.639 Living by merit and not grace. 00:15:50.799 --> 00:15:51.600 And you know how it's seen? 00:15:51.679 --> 00:15:54.639 It's seen in my exhaustion, it's seen in my self-righteousness. 00:15:54.799 --> 00:15:57.279 It's seen when I'm surprised by my own sin. 00:15:57.360 --> 00:16:01.519 Like I say something, I do something, I'm kind of like, I can't believe, and I beat myself up for a while. 00:16:01.679 --> 00:16:03.200 Because how dare, how could I? 00:16:03.360 --> 00:16:04.720 How could I do that? 00:16:06.159 --> 00:16:13.039 It's seen in judgment towards others, it's seen in a lack of compassion towards anybody, including yourself. 00:16:15.600 --> 00:16:25.200 And I guarantee you, this PWC guy this week is about one of the most compassionate people on the planet earth this week. 00:16:26.000 --> 00:16:28.879 Because he's in touch with the fact that he's not perfect. 00:16:29.360 --> 00:16:30.639 And we're this guy. 00:16:30.720 --> 00:16:32.799 And God goes into our failure. 00:16:32.960 --> 00:16:34.639 That's what this passage is about. 00:16:35.039 --> 00:16:41.600 It's not about that Jesus couldn't turn a stone into bread or you know, of course he could. 00:16:42.000 --> 00:16:42.480 He did. 00:16:42.639 --> 00:16:44.320 He fed 5,000 people, right? 00:16:44.399 --> 00:16:48.480 I mean, he had performed this type of thing before, but that's not what this is about. 00:16:48.960 --> 00:16:53.759 This is about God stepping into our failure to live out that which we cannot. 00:16:54.799 --> 00:16:58.080 It's substitutionary righteousness for us. 00:16:58.879 --> 00:17:01.279 And so we are forgiven and righteous. 00:17:01.759 --> 00:17:03.120 That's what happened at the cross. 00:17:03.279 --> 00:17:04.400 He dies on the cross. 00:17:04.640 --> 00:17:08.799 Our sin is put upon him, and his righteousness is put upon us. 00:17:08.960 --> 00:17:10.880 It is double imputation. 00:17:11.119 --> 00:17:21.279 Our sin imputated to him, his righteousness imputated to us, and what that means for us is he's not just our example, he's our substitute. 00:17:21.599 --> 00:17:26.960 And this is incredibly, incredibly freeing because it's not about merit with God. 00:17:27.119 --> 00:17:28.720 It's about confession. 00:17:28.880 --> 00:17:30.880 It's about living in confession. 00:17:30.960 --> 00:17:36.640 It's about living and receiving and in the response of that position. 00:17:36.880 --> 00:17:38.079 So it's not depressing. 00:17:38.240 --> 00:17:40.319 It's not depressing to say I'm a sinner. 00:17:40.720 --> 00:17:43.519 Not depressing to be in a church that says we're all a bunch of sinners. 00:17:43.599 --> 00:17:44.079 You're a sinner. 00:17:44.640 --> 00:17:45.440 That's not depressing. 00:17:45.599 --> 00:17:48.559 No, it's depressing if you're in church that shames you with it. 00:17:48.799 --> 00:17:55.519 But for it just to for it to be the correct term for the condition of humanity, that's not depressing. 00:17:55.680 --> 00:18:06.000 Here's what's depressing for you to spend your entire life to avoid the fact that you're a sinner and try to pull something off that you have no ability to pull off. 00:18:06.079 --> 00:18:11.599 And that is justification of yourself and your value and your righteousness. 00:18:11.759 --> 00:18:19.519 And it is vanity to try to do this over and over and over again apart from Jesus. 00:18:21.440 --> 00:18:24.480 This is point number four, what's going on in Matthew chapter four? 00:18:24.640 --> 00:18:33.920 Jesus is denying his authority, living out perfectly what we are incapable to live out on our own. 00:18:37.920 --> 00:18:44.799 So after I awkwardly sat in Sam's car, panic attack the entire time, didn't let him know. 00:18:44.960 --> 00:18:47.119 Um, I couldn't hit the brake pedal. 00:18:47.200 --> 00:18:49.039 He was in charge of the brake pedal, also, right? 00:18:49.119 --> 00:18:51.599 And you're like on the expressway and full control. 00:18:51.759 --> 00:18:58.319 Sam's in full control, didn't know what to do with that, and we're driving, and we go to lunch, and then we go to an Ash Wednesday service. 00:18:58.480 --> 00:19:06.319 And at the service, the minister tells us, from dust you are born, and to dust you will return. 00:19:08.000 --> 00:19:20.319 And I walk forward, and my friend Marty, who's the minister, he takes ashes on his thumb and he marks my forehead as a symbol. 00:19:21.039 --> 00:19:24.160 As a symbol that I'm a sinner, as a symbol that I will die. 00:19:24.559 --> 00:19:26.960 And it wasn't shaming at all. 00:19:27.200 --> 00:19:28.319 It was freeing. 00:19:29.599 --> 00:19:30.400 Because you know what? 00:19:30.480 --> 00:19:31.119 It explained it. 00:19:31.279 --> 00:19:32.880 It explained a lot about me. 00:19:33.599 --> 00:19:36.720 It explained a lot about you, it explained a lot about the world. 00:19:37.359 --> 00:19:38.000 You know what it did? 00:19:38.079 --> 00:19:50.400 It put me in confession and it put me in repentance, and it put me in unbelievable gratitude for what Jesus did in his life and death and resurrection. 00:19:51.039 --> 00:19:57.200 So, my brothers and sisters, from dust, you were born, and to dust you will return. 00:19:57.839 --> 00:20:01.920 May you spend your life resting in God's great work for you, Jesus. 00:20:02.240 --> 00:20:03.519 Let's pray together. 00:20:04.480 --> 00:20:17.599 God, thank you that while we are imperfect and sinners and rebel against you and what you have called us to, you gave us a substitute, yourself. 00:20:20.559 --> 00:20:31.920 May we rest greater in Christ finish work for us that we might live free and might live in the fruit of the spirit that is born within us. 00:20:34.799 --> 00:20:41.440 God, so many of us need to confess this morning those systems of self-saving. 00:20:43.119 --> 00:20:54.480 Maybe within the secular realm, maybe within worldly, maybe religious, where we just rely on ourselves and not Jesus' righteousness. 00:20:56.000 --> 00:21:01.519 Would you increase our trust in Jesus that our lives might honor you? 00:21:02.319 --> 00:21:03.359 In Christ's name. 00:21:03.519 --> 00:21:04.000 Amen.