WEBVTT 00:00:01.120 --> 00:00:04.879 So we are going through the book of Ecclesiastes. 00:00:05.200 --> 00:00:07.360 This book is about King Solomon. 00:00:07.440 --> 00:00:17.199 If you've been with us for the past three weeks or so, we're not quite sure if Solomon wrote it or somebody wrote it about Solomon in his voice, but it's Solomon's life. 00:00:17.280 --> 00:00:23.280 And here's this wealthy, powerful guy toward the end of his life, and he is a little disillusioned. 00:00:23.440 --> 00:00:26.079 He's not always making moral comments. 00:00:26.239 --> 00:00:28.879 A lot of times he's just saying what life is like. 00:00:29.120 --> 00:00:32.159 He's just philosophically letting stuff go. 00:00:32.479 --> 00:00:36.399 At times it feels like he's ranting, very raw feelings. 00:00:36.479 --> 00:00:40.159 And so this morning we're going to see two different struggles in this text. 00:00:40.240 --> 00:00:43.920 We'll see two different struggles you might associate with one more than the other. 00:00:44.079 --> 00:00:49.759 So the first struggle we see in verses one through three, Ecclesiastes 4, 1 through 3, Sam read it. 00:00:49.840 --> 00:00:52.000 I'll reread it to keep it fresh in our mind. 00:00:52.159 --> 00:00:56.159 Again, I saw all the oppressions that are done under the sun. 00:00:56.320 --> 00:01:00.640 So remember, this is the powerful, wealthy king making these comments. 00:01:00.799 --> 00:01:05.359 And behold, the tears of the oppressed, and they had no one to comfort them. 00:01:05.519 --> 00:01:11.680 On the side of their oppressors there was power, and there was no one to comfort them. 00:01:11.920 --> 00:01:24.000 And I thought the dead who are already dead more fortunate than the living who are still alive, but better than both is he who has not yet been born and has not seen the evil deeds that are done under the sun. 00:01:24.719 --> 00:01:29.439 So he's saying, I'm seeing this over and over and over again. 00:01:29.519 --> 00:01:37.120 I'm seeing there are powerful people, and I'm seeing there are weak people, and I'm seeing that the weak are oppressed. 00:01:37.359 --> 00:01:42.879 So oppression is the unjust treatment of a particular people by another set of people. 00:01:43.040 --> 00:01:47.359 Now the irony here is that Solomon was an oppressor. 00:01:47.680 --> 00:01:49.120 He was a part of a slave system. 00:01:49.200 --> 00:01:50.319 He had slaves. 00:01:50.640 --> 00:01:55.680 He built so much of his empire and his own homes based on slaves. 00:01:55.920 --> 00:01:57.439 He kept them up with slaves. 00:01:57.599 --> 00:01:59.200 And so there's some irony here. 00:01:59.280 --> 00:02:05.599 And we don't get all the details, but on some level here, we wonder, did he regret some of this? 00:02:05.760 --> 00:02:12.560 He's seeing it, he's seeing it's unjust, and yet at the same time, it's not like he's Lincoln or Martin Luther King. 00:02:12.639 --> 00:02:14.400 He's not doing anything about it. 00:02:14.560 --> 00:02:17.759 He's just saying he's seeing this. 00:02:18.240 --> 00:02:20.879 Maybe you're here, you've known oppression. 00:02:21.120 --> 00:02:30.080 Maybe you've known some oppression because of the color of your skin, or because of your gender, or because of your faith. 00:02:30.560 --> 00:02:35.120 I've known almost no oppression in my life. 00:02:35.439 --> 00:02:37.360 I cannot remember. 00:02:37.520 --> 00:02:39.680 This week I just tried to spend some time. 00:02:39.919 --> 00:02:50.240 I cannot remember a single time in my life when I was oppressed because of the color of my skin or my gender or my faith. 00:02:53.120 --> 00:02:54.240 I've never felt it. 00:02:54.400 --> 00:02:55.919 I've never received it. 00:02:56.479 --> 00:03:01.840 I've never walked into a convenience store and been watched because of the color of my skin. 00:03:02.479 --> 00:03:03.439 I've never had that happen. 00:03:03.599 --> 00:03:06.560 I've never been doubted for a job because of my gender. 00:03:06.719 --> 00:03:07.680 Never had that happen. 00:03:07.919 --> 00:03:14.240 I grew up in a southern Bible belt, small town, never felt an oppression because of faith. 00:03:14.479 --> 00:03:24.080 I mean, if anything I can say about this subject, I can say probably I've been more a part of oppressive systems than the recipient of them. 00:03:24.400 --> 00:03:30.879 I grew up now, I can look back and I can see I grew up in a passively racist community. 00:03:31.120 --> 00:03:33.919 Now we would have never called it that, right? 00:03:34.159 --> 00:03:37.439 We would have said, this is the way it is. 00:03:38.719 --> 00:03:47.120 And the sad part is that it's not the way it is, and it doesn't have to be the way it is, and it is oppression on people. 00:03:48.080 --> 00:03:49.680 And the gospel changes things. 00:03:49.840 --> 00:03:54.479 Galatians 3.28, Paul writing to this church is struggling with these issues. 00:03:54.719 --> 00:04:02.800 There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. 00:04:02.960 --> 00:04:07.840 Here's what Paul is saying: there is neither white nor Arab. 00:04:09.360 --> 00:04:11.759 There is neither black nor white. 00:04:12.000 --> 00:04:14.400 There is neither male nor female. 00:04:14.639 --> 00:04:19.279 We are all made of the same material and we are saved by the same God. 00:04:19.519 --> 00:04:21.040 See, there comes a time. 00:04:21.199 --> 00:04:33.759 There comes a time when we as Christians, not northerners and southerners or conservatives or moderates or liberals, there comes a time when we as Christians, we call hate hate. 00:04:33.920 --> 00:04:35.600 We call evil evil. 00:04:35.680 --> 00:04:39.439 And when there's oppression, we call it oppression. 00:04:40.720 --> 00:04:46.639 And the gospel, this radical idea that you're the broken one, you're the one that needs help. 00:04:46.959 --> 00:04:50.720 It puts you in the grouping of the disenfranchised. 00:04:51.120 --> 00:04:54.240 That's who we should associate ourselves with. 00:04:54.879 --> 00:05:05.120 The gospel erases the lines that have been drawn inside of our hearts to draw a line and sort people to make ourselves feel more important or to keep ourselves feeling powerful. 00:05:05.759 --> 00:05:28.319 And the biblical truth of the idea, the beautiful idea that all of humanity is created in the image of God, what this does is it totally erases the idea that we would judge value or worth or beauty or intellect based on the color of somebody's skin or where they're from in the world or what gender they are. 00:05:29.040 --> 00:05:33.120 I mean, listen just to a few verses of God's care for the oppressed. 00:05:33.199 --> 00:05:34.160 I just picked a few. 00:05:34.399 --> 00:05:38.480 Leviticus 23, 22, so back way back in the Old Testament. 00:05:38.720 --> 00:05:48.399 And when you reap the harvest of your land, you shall not reap the field right up to its edge, nor shall you gather the gleanings after your harvest. 00:05:48.560 --> 00:05:52.240 You shall leave them for the poor and for the sojourner. 00:05:52.319 --> 00:05:54.319 That's the foreigner, that's the refugee. 00:05:54.480 --> 00:05:57.600 Leave some, he's saying, Leave leave some, leave it for them. 00:05:58.319 --> 00:06:00.000 I, the Lord your God. 00:06:00.879 --> 00:06:06.560 Proverbs 31, 8 and 9, open your mouth for the mute, for the rights of all who are destitute. 00:06:06.639 --> 00:06:12.240 Open your mouth, judge righteously, defend the rights of the poor and needy. 00:06:13.040 --> 00:06:21.920 Luke 4, 18 and 19, this is Jesus speaking, The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. 00:06:22.240 --> 00:06:33.680 He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor. 00:06:35.120 --> 00:06:41.519 So that's the first struggle we see in this text, verses one through three, God's heart beats for the oppressed. 00:06:42.399 --> 00:06:44.800 Alright, so that's the first struggle, chapter four. 00:06:44.959 --> 00:06:48.319 And then we see the author, we see Solomon's imagination. 00:06:48.480 --> 00:07:00.879 In some way, he's writing this, he's seeing this oppression, and maybe on some level, I'm just trying to track with it with his thinking, on some level he's going, okay, um, I'm seeing this oppression, but maybe he's going, I don't really know much about it. 00:07:01.040 --> 00:07:04.879 I haven't felt this, I haven't been on that side of oppression, although I see it. 00:07:05.040 --> 00:07:09.920 And he goes, yet there's this other struggle that I do know about. 00:07:11.120 --> 00:07:13.279 And we jump in in verse 7. 00:07:13.439 --> 00:07:16.160 Again, I saw vanity under the sun. 00:07:16.959 --> 00:07:22.399 One person has no other, either son or brother. 00:07:22.480 --> 00:07:31.360 Yet there is no end to all his toil, and his eyes are never satisfied with riches, so that he never asks for who am I toiling and depriving myself of pleasure? 00:07:31.519 --> 00:07:34.879 This is also vanity and an unhappy business. 00:07:35.040 --> 00:07:36.879 And so we have a few points along our way. 00:07:37.040 --> 00:07:40.800 Point number one, we have all felt lonely. 00:07:41.600 --> 00:07:43.120 We've all felt lonely. 00:07:51.920 --> 00:07:55.600 Like if you've ever asked that, you know you're not in a good situation. 00:07:55.839 --> 00:07:58.399 Like you are you are in the lonely place. 00:07:58.560 --> 00:08:00.079 You've been what what party? 00:08:00.240 --> 00:08:02.319 Where what I'm not I'm not sure what happened. 00:08:02.399 --> 00:08:04.639 I just know I wasn't there, right? 00:08:04.800 --> 00:08:06.639 I felt it, you felt it. 00:08:06.800 --> 00:08:14.560 I mean, even people that I think are always busy and always invited and always there, they felt it by somebody else. 00:08:14.800 --> 00:08:17.040 Loneliness, loneliness is this feeling. 00:08:17.120 --> 00:08:21.439 It's this feeling of being unknown and unwanted. 00:08:22.720 --> 00:08:27.279 And it can be lonely at the bottom and the middle at the top. 00:08:27.360 --> 00:08:36.480 It can be lonely at any point of socioeconomics, it can be lonely in marriages, it can be lonely in families, it can be lonely as a single person. 00:08:40.960 --> 00:08:42.960 I wonder how lonely Solomon was. 00:08:43.120 --> 00:08:44.799 So I got all these boxes up here. 00:08:44.960 --> 00:08:53.360 I wonder how lonely Solomon was, because what I wonder is I wonder while he was around people a lot, if he's writing about this loneliness. 00:08:53.440 --> 00:08:57.759 So he has power, he has wealth, but he's writing about the struggle. 00:08:57.919 --> 00:09:08.399 I wonder if while he had been around people, if in fact the entire time, on some level, he had been building walls around his heart. 00:09:09.440 --> 00:09:09.840 Right? 00:09:10.000 --> 00:09:16.320 Like you exist around people, but you just keep building walls around your heart. 00:09:16.559 --> 00:09:21.759 And so so you're around people, but they never really know you, and you never really know them. 00:09:22.320 --> 00:09:23.600 And we do this. 00:09:24.080 --> 00:09:27.919 I mean we can end up in places like this because family never happened. 00:09:28.080 --> 00:09:32.559 We thought it was gonna happen, or family happened and it wasn't what you thought it was gonna be. 00:09:32.799 --> 00:09:49.919 Or marriage never happened, or marriage did happen, and or the marriage fell apart, and now you're single again, or you know what, you're on the empty nester side of things, and the kids have left, and you're looking back at the marriage, and this is not as great as you thought it was because the kids were such a focus, and now you're lonely, and now you go, Oh my gosh, I have all these walls up. 00:09:50.399 --> 00:10:01.200 We can end up in lonely places for so many reasons, and it's so easy in those places to build walls to guard ourselves, to self-protect. 00:10:01.519 --> 00:10:09.840 And so much of that self-protection is it's us pretending, like just pretending, just performing. 00:10:11.919 --> 00:10:21.600 I mean, it's just easier sometimes to live behind a wall, to put those walls up over our hearts, and so we're connected, right? 00:10:21.759 --> 00:10:23.039 We're connected. 00:10:23.360 --> 00:10:34.320 Like you're connected here, you you can come into crowds, you you're connected online, but what Solomon's talking about is he's saying, are you woven? 00:10:34.720 --> 00:10:37.039 Like, are you woven with somebody? 00:10:37.279 --> 00:10:39.919 We're not talking just marriage here. 00:10:40.000 --> 00:10:46.720 We're just talking about are there people who know you and are there people that you are pursuing to know? 00:10:46.879 --> 00:10:48.879 Are you woven together? 00:10:49.039 --> 00:10:50.879 And this is where this text takes us. 00:10:51.120 --> 00:10:52.720 Jump back in in verse nine. 00:10:52.960 --> 00:10:57.759 Two are better than one, because they have a good reward for their toil. 00:10:58.399 --> 00:11:01.120 For if they fall, one will lift up his fellow. 00:11:01.279 --> 00:11:06.720 But woe to him who is alone when he falls and has not another to lift him up. 00:11:06.960 --> 00:11:11.600 Again, if two lie together, they keep warm, but how can one keep warm alone? 00:11:11.840 --> 00:11:16.639 And though a man might prevail against one who is alone, two will withstand him. 00:11:16.799 --> 00:11:20.720 A threefold cord is not quickly broken. 00:11:21.600 --> 00:11:24.480 So, point number two, point number one, we all feel lonely. 00:11:24.720 --> 00:11:26.480 We in agreement on that one at some point. 00:11:26.559 --> 00:11:28.720 Yeah, at some point we're all feeling this. 00:11:28.960 --> 00:11:34.320 Point number two, walking through life with one or two others is good. 00:11:35.279 --> 00:11:36.159 Is good. 00:11:36.639 --> 00:11:51.200 Marriage, not married, single, you're older in life, you're younger in life, walking through life with one or two others, this idea of being woven, of being known, this is good. 00:11:51.600 --> 00:11:57.679 And that the point is to come out from behind those walls that we keep building. 00:11:59.519 --> 00:12:12.639 Psychologist Martin Seligman, he says this people who are not in groups, so this is based on his research, people who are not in groups, so call it a small group in a church, call it a bowling league, maybe gardening club, I don't know. 00:12:12.960 --> 00:12:13.519 It doesn't matter. 00:12:13.600 --> 00:12:14.480 I don't think it matters. 00:12:14.720 --> 00:12:19.279 People who are not in groups, twice as likely to die in the next year. 00:12:20.320 --> 00:12:22.080 And you'll like this one, this is the other one. 00:12:22.159 --> 00:12:23.279 I really like this one. 00:12:23.440 --> 00:12:40.159 People who have strong social connections but are poor in health habits, strong social connections, but poor health habits are just as healthy as people who have poor social connections and strong health habits. 00:12:40.320 --> 00:12:41.279 Okay, you get that? 00:12:41.360 --> 00:12:49.519 Because what it means is if you're in a small group in a community dinner group at our church, you can eat all the little Debis you want during the week. 00:12:49.600 --> 00:12:51.440 And just whatever you want. 00:12:52.240 --> 00:12:53.519 It's just what it means. 00:12:53.840 --> 00:12:57.759 Research shows this is what you can do. 00:12:58.080 --> 00:13:13.919 So now the New Testament organizes uh it organizes Christians, followers of Jesus, into groups, organizes us into churches, and it talks about us meeting together, knowing each other, praying together, worshiping together, encouraging each other. 00:13:14.240 --> 00:13:23.120 So to encourage somebody that got to know them, to encourage to speak into somebody's life, this is about knowing somebody at the core of who they are. 00:13:23.519 --> 00:13:28.080 And this takes risk, right? 00:13:28.240 --> 00:13:31.600 Because what's not risky is back here. 00:13:32.159 --> 00:13:33.440 This isn't risky. 00:13:33.679 --> 00:13:39.279 What's risky is to come out from behind this wall and to let somebody know you. 00:13:40.159 --> 00:13:41.919 So I want you to do that. 00:13:42.720 --> 00:13:45.919 And at the same time, I sort of don't want to do that, right? 00:13:46.080 --> 00:13:47.440 Like I want you to do it. 00:13:47.679 --> 00:13:48.960 You should do this, right? 00:13:49.039 --> 00:13:50.159 Like you go do this. 00:13:50.320 --> 00:13:57.279 And at the same time, I'm going like, ah, really like that spot behind the wall because I'm like you, and you're doing the same thing I'm doing. 00:13:57.360 --> 00:13:58.159 You're thinking the same thing. 00:13:58.240 --> 00:14:00.000 You're like, yeah, this is what people should do. 00:14:00.080 --> 00:14:10.240 I'm pretty sure everybody, and I can list the people that should do this, and at the same time, I'll sort of remain behind the wall I have constructed because I'm not quite sure if I want people to know me. 00:14:10.399 --> 00:14:12.080 I've been married for 12 years. 00:14:12.799 --> 00:14:26.639 12 years, and I feel like I'm just just learning, maybe just getting at the just at the beginning of learning how to reveal myself to Christy, to my wife. 00:14:28.320 --> 00:14:30.240 Am I really gonna be accepted? 00:14:31.519 --> 00:14:33.679 Am I really gonna be accepted? 00:14:35.519 --> 00:14:37.440 Or should I just keep performing? 00:14:37.600 --> 00:14:41.120 It's just, oh man, sometimes it just feels easier behind that wall. 00:14:41.360 --> 00:14:45.120 I've been thinking about the creation story in Genesis this week. 00:14:45.279 --> 00:14:48.320 Because I've been thinking how God creates man, creates woman. 00:14:48.559 --> 00:14:50.320 The two are there, they're naked, right? 00:14:50.480 --> 00:14:51.840 They're naked, they're vulnerable. 00:14:52.000 --> 00:14:53.519 There's nothing between them. 00:14:53.679 --> 00:14:56.080 This is the beautiful imagery of the story. 00:14:56.240 --> 00:14:58.960 There's nothing between them and each other, man and woman. 00:14:59.039 --> 00:15:02.159 There's nothing between man and God, woman and God, man and woman, woman and man. 00:15:02.240 --> 00:15:04.399 I mean, this is everybody is seeing it all. 00:15:04.480 --> 00:15:05.279 Everybody's seeing it all. 00:15:05.360 --> 00:15:06.399 It's what's going on here. 00:15:06.559 --> 00:15:08.320 There's nothing between them. 00:15:09.919 --> 00:15:12.879 And then they decide that God's not enough, right? 00:15:12.960 --> 00:15:24.639 We want knowledge, we want control, we want our way, not just to trust in God, but we will control our joy, we will control our lives rather than trusting that God's enough for these things. 00:15:25.039 --> 00:15:27.039 It doesn't work, never does. 00:15:27.679 --> 00:15:31.759 And so they feel some shame out of this rebellion, out of this sin. 00:15:31.840 --> 00:15:32.720 And so what do they do? 00:15:32.799 --> 00:15:36.720 You remember they go and they start making some clothes and they cover up, right? 00:15:37.120 --> 00:15:39.440 They start building some walls. 00:15:39.840 --> 00:15:45.519 And then the Lord God shows back up into the garden and he walks into the garden and they're nowhere to be seen. 00:15:45.600 --> 00:15:48.720 And this was obviously different than what had been going on before. 00:15:48.879 --> 00:15:49.759 And they're hiding. 00:15:49.840 --> 00:15:57.440 So now they're hiding from each other with these little clothes, and now they're hiding behind bushes as they're hiding from God. 00:15:58.480 --> 00:15:59.440 Walls. 00:15:59.679 --> 00:16:02.480 Walls began to be built. 00:16:02.960 --> 00:16:08.799 And the beautiful thing here in this story is the whole narrative of the scriptures is that God doesn't turn away. 00:16:09.039 --> 00:16:09.440 Right? 00:16:09.679 --> 00:16:11.200 He pursues them. 00:16:11.600 --> 00:16:13.039 He says, Where are you? 00:16:13.200 --> 00:16:14.080 Where are y'all at? 00:16:14.159 --> 00:16:14.799 What happened? 00:16:14.879 --> 00:16:15.679 Where are you at? 00:16:16.320 --> 00:16:19.440 But he keeps moving toward them. 00:16:19.919 --> 00:16:26.960 Romans 5, 6, in the New Testament, we we see this verse, get this verse, for while we were still weak. 00:16:27.600 --> 00:16:30.720 Another word, maybe in your translation of your Bible, sinners. 00:16:31.519 --> 00:16:35.279 At the right time Christ died for the ungodly. 00:16:36.320 --> 00:16:42.399 So this means God knows you like to build walls, you like to hide behind walls. 00:16:42.559 --> 00:17:00.000 We like to then behind the walls use all sorts of really bad things for self-deliverance, or even use things that should be good, like spirituality, and just make it moralistic and try to make it about performance and self-deliver on our own, which is just us building more walls between us and him. 00:17:00.399 --> 00:17:04.000 And he says, I will keep coming toward you. 00:17:04.400 --> 00:17:14.480 See, God incarnated himself into creation for him, for us to know that he loves us and he rescues us and that our redemption and our security is in him. 00:17:14.720 --> 00:17:16.640 And this is what helps us. 00:17:17.119 --> 00:17:19.759 Because, okay, so you're called to community. 00:17:20.000 --> 00:17:21.200 We're called into community. 00:17:21.279 --> 00:17:24.720 We're called to know each other, we're called to encourage each other. 00:17:24.880 --> 00:17:25.920 And what do we all do? 00:17:26.160 --> 00:17:28.640 We all get behind a wall and build a wall, right? 00:17:28.720 --> 00:17:38.079 So the thing that we're told to do that God has asked of us, the thing that's good for us individually and communally, is also the thing we resist. 00:17:38.240 --> 00:17:38.880 This is sin. 00:17:39.039 --> 00:17:40.000 This is what sin is. 00:17:40.079 --> 00:17:40.799 That's sin. 00:17:41.039 --> 00:17:46.000 Our tendency to be inward and to rebel against what God has asked, and that is sin. 00:17:46.160 --> 00:17:48.000 This is what makes us ungodly. 00:17:48.079 --> 00:17:58.240 And the scriptures say he comes into our ungodliness and he takes on our ungodliness on the cross and he gives to us his righteousness. 00:17:58.480 --> 00:18:00.160 This is the thing that helps us. 00:18:00.319 --> 00:18:01.039 Here's what I mean. 00:18:01.119 --> 00:18:02.079 Point number three. 00:18:02.240 --> 00:18:04.880 You can begin to be known by another person. 00:18:05.039 --> 00:18:12.559 You can begin to be known by another person as you know you are fully known and loved by God. 00:18:13.359 --> 00:18:15.680 That's the thing that will help you. 00:18:16.640 --> 00:18:20.400 It won't be for you to have three more tips of how to break down your wall. 00:18:20.559 --> 00:18:30.400 The only thing that's gonna help you, that's gonna create new life in you to begin to break down the walls is to understand that God has loved you behind the wall. 00:18:30.640 --> 00:18:31.759 We will try, right? 00:18:31.920 --> 00:18:38.000 Like we're gonna try, but we will not perfectly break down all of our self-protection walls. 00:18:38.160 --> 00:18:39.279 We won't do it. 00:18:39.680 --> 00:18:43.359 We won't perfectly let go of all of our idols of escape. 00:18:44.240 --> 00:18:51.440 We'll often sit in our loneliness, even our depression, for days and weeks and months. 00:18:52.240 --> 00:18:58.240 And we have to know that God loves us on both sides of this wall. 00:19:00.480 --> 00:19:09.039 So I build walls out of fear, then I vainly try to self-deliver myself out of these by escapism and performance and achievement. 00:19:09.279 --> 00:19:24.400 And all of that is me denying God's sufficiency to find me and redeem me and deliver me in the very thing I'm trying to deliver myself out of, which is my isolation and my loneliness. 00:19:24.640 --> 00:19:39.119 Only when I understand He is sufficient to come even into all of my sin and the present state that I am in, then will I begin, begin, begin to be willing to be known. 00:19:39.759 --> 00:19:47.759 So, my brothers and sisters, may you know this gospel that erases lines of sorting people in regard to your fellow man. 00:19:48.559 --> 00:19:53.599 And may you know this redeeming love that finds you wherever you are. 00:19:53.759 --> 00:19:54.799 In Jesus' name. 00:19:55.039 --> 00:19:56.319 Let's pray together. 00:19:57.119 --> 00:20:04.319 God, we thank you that you come and find us exactly where we are. 00:20:06.319 --> 00:20:10.079 In our sinful state, for we have no other state. 00:20:11.359 --> 00:20:16.720 You call us into community, you call us to be lovers of all people. 00:20:18.720 --> 00:20:27.440 And inside of us, we have views of the people you love that we we are ashamed to speak to. 00:20:31.440 --> 00:20:38.079 We resist to love people as you've called us to, and we resist love from other people. 00:20:38.880 --> 00:20:45.359 This is both the ways that we oppress people, and it is the way in which we continue in our loneliness. 00:20:45.599 --> 00:20:58.240 And we thank you that even though we are weak and sinners, Christ died for us, and that we are secured and redeemed by your full, sufficient work on the cross, not our work for you. 00:20:58.559 --> 00:21:02.400 May that create great glory for you. 00:21:02.720 --> 00:21:06.160 May it create great transformation in our hearts. 00:21:06.799 --> 00:21:28.559 And may you help us, help us to trust in you, that we are known and loved and secure in you, and that our relationships friendships marriages and family might feel more like a woven cord than just existing in a crowd. 00:21:28.960 --> 00:21:30.480 In Jesus' name in the crowd.