WEBVTT 00:00:01.040 --> 00:00:03.759 So we're still in the Sermon on the Mount. 00:00:04.080 --> 00:00:05.200 We have two more weeks. 00:00:05.280 --> 00:00:08.320 We've been going through this core of Jesus' teaching. 00:00:08.400 --> 00:00:20.879 And what we've been saying as we've been going through it is it's the core of Jesus' teaching, and what we've seen is that it's driving us into the core of ourselves over and over again because Jesus is talking about how we should live. 00:00:21.120 --> 00:00:26.719 He's talking about, he's constantly talking about the standard of who we should be. 00:00:26.879 --> 00:00:35.920 And so this is just a little bit of a review that we did many weeks ago, and we talked about the law because at the very beginning of this sermon, Jesus says, Hey, I've fulfilled the law. 00:00:36.159 --> 00:00:38.479 Now the law is who we should be. 00:00:38.640 --> 00:00:44.159 The law in the scriptures of who you should be, who you should be as a as a follower of Jesus, as a Christian. 00:00:44.479 --> 00:00:45.840 It's what you should do. 00:00:46.000 --> 00:00:46.960 It's, you know what? 00:00:47.119 --> 00:00:52.399 Love people, it's uh be kind, it's pray, it's all of these things. 00:00:52.560 --> 00:00:54.880 And so that's why we get Matthew 7, verse 12. 00:00:54.960 --> 00:00:58.399 So whatever you wish that others would do to you, do also to them. 00:00:58.560 --> 00:01:00.399 For this is the law and the prophets. 00:01:00.479 --> 00:01:02.479 She's saying, hey, let me sum it up for you. 00:01:02.640 --> 00:01:05.280 He sums it up several times in the gospels. 00:01:05.439 --> 00:01:06.799 He says, Hey, let me sum it up for you. 00:01:06.959 --> 00:01:08.959 Love other people, let me sum it up for you. 00:01:09.120 --> 00:01:12.719 Do uh do to other people as you would want them to do to you. 00:01:12.959 --> 00:01:15.439 This summarizes the law. 00:01:15.920 --> 00:01:18.640 Now we also hear law in the world, right? 00:01:18.799 --> 00:01:27.359 All the other shoulds in life be a big deal, be beautiful, be thin, start a business and grow a business, right? 00:01:27.439 --> 00:01:37.760 I mean, I watch Shark Tank over and over and over again, and I love it, and then it stresses me out because I think I should be able to start a business and celebrate. 00:01:38.000 --> 00:01:44.799 Like, that's the thing I should be able to do to prove that I am a man in this world, and then I can retire to Sea Island, right? 00:01:44.879 --> 00:01:49.040 And your kids shouldn't, your kids shouldn't make any mistakes as well. 00:01:49.280 --> 00:01:55.280 And like we've said before, it also means you shouldn't be eating talenty at night, you should be eating kale. 00:01:55.599 --> 00:02:05.439 Or much less that maybe the law would be, um maybe talenty's the law, and the thing even lower than that would be like Briars or the thing lower than that, it's just like Kroger brand, right? 00:02:05.519 --> 00:02:10.080 Like so like there's all these shoulds in life, even unto what brand of ice cream? 00:02:10.240 --> 00:02:12.240 Like all of this law. 00:02:12.400 --> 00:02:13.919 You know them and you feel them. 00:02:14.000 --> 00:02:16.800 They're the shoulds, they're the shoulds in life. 00:02:16.879 --> 00:02:21.120 And now for scripture, the law is good, the law is holy. 00:02:21.360 --> 00:02:22.240 We need it. 00:02:22.400 --> 00:02:34.639 We need it to tell us how we should live, and we need it to crush us, because we need it to drive us to our need for grace and for our need for Jesus and his sacrifice. 00:02:34.800 --> 00:02:36.639 So the law, this is what we said before. 00:02:36.800 --> 00:02:51.840 The law apart from grace crushes us because the law by itself, the law by itself, if we're just trying to live up to standards and principles, the law by itself is inept to produce the righteousness it calls for. 00:02:52.000 --> 00:02:53.439 And you have felt this. 00:02:53.680 --> 00:02:54.400 You felt it. 00:02:54.479 --> 00:03:16.400 Whether you realize it or not, you've you've felt it because when you feel exhausted because you're not quite the person you wish you were, it hasn't worked out for you to be the 30-year-old, the 60-year-old, the 70-year-old, the 16-year-old you thought you would be, or the Christian you thought you would be, or the husband or the wife, or the dad, or the friend. 00:03:16.479 --> 00:03:20.159 Like, and it hasn't, you have you haven't become that person you thought you should be. 00:03:20.400 --> 00:03:25.840 That exhaustion of that shortcoming, that's the law crushing you. 00:03:26.000 --> 00:03:32.560 And without the grace of God to relieve you, you just you just live burdened. 00:03:33.360 --> 00:03:34.879 You live burdened. 00:03:37.280 --> 00:03:42.560 And this whole time throughout the Sermon on the Mount, we're just seeing Jesus say to us over and over again, right? 00:03:42.639 --> 00:03:45.120 He's driving us into our heart for us to see this, right? 00:03:45.280 --> 00:03:51.039 This is why he said, like, you've heard it said before, this, but I'm telling you this, and he takes us deeper. 00:03:51.120 --> 00:03:54.639 You've you've heard it said before, don't commit adultery, but I'm telling you, don't even lust. 00:03:54.719 --> 00:03:57.039 You've heard it said before, don't commit murder, but I'm telling you this. 00:03:57.199 --> 00:04:02.240 Like over and over again, he's taking us deeper, taking us into our hearts. 00:04:02.639 --> 00:04:14.000 Because he's teaching us this about more than behavior, it's about the heart, and he's teaching us we don't have the ability to live up to the standard that God is calling of us. 00:04:14.159 --> 00:04:19.920 And because of this, we get to this Matthew 7, 13 and 14. 00:04:20.000 --> 00:04:33.040 And this is where it gets really interesting to a whole bunch of people who live in a culture where the idea, even the idea of being narrow, is a horrible, horrible thing. 00:04:33.839 --> 00:04:38.399 And then we get this passage, verse 13, enter by the narrow gate. 00:04:38.639 --> 00:04:51.920 For the gate is wide and the way is easy, that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many, for the gate is narrow, and the way is hard, that leads to life, and those who find it are few. 00:04:52.480 --> 00:04:56.480 So this word narrow means a lack of space. 00:04:56.959 --> 00:05:01.120 It's the idea of being in a in a tight spot. 00:05:02.000 --> 00:05:04.399 Thursday, I had been studying this all week. 00:05:04.560 --> 00:05:13.839 Thursday, I go to drive to downtown Atlanta to eat lunch with a friend, and so I get in my car, I have 30 minutes to get down there, and so I'm like, okay, I got just enough time. 00:05:13.920 --> 00:05:16.000 I get in my car, I need to check the route, just make sure. 00:05:16.079 --> 00:05:21.439 So I hit up the ways and go, like everything's clear, I can just get on 75 South, everything's fine. 00:05:21.519 --> 00:05:31.040 And as soon as I get on, you know, just not but like half a mile down, I hadn't been reported yet on ways we hadn't caught up to it, and I'm right in front of like a three or four-car pileup. 00:05:31.439 --> 00:05:33.279 And I'm like car five. 00:05:33.360 --> 00:05:37.519 I mean, I can see it all, and everybody's getting out and they're walking around, and everybody's staring at it. 00:05:37.600 --> 00:05:44.079 We're all merging, but we're all staring and judging that you know they're the bad drivers and we're the good drivers, and everybody's out walking around. 00:05:44.160 --> 00:05:47.759 So we're all looking at these cars that are all smooshed together, right? 00:05:48.079 --> 00:05:51.120 The cars had been narrowed. 00:05:52.480 --> 00:05:53.680 The space was gone. 00:05:53.839 --> 00:05:54.959 There's no more space. 00:05:55.120 --> 00:05:59.920 The the cars had literally been narrowed, and then the space between the cars had been narrowed. 00:06:00.000 --> 00:06:02.079 There was no more space. 00:06:02.319 --> 00:06:08.160 It was just like last week, Christy with my wife was in the den, and I hear, and she had Mr. 00:06:08.319 --> 00:06:10.879 Miyagi to fly between her two hands. 00:06:11.040 --> 00:06:15.439 She had completely ninja a fly between her two hands. 00:06:15.920 --> 00:06:17.279 What happened to the fly? 00:06:17.439 --> 00:06:19.279 The fly ran out of space. 00:06:20.560 --> 00:06:23.040 He had been narrowed by her ninja-ness. 00:06:24.079 --> 00:06:26.079 He had been smushed, he had been narrowed. 00:06:26.160 --> 00:06:27.360 That's what this word is. 00:06:27.600 --> 00:06:31.439 To run out of space, that you are crushed. 00:06:31.680 --> 00:06:33.839 So here's what verses 13 and 14 are saying. 00:06:34.079 --> 00:06:34.800 All that in mind. 00:06:34.959 --> 00:06:35.600 Point number one. 00:06:36.000 --> 00:06:37.759 Two points, a lot of other stuff coming around there. 00:06:37.839 --> 00:06:46.319 But point number one: narrowness is to be crushed first, as to be relieved later. 00:06:46.639 --> 00:06:47.759 That's what this is about. 00:06:47.920 --> 00:06:50.959 To be crushed first as to be relieved later. 00:06:51.120 --> 00:06:59.439 Narrowness is essentially to be crushed or squeezed to death for the very breath to be squeezed out of you. 00:06:59.839 --> 00:07:04.399 And Jesus says, life is through that path. 00:07:05.600 --> 00:07:11.519 That's probably why maybe you've heard things like die that you may live. 00:07:12.639 --> 00:07:19.279 Or maybe you've heard like be crucified with Christ that you might be raised in his resurrection. 00:07:20.000 --> 00:07:28.399 So the image that came to mind for me this week was, and I'm not going to put on this dog cone, I won't do that. 00:07:28.560 --> 00:07:40.160 But this was the image that came to mind to me was this idea of a cone and that life comes through this narrowness and your squeeze. 00:07:40.480 --> 00:07:45.759 But on the back side of it, on the back side of the narrowness is spaciousness. 00:07:45.920 --> 00:07:56.160 So, but through this, through this narrowness, this squeezing, this exhaustion, this death, is the idea of I'm done with building my resume of righteousness before God. 00:07:56.319 --> 00:07:58.160 I'm done for paying for my guilt. 00:07:58.319 --> 00:08:02.639 I'm done for trying to work my way out of my shame as to be accepted by God. 00:08:02.959 --> 00:08:08.000 I'm done trying to justify my existence with my production or my popularity. 00:08:08.240 --> 00:08:12.399 All of that is being crushed, is being squeezed to death. 00:08:12.560 --> 00:08:18.319 I'm narrowed now so that there's more spaciousness on the backside. 00:08:18.639 --> 00:08:25.439 Tim Keller, the author, pastor, he says it this way: the narrowness leads to spaciousness. 00:08:25.600 --> 00:08:33.600 The Dixie Chick says she needs wide open spaces, room to make her big mistakes. 00:08:33.919 --> 00:08:34.399 Amen. 00:08:34.559 --> 00:08:41.200 Any Dixie chicks lovers just want to admit it and just come out and say, I've been thinking that the whole time. 00:08:42.879 --> 00:08:50.559 Alright, so point number two is that the wide gate, this is point number two because uh Jesus says he's teaching this, he flips it. 00:08:50.799 --> 00:08:57.840 Point number two, the wide gate is to seemingly be in control and have all this room. 00:08:59.039 --> 00:09:01.360 Yet you are eventually crushed. 00:09:03.039 --> 00:09:11.840 Jesus says the broad way, that wide way, it seems so easy, but it actually starts over time to come in on you. 00:09:12.080 --> 00:09:12.480 Right? 00:09:12.559 --> 00:09:16.000 And so that's that's the the that's the flip. 00:09:16.159 --> 00:09:17.519 That's the flip. 00:09:18.000 --> 00:09:39.759 Is that all that spaciousness of all that that you can do you can do whatever you want, and you're gonna self-save with your with how good you are and your effort, and you can do it, and you can prove you are great and you are righteous before God, and you can work your way out of your shame, you can keep your righteousness before God by your effort, and you can prove your value in this world without grace. 00:09:39.840 --> 00:09:40.639 You don't need that. 00:09:40.799 --> 00:09:43.759 You can just do it with your effort and all of that. 00:09:43.919 --> 00:09:51.279 You think it's so roomy and so big, and then over time, over time it starts to feel tighter and tighter. 00:09:51.360 --> 00:09:55.759 And so you thought you were in control, but slowly you are crushed. 00:09:56.000 --> 00:10:01.039 You are crushed over time by your self-saving path. 00:10:04.000 --> 00:10:05.200 And it's destruction. 00:10:05.360 --> 00:10:06.799 That's what this word is. 00:10:07.840 --> 00:10:10.639 This word destruction is a s it's a strong word. 00:10:10.799 --> 00:10:14.639 It means to be damned or wasted. 00:10:19.919 --> 00:10:28.720 I mean, in that way where you think everything's so spacious and you can do it on your on your own, and your record means everything. 00:10:30.480 --> 00:10:34.240 That doesn't sound spacious and freeing to me, but that's what it is. 00:10:34.399 --> 00:10:38.960 Your approval and your reputation by others, it means everything because you need it. 00:10:39.120 --> 00:10:40.080 You need it. 00:10:40.799 --> 00:10:42.639 And so, what happens when you fail? 00:10:42.799 --> 00:10:45.679 What happens when you fail as a Christian with your righteousness? 00:10:46.480 --> 00:10:48.320 You fail with your purity, you fail with your discipline. 00:10:48.480 --> 00:10:50.080 What happens when you fail in this life? 00:10:50.240 --> 00:10:51.840 What happens when you lose the business? 00:10:52.399 --> 00:10:53.679 The wife walks out on you. 00:10:53.840 --> 00:10:57.600 What happens when you fail in that world? 00:10:59.440 --> 00:11:02.960 Well, everything narrows in on you and you're crushed. 00:11:03.759 --> 00:11:06.480 And Jesus is saying, be narrowed now. 00:11:07.519 --> 00:11:11.679 Be crushed now, and God's grace be done. 00:11:13.600 --> 00:11:15.679 Die that you may live. 00:11:16.000 --> 00:11:19.039 Be crucified with Christ that you might live. 00:11:19.279 --> 00:11:20.879 Jesus' name, be narrowed. 00:11:20.960 --> 00:11:28.240 And see, in that idea and in that path, that gift brings spaciousness. 00:11:28.399 --> 00:11:29.200 So you fail. 00:11:29.360 --> 00:11:30.080 So you fail. 00:11:30.240 --> 00:11:31.919 You don't like it, you don't like that you fail. 00:11:32.000 --> 00:11:38.639 You fail with that purity, you fail with the career, you fail with the fail with the marriage, you fail, you fail with whatever you fail with, you fail, and you fail. 00:11:38.799 --> 00:11:39.360 But you know what? 00:11:39.519 --> 00:11:49.440 Your identity is secure because your identity is based in Jesus and his work for you, not in your work for him or your work in this world. 00:11:49.600 --> 00:11:52.639 So your failure can only go so deep. 00:11:52.799 --> 00:11:54.240 Do you see how freeing that is? 00:11:54.480 --> 00:11:56.240 See how spacious that is? 00:11:57.279 --> 00:12:04.399 And so there is a vastness and an openness and a freedom on the backside of being narrow-minded. 00:12:06.080 --> 00:12:09.200 When I was in college, a friend took a few of us caving. 00:12:09.360 --> 00:12:11.519 I was up in North Georgia, I don't even remember where we were at. 00:12:11.600 --> 00:12:20.159 All I remember is there was a little gravel parking lot, and one guy knew about this cave, and there was a little hut, and you signed your name in in case you disappeared. 00:12:20.240 --> 00:12:22.240 I guess somebody would come looking for you eventually. 00:12:22.320 --> 00:12:35.519 And you walk down this path, and this is back, and I was in college, where when a friend said, like, hey, drop your body through that crack in between those two rocks that's super narrow, and it's really it's gonna be great down there. 00:12:35.600 --> 00:12:36.960 And I just go, that sounds great. 00:12:37.120 --> 00:12:38.159 Sounds like a great idea. 00:12:38.399 --> 00:12:51.279 And so we signed our names and just this narrow little, I mean, just a few rocks in the middle of the woods and tight squeezed down, and you got down in there, and just these huge rooms. 00:12:52.480 --> 00:12:53.759 Huge rooms. 00:12:54.559 --> 00:12:59.759 See, the way of Jesus is this very narrow entry in the woods. 00:13:01.039 --> 00:13:07.360 And you just think there's no possible way it could open up and be that open on the back side. 00:13:08.960 --> 00:13:15.200 Because it's so hard to give up our nature of self-saving and proving and earning. 00:13:15.919 --> 00:13:34.399 But on the inside of the grace of God and Jesus' sufficiency for you, and his work being your security of your identity and before God, oh, there's such a big room for you to exist and to rest and for transformation to occur. 00:13:34.559 --> 00:13:35.440 So you know what? 00:13:35.919 --> 00:13:39.759 Grace is so narrow in that way. 00:13:39.919 --> 00:13:50.240 It is so wonderfully narrow for us because it's no longer resting on our shoulders and our effort. 00:13:50.480 --> 00:14:00.480 It narrows us and it crushes us and it leads us to our need to be found in Christ's death and resurrection. 00:14:01.360 --> 00:14:07.519 And then he goes into verses 15 through 23 and warnings that there's gonna be people who teach other stuff. 00:14:07.679 --> 00:14:08.639 Be careful, is what he says. 00:14:08.799 --> 00:14:14.559 Be careful, be careful about false ideas about how God regards people and what he requires. 00:14:14.960 --> 00:14:15.919 Be careful. 00:14:16.960 --> 00:14:18.320 Test is what he's saying. 00:14:18.480 --> 00:14:20.159 Test what you receive to be true. 00:14:20.320 --> 00:14:22.720 Consider the source, be wise. 00:14:23.120 --> 00:14:23.679 You know what? 00:14:23.840 --> 00:14:29.039 If you're here and you're from another faith, you're here and you're from no faith, we're so excited you're here with us. 00:14:29.279 --> 00:14:32.320 We'd love for you to keep coming every week, even if you don't believe what we believe. 00:14:32.480 --> 00:14:36.000 We love that you're here, but this is something for you to consider. 00:14:36.080 --> 00:14:38.799 It's a question, something for you to consider. 00:14:39.039 --> 00:14:42.000 How is it that you are made right before God? 00:14:43.519 --> 00:14:50.480 Is it based on your work and your record, or is it based on God's work and his effort for you? 00:14:50.960 --> 00:14:58.799 And maybe you're here in your church, like you know the camp songs, you can do the deal, you know the deal, but there's never been a heart connection. 00:14:58.960 --> 00:15:02.480 There's never been a narrowing, you've never been narrowed. 00:15:02.720 --> 00:15:08.720 You've the effort and your self-saving has never been crushed out of you. 00:15:09.039 --> 00:15:12.159 Where you just go, yeah, I can't, I can I can't do that. 00:15:12.639 --> 00:15:18.480 I can't foremone righteousness, I can't get into security with God, I can't overcome this shame. 00:15:18.639 --> 00:15:23.440 I can't, I can't, I need the gift of righteousness. 00:15:25.120 --> 00:15:28.480 I thought about all week I've been thinking about this a lot. 00:15:29.039 --> 00:15:33.519 I mean, I think for me, a lot of it's been coming around this idea of being open-minded. 00:15:33.679 --> 00:15:39.200 I think partially because there's a lot of a lot of divisiveness this week. 00:15:39.360 --> 00:15:51.519 And so that's come into it, you know, and about I think this and you think that, and I think this, and I thought this, and I voted this, and you voted that, and all this, you know, and and I like being open-minded partially because I was so rigid and judgmental for so long. 00:15:51.679 --> 00:16:00.000 So even if I believe a certain thing and hold to a certain thing, I I try to pride myself in some measure of I like to listen, I like to hear what you have to say. 00:16:00.159 --> 00:16:01.600 Maybe I can learn something. 00:16:01.840 --> 00:16:08.480 And so a lot of this, this idea of being narrow, I've been wrestling with it all week, all week. 00:16:08.720 --> 00:16:23.600 And what what I learned was and came to kind of closure about is that being narrow-minded on certain issues, being narrow-minded on certain issues actually creates so much more space and freedom on the backside. 00:16:24.159 --> 00:16:32.559 Being narrow-minded on this issue is incredibly narrow, and it's the best possible thing for me and for you and for anybody else. 00:16:32.720 --> 00:16:46.399 And not only that, being narrow-minded on this issue, that that literally that you are just like anybody else, and I am just like anybody else, and we need to be squeezed to death, crushed, and receive God's grace. 00:16:46.639 --> 00:17:00.080 This is actually the best possible way for you to have a chance, a chance of becoming a non-judgmental, open, compassionate presence in this world. 00:17:00.399 --> 00:17:03.679 This is your best chance of loving other people. 00:17:04.160 --> 00:17:05.359 Is what Jesus would say. 00:17:05.519 --> 00:17:07.200 Let me sum up the law. 00:17:10.000 --> 00:17:13.599 This is the spaciousness of Christian spirituality. 00:17:14.559 --> 00:17:17.440 At least for me, I haven't known it for a lot of my life. 00:17:17.839 --> 00:17:22.319 Not until I let this law continue to guide me, but also crush me. 00:17:22.559 --> 00:17:27.920 And for me to see, oh my gosh, I really, I, I really need, I really need God's grace to me. 00:17:28.000 --> 00:17:29.200 I need it today. 00:17:29.440 --> 00:17:31.920 Not like 20-something years ago when I became a Christian. 00:17:32.000 --> 00:17:33.279 I need it today. 00:17:35.359 --> 00:17:44.640 So for clarity, for clarity, what you know, what is what's on the backside of being narrowed? 00:17:44.880 --> 00:17:47.200 What is this spaciousness? 00:17:48.799 --> 00:17:54.000 What's in this resurrection, in this new life, in this eternal connection with God? 00:17:54.160 --> 00:17:59.839 That is not the being damned and being wasted, but in this freedom and connection with God. 00:18:00.000 --> 00:18:01.279 I listed three things. 00:18:01.359 --> 00:18:03.680 There are things that we say over and over again. 00:18:03.759 --> 00:18:06.319 We say all the time here. 00:18:06.559 --> 00:18:07.920 Maybe your list is longer. 00:18:08.079 --> 00:18:10.319 Maybe it'd be good for you this week to make a list. 00:18:10.400 --> 00:18:10.799 I don't know. 00:18:10.880 --> 00:18:12.160 Maybe you want to share your list. 00:18:12.240 --> 00:18:14.240 But here's the three things that came to my mind. 00:18:14.400 --> 00:18:20.640 Number one, your mistakes and your shame do not have to define you. 00:18:21.519 --> 00:18:23.920 Your mistakes and your shame do not have to define you. 00:18:24.079 --> 00:18:36.720 Number two, you can grow in confidence that you are secure as a human being, defined as God's child, imperfectly, imperfect, yet perfectly loved. 00:18:36.960 --> 00:18:37.680 Say that again. 00:18:37.920 --> 00:18:48.640 You can grow in confidence that you are secure as a human being, defined as God's child, imperfect and yet perfectly loved. 00:18:49.119 --> 00:18:56.960 And number three, you can move toward a life of honoring God out of humility and gratitude. 00:18:57.759 --> 00:19:03.599 Even though you won't do it perfectly, you can move toward a life of honoring God out of humility and gratitude. 00:19:03.759 --> 00:19:11.440 Listen, you don't have to live your life in constricting tightness around your heart. 00:19:12.799 --> 00:19:14.240 You know the feeling. 00:19:16.720 --> 00:19:22.480 The narrowing of grace is about discovering your secure belovedness as God's child. 00:19:23.440 --> 00:19:25.119 Yes, you're imperfect. 00:19:25.440 --> 00:19:26.480 We're all imperfect. 00:19:26.640 --> 00:19:32.160 That's why we need this narrow way, is because we're imperfect. 00:19:32.480 --> 00:19:35.039 We need it to be incredibly narrow. 00:19:35.759 --> 00:20:02.240 We need this because we need to be, we need to be crushed, we need it to be squeezed out of us, all of our self-saving methods, so that we live in this open-handed posture before God of receiving, receiving his grace, his sufficiency to us, so that we can face our sin, our shame, our imperfections, our wounds. 00:20:02.400 --> 00:20:04.000 We can face all of that. 00:20:04.160 --> 00:20:09.759 And while we face it, they don't threaten who we are, because that's already been secured. 00:20:10.720 --> 00:20:15.759 And we live in this growing spaciousness and freedom. 00:20:16.799 --> 00:20:20.799 So my brothers and sisters, may you be narrowed. 00:20:21.200 --> 00:20:28.240 May you be incredibly narrowed that you may live in growing spaciousness of Jesus. 00:20:28.400 --> 00:20:29.839 Let's pray together. 00:20:32.960 --> 00:20:34.319 God thank you. 00:20:37.359 --> 00:20:39.519 Thank you that the way is narrow. 00:20:48.480 --> 00:20:59.839 Whether it be through the escape of really bad addictions and practices, or whether it be the escape of religiosity and moralism. 00:21:02.960 --> 00:21:18.799 For so many of us, what needs to be squeezed out of us is our judgmentalism and comparing our lives to others, and constantly thinking we need to strive today to please you without regard to your grace toward us. 00:21:19.759 --> 00:21:23.359 Would you help us to race rest in your sufficiency toward us? 00:21:23.519 --> 00:21:26.640 That Jesus died, we are absolved of our sin. 00:21:26.880 --> 00:21:31.759 Would we rest in our identity secure as a daughter, secure as a son? 00:21:32.079 --> 00:21:37.759 Would this be transformative in our hearts, in the core of who we are? 00:21:38.160 --> 00:21:39.920 Would we be crushed? 00:21:40.799 --> 00:21:42.799 That we might be relieved. 00:21:43.279 --> 00:21:59.119 And in that, would your spirit begin great transformation that we might grow in a way of being a loving presence in this world of loving people as we would want to be loved? 00:21:59.440 --> 00:22:02.000 We pray this in Jesus' great name. 00:22:02.319 --> 00:22:02.960 Amen.