WEBVTT 00:00:00.400 --> 00:00:07.519 So we are going through the Sermon on the Mount, which is if you haven't been around church or maybe you're new to church, we're glad you're here. 00:00:07.679 --> 00:00:11.519 The Sermon on the Mount is the core of Jesus' teachings. 00:00:11.599 --> 00:00:17.760 And so we're just making our way through this teaching, this sermon that he gave week by week, section by section. 00:00:17.839 --> 00:00:24.960 And so the section for this morning, the passage was in the handout, your bulletin is Matthew 5, 17 through 20. 00:00:25.120 --> 00:00:27.199 So I will read this as you read along. 00:00:27.440 --> 00:00:30.879 Do not think that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets. 00:00:31.039 --> 00:00:34.799 I have not come to abolish them, but to fulfill them. 00:00:34.960 --> 00:00:37.359 Or that word could be to complete them. 00:00:37.679 --> 00:00:47.200 For truly I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot will pass away from the law until all is accomplished. 00:00:47.359 --> 00:00:55.679 Therefore, whoever relaxes one of the least of these commandments, and teaches others to do the same, will be called the least in the kingdom of heaven. 00:00:55.920 --> 00:01:00.479 But whoever does them and teaches them will be called great in the kingdom of heaven. 00:01:00.640 --> 00:01:08.799 For I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. 00:01:09.040 --> 00:01:10.079 The word of the Lord. 00:01:11.519 --> 00:01:16.239 So Jesus is talking about the standard of who we should be. 00:01:16.640 --> 00:01:17.680 That's what the law is. 00:01:17.840 --> 00:01:25.920 The law is the standard of who we should be, that we should be faithful and we should be patient, we should be kind, and we should be moral. 00:01:26.079 --> 00:01:27.519 This is who we should be. 00:01:27.760 --> 00:01:28.799 These are the shoulds. 00:01:28.879 --> 00:01:30.000 We should honor God. 00:01:30.159 --> 00:01:32.640 So the law is all the shoulds in life. 00:01:32.719 --> 00:01:33.599 That's what the law is. 00:01:33.680 --> 00:01:35.120 And we read it in the scripture. 00:01:35.280 --> 00:01:36.400 You feel it in the scripture. 00:01:36.480 --> 00:01:41.359 When you read it in the scripture, you feel it and you know it in life, who you should be. 00:01:41.519 --> 00:01:43.040 So it's all the shoulds. 00:01:43.120 --> 00:01:44.159 And the law is good. 00:01:44.319 --> 00:01:45.599 We need the law. 00:01:45.840 --> 00:01:46.799 We need the law. 00:01:47.439 --> 00:01:48.400 We can't relax it. 00:01:48.560 --> 00:01:51.439 We don't take out an iota of it, not a dot of it. 00:01:51.599 --> 00:01:55.760 We need the law to guide us, to guide us away from destruction. 00:01:55.920 --> 00:01:57.439 So we need the law. 00:01:57.599 --> 00:01:59.840 And what we talked about is we went through the Ten Commandments. 00:02:00.159 --> 00:02:01.920 When was that last year sometime? 00:02:02.079 --> 00:02:13.759 And we talk about with the commandments that the law is good and holy, and we need it by while but while it is good and it guides us, it also crushes us. 00:02:14.000 --> 00:02:15.199 And you know this. 00:02:15.439 --> 00:02:32.719 You know this by experience because you you have tried to be righteous or perfect or all put together on your own and always trying to get to that perfection, that standard, and there's all this exhaustion and insecurity in it. 00:02:32.960 --> 00:02:39.759 You've felt that on that path, and it's because the law is inept to produce the thing that it's commanding of you. 00:02:39.919 --> 00:02:44.319 So it commands something of you, but it has no ability to deliver you into it. 00:02:44.479 --> 00:02:45.599 Meaning, meaning this. 00:02:45.759 --> 00:02:59.199 All the shoulds in life, all the shoulds in life, they can't deliver your heart from guilt or isolation or distance or insecurity or disharmony that it feels. 00:02:59.439 --> 00:03:07.039 All the shoulds in life cannot deliver you into life and joy and freedom. 00:03:08.479 --> 00:03:18.960 This is why you can be told to eat kale and hummus and almonds, and you still want Kit Katz and a Slurpee and a Cinnabon. 00:03:19.599 --> 00:03:21.520 Anybody eaten a Cinnabon lately? 00:03:22.240 --> 00:03:25.520 Have you eaten a Cinnabon with a jar of talenti together? 00:03:25.680 --> 00:03:27.680 The two together, don't do it. 00:03:27.759 --> 00:03:34.240 You will feel you feel worthless after unless unless you eat it followed by a Swiss cake roll. 00:03:34.639 --> 00:03:35.759 You don't feel anything. 00:03:35.840 --> 00:03:36.960 You're just numb. 00:03:37.280 --> 00:03:37.759 Right? 00:03:38.000 --> 00:03:38.240 Right? 00:03:38.400 --> 00:03:40.319 Jim Gaffigan's made a career around it. 00:03:40.400 --> 00:03:45.840 He says, You you know you're just eating your feelings, but your feelings are so delicious. 00:03:47.360 --> 00:03:47.759 Right? 00:03:47.919 --> 00:03:49.599 We we know this, we know it. 00:03:49.759 --> 00:03:54.400 And so we hear the law, we know what we should eat, and we still don't eat what we should eat. 00:03:54.639 --> 00:03:55.280 Right? 00:03:55.759 --> 00:03:58.240 And we've all been eating a lot watching the Olympics. 00:03:58.319 --> 00:03:59.919 Is anybody having Olympics withdrawal? 00:04:00.080 --> 00:04:08.560 Olympics are over, which all that's ironic because we're shoving Cinnabons down our throats as we watch perfect athletes in perfect shape. 00:04:08.719 --> 00:04:12.560 Uh, did y'all see the Chinese swimmer, uh Fu Yanhui? 00:04:12.960 --> 00:04:14.159 Did y'all see her? 00:04:14.560 --> 00:04:15.680 Anyone know about this? 00:04:15.840 --> 00:04:18.399 So she she wins bronze. 00:04:18.560 --> 00:04:20.000 She gets out of the pool. 00:04:20.240 --> 00:04:22.800 Have y'all seen the little video went viral? 00:04:22.959 --> 00:04:26.319 She gets out of the pool and she's getting interviewed by a journalist. 00:04:26.480 --> 00:04:31.279 She doesn't know she has won the bronze medal in her swimming event. 00:04:31.360 --> 00:04:37.360 And she gets out of the pool, she goes up for the interview, and the journalist says, What do you think about that swim? 00:04:37.519 --> 00:04:39.519 And she says, Oh, I didn't swim so good. 00:04:39.600 --> 00:04:42.240 I think it's because of my short arms, which is hilarious. 00:04:42.319 --> 00:04:43.680 That that was her answer. 00:04:43.920 --> 00:04:46.240 And she says, I just don't think my short arms. 00:04:46.319 --> 00:04:51.519 And the journalist tells her, like, you no, you won, you just won the bronze medal in the Olympics. 00:04:51.680 --> 00:04:53.199 And she goes, What? 00:04:53.439 --> 00:04:54.079 Third? 00:04:54.319 --> 00:04:55.120 I did not know. 00:04:55.279 --> 00:04:57.199 Well, then I think that's not bad at all. 00:04:57.360 --> 00:05:01.360 Though I did not win first place today, I was that fast. 00:05:01.759 --> 00:05:03.759 I am so happy. 00:05:04.000 --> 00:05:14.480 All right, so a girl, a girl wins gold and is ecstatic happy, right? 00:05:15.120 --> 00:05:22.079 She has just won and reached the perfection of the standard of that race. 00:05:22.399 --> 00:05:26.720 And a girl wins bronze and is so happy. 00:05:27.439 --> 00:05:31.120 And have you been watching the faces of the silver medalists? 00:05:31.360 --> 00:05:33.519 They're not such a happy bunch. 00:05:35.120 --> 00:05:35.759 They're not. 00:05:35.920 --> 00:05:36.879 And actually, it's proven. 00:05:37.040 --> 00:05:42.079 CNN had this article called The Bizarre Psychology of the Bronze Medal Win. 00:05:42.160 --> 00:05:44.480 And at Site's Research, the University of Colorado did. 00:05:44.639 --> 00:05:52.319 Cornell did this big study in 1995 where they studied the facial reactions of the silver medalists win and the bronze medalists win. 00:05:52.480 --> 00:05:54.879 And the bronze medalists, they're happier. 00:05:55.040 --> 00:05:57.680 They are so much happier than the silver medalists, right? 00:05:57.759 --> 00:06:00.160 And the silver medalists, you know why they're not happy? 00:06:00.319 --> 00:06:04.079 They were so close to being great. 00:06:04.240 --> 00:06:09.839 They were so close to the standard of perfection that they were beat down by it. 00:06:10.000 --> 00:06:13.680 And so in the world psychology, this is called counterfactual thinking. 00:06:13.839 --> 00:06:15.279 This is what this article talks about. 00:06:15.439 --> 00:06:20.399 And counterfactual thinking is where we live in reaction to what could have been. 00:06:20.560 --> 00:06:27.920 So the silver medalist lives in reaction to the reality she was so close to greatness. 00:06:28.240 --> 00:06:34.319 And the bronze medalist lives in reaction to she almost had nothing. 00:06:35.199 --> 00:06:36.720 And who's happier? 00:06:37.120 --> 00:06:38.399 The bronze medalist. 00:06:38.639 --> 00:06:41.120 See, this is the danger and the brilliance of the law. 00:06:41.279 --> 00:06:48.720 If we live in fascination to it, thinking we can actually meet it, to get that gold on our own, we're crushed by it. 00:06:48.800 --> 00:06:51.759 We're the sad silver medalist all through our lives. 00:06:52.079 --> 00:07:04.800 But if we live in response that we will never be able to meet this standard, even though we want to meet it, and somehow by a miracle of grace, we get a bronze. 00:07:06.000 --> 00:07:07.360 We're just grateful. 00:07:07.600 --> 00:07:08.879 We're joyful. 00:07:10.399 --> 00:07:14.720 So Jesus says in verse 17, do not think I've come to abolish the law or the prophets. 00:07:14.879 --> 00:07:18.959 I've not come to abolish them, but to fulfill them, to complete them. 00:07:19.120 --> 00:07:21.519 Now Paul expounds on this idea in Galatians 3. 00:07:21.600 --> 00:07:24.720 It's in your handout, Galatians 3, 23 through 26. 00:07:25.279 --> 00:07:33.360 Now, before faith came, before faith came, we were held captive under the law. 00:07:33.680 --> 00:07:41.680 So under standards, the standard, we are held captive under it, imprisoned until the coming faith would be revealed. 00:07:41.920 --> 00:07:47.920 So then the law was our guardian until Christ came, in order that we might be justified by faith. 00:07:48.160 --> 00:07:52.000 But now that faith has come, we are no longer under a guardian. 00:07:52.240 --> 00:08:01.279 For in Christ Jesus you are all sons, or we could say daughters of God through faith. 00:08:02.000 --> 00:08:03.759 So here's the deal this morning. 00:08:05.839 --> 00:08:07.439 So this whole sermon is a plead. 00:08:07.519 --> 00:08:12.319 I'm pleading with you as I plead with myself every single morning. 00:08:12.879 --> 00:08:16.240 Stop living under the law. 00:08:17.439 --> 00:08:30.480 Stop willingly going under the captivity of trying to find your security with God or your value as a human being by the law, by standards or a merit system that it promotes. 00:08:30.639 --> 00:08:32.639 And maybe you're hearing like, what are you talking about? 00:08:32.720 --> 00:08:40.159 Well, have you have you ever felt like you're just trying to produce that one magical piece of the puzzle? 00:08:40.320 --> 00:08:49.679 And that if you produce it or you find it and you put it in your puzzle of your life and you get it in there, then you'll be okay. 00:08:49.919 --> 00:08:56.320 Then you'll be righteous, then you'll be secure before God, then you'll feel whole, then you'll be healed, then if you just find that piece. 00:08:56.399 --> 00:08:57.600 And you know what happens, right? 00:08:57.679 --> 00:09:10.399 Like you find a piece, you produce it, whatever, you self-create it, you curate it on Instagram, and you feel something, you put that, you put that piece in your puzzle, and you get it in there, and then you realize there's a few other pieces that aren't there, and so you're not still not feeling it. 00:09:10.480 --> 00:09:14.240 So you go back out again, and this is this merit system, it's law. 00:09:14.399 --> 00:09:17.919 The law is always asking you to produce, right? 00:09:18.080 --> 00:09:19.679 Have you ever felt like that? 00:09:19.840 --> 00:09:25.759 This is captivity of the law, of always having to try to measure up. 00:09:26.480 --> 00:09:34.639 And it's not the way of faith and grace and love, it's not the way of Jesus being the fulfillment of the law. 00:09:34.960 --> 00:09:40.799 Now we're gonna nerd out for just a second because it's a it's a long paragraph quote in your handout. 00:09:40.960 --> 00:09:48.159 Thomas Merton, a monk and mystic writer, and we're gonna nerd out on this, and you're gonna have to read it like ten times this week, but it's just so good. 00:09:48.639 --> 00:09:51.039 The tenth time I read it, I actually understood it. 00:09:51.519 --> 00:09:54.320 The human existent, that's you. 00:09:54.879 --> 00:09:55.440 I think. 00:09:55.600 --> 00:09:56.799 I think it's you. 00:09:57.120 --> 00:09:58.879 Uh still not sure. 00:09:59.120 --> 00:10:23.519 The human existent is redeemed and delivered into the full freedom of the Christian person when it is liberated from the demonic and futile project of self-redemption, the self-contradictory and self-defeating enterprise of establishing itself in unassailable security, as if its existence were identical with being, and as if it were completely autonomous. 00:10:23.759 --> 00:10:40.000 This hateful enterprise is carried on by the existent, remember that's you, maintaining itself as being and as autonomous self-fulfillment, challenging and defying every other existence, seeking either to dominate or to placate all that it confronts. 00:10:40.240 --> 00:10:57.200 This implies a constant, wearying effort at deception, with eager thrusts of passion and power, constantly frustrated and falling back into the cunning futility of trying to outwit reality itself. 00:10:58.240 --> 00:10:59.840 I'm not going to break down that quote. 00:10:59.919 --> 00:11:02.080 I really am going to let you reread it about 10 times this week. 00:11:02.159 --> 00:11:03.600 That's why I printed it out for you. 00:11:03.759 --> 00:11:04.720 But a few points. 00:11:04.960 --> 00:11:13.679 Point number one: our problem is our shortcoming before the law and our ongoing fascination with it. 00:11:14.080 --> 00:11:14.960 That's our problem. 00:11:15.519 --> 00:11:16.879 We don't relax the law. 00:11:17.039 --> 00:11:18.559 We need high law. 00:11:18.720 --> 00:11:26.399 Like we need high standards, we need high morality, we need all of it, and we need it in its fullness. 00:11:26.639 --> 00:11:27.919 We need it to guide us. 00:11:28.080 --> 00:11:32.399 We do destructive, horrible things to each other and to our families. 00:11:32.559 --> 00:11:34.720 And so we need high law. 00:11:34.799 --> 00:11:38.559 But even you have to understand, while it guides us, it crushes us. 00:11:38.720 --> 00:11:43.279 So if it's just a guide, if it's just a guide, you will live condemned. 00:11:43.360 --> 00:11:45.360 It has to be more than just a guide. 00:11:45.440 --> 00:11:51.519 And so you have to let it show you, show you that you're not going to be a gold medalist. 00:11:51.919 --> 00:11:54.000 You're going to be a bronze medalist. 00:11:54.639 --> 00:11:59.039 Even while you want to be the gold medalist, you will not be perfect. 00:11:59.279 --> 00:12:01.519 Somebody else was perfect for you. 00:12:01.679 --> 00:12:04.080 Christ fulfilled the law. 00:12:04.480 --> 00:12:15.440 Then you can live in the great place of rest of God's grace, and the Spirit of God comes into this place of your heart that you thought were okay and they're not okay, and you realize it, but you're, you know what? 00:12:15.519 --> 00:12:16.480 You're a bronze medalist. 00:12:16.559 --> 00:12:19.440 So you're like, hey, Spirit, welcome to any part of me. 00:12:19.519 --> 00:12:20.399 I'm not perfect. 00:12:20.559 --> 00:12:26.240 And the grace of God works in you, and transformation occurs out of that. 00:12:26.879 --> 00:12:49.039 So Merton goes on to say in that paragraph: legal virtuousness, which is being virtuous by law, by the standards, is one of the ways in which the human existent, you, seeks to carry out this project of deception and to gain mastery over the death that is inexorably present in the very fact of bodily life itself. 00:12:49.360 --> 00:12:53.120 There are other more complex spiritual ways of attempting the same deception. 00:12:53.279 --> 00:13:10.399 All are self-defeating except the gospel mercy, in which the self-seeking self is liberated from its search and its concern, therefore, to some extent from anguish by finding not self but truth in Christ. 00:13:11.120 --> 00:13:17.840 This finding is the discovery and grace and faith that one is mercifully understood. 00:13:18.159 --> 00:13:29.759 See, you are mercifully understood, and that the spirit of this mercy and this understanding, one is enabled to understand others and mercy and pity. 00:13:29.840 --> 00:13:32.559 So out of the race comes transformation. 00:13:32.799 --> 00:13:44.480 The weakness and defenselessness in our hearts, which makes us pitiless to others, are then dispelled not by power but by trust and divine mercy. 00:13:44.639 --> 00:14:03.679 So not by law, but by grace, which is given us when we no longer seek to defend our defenselessness and are ready to accept our own boundless need in a merciful exchange with others whose poverty is as great as our own. 00:14:04.320 --> 00:14:09.200 Have you ever wondered why you're so tired of trying to be impressive? 00:14:09.919 --> 00:14:12.000 Just so tired. 00:14:14.799 --> 00:14:25.200 You're just so exhausted, or you're so exhausted as you're just trying to cover that shame with something new, something else, something new. 00:14:25.279 --> 00:14:26.399 And it's just exhausting. 00:14:26.559 --> 00:14:34.320 See, the law is always asking you to produce, but there's no rescue in that life. 00:14:34.639 --> 00:14:37.200 It cannot deliver the heart. 00:14:38.159 --> 00:14:43.360 It's the worst of lives, even while it can hide within successful lives. 00:14:45.519 --> 00:14:46.960 So that's point number one. 00:14:47.039 --> 00:14:50.799 Our problem is our shortcoming before the law and our ongoing fascination with it. 00:14:50.960 --> 00:14:57.919 Point number two, good news, our rescue is God's perfect completion of the law in Jesus. 00:14:58.080 --> 00:15:07.919 So we could say it in a more modern, less theological way, and say our rescue is his ridiculous, perfect, never-ending love and the pursuit of the core of who we are. 00:15:08.240 --> 00:15:10.000 Maybe that's a more modern way to say it. 00:15:10.159 --> 00:15:37.440 What this is about, it's about the fact that we are approved by God not by our perfection or our work, but his perfection and his work, and that the cross is about our shortcoming before the law going on to God Himself, onto Jesus, and His righteousness and the completion of the law and all standards and any barrier between us and him coming toward us, his righteousness put on us. 00:15:37.679 --> 00:16:02.240 And so that gap we've talked about the last few weeks, that gap between our the actual who we are and the ideal who we want to be, and that difference between the am, who I am, and who I ought to be, that gap that produces shame and guilt, that gap that produces us trying to find that magical piece of the puzzle over and over and over again. 00:16:02.960 --> 00:16:05.279 That gap's put on the cross. 00:16:05.600 --> 00:16:07.039 That's what the cross is about. 00:16:07.200 --> 00:16:11.200 And Christianity says, which is just far different than anything else you're going to find. 00:16:11.360 --> 00:16:15.039 Christianity says you have to give up in the face of demand. 00:16:15.279 --> 00:16:16.799 It's the only way out. 00:16:16.960 --> 00:16:19.360 The only way out is at the bottom. 00:16:19.600 --> 00:16:26.799 It is to be honest and to confess and to repent and to be done and accept that you need help. 00:16:27.600 --> 00:16:30.159 And that grace is your only way out. 00:16:30.799 --> 00:16:34.000 The way of rescue is to be humbled and to receive. 00:16:34.159 --> 00:16:40.720 And new life comes out of the Spirit of God being in you and approving you and giving you value. 00:16:40.879 --> 00:16:51.120 So because of point one and because of point two, point three, which is what Paul was making in Galatians, you are no longer under law, but under grace. 00:16:52.000 --> 00:16:54.480 Because the law will keep yelling at you. 00:16:55.039 --> 00:17:01.120 Be better, be more, be thinner, be stronger, be more successful, be whatever. 00:17:01.279 --> 00:17:03.519 Whatever you're not, just be whatever you're not. 00:17:03.679 --> 00:17:05.839 And you get there and then be something else. 00:17:06.079 --> 00:17:09.599 And we're always saying, there's power, there's power in the name of Jesus. 00:17:09.680 --> 00:17:10.720 That's my preacher voice. 00:17:10.880 --> 00:17:12.319 There's power in the name of Jesus. 00:17:12.559 --> 00:17:13.759 And I would hear that. 00:17:13.920 --> 00:17:14.480 I would hear it. 00:17:15.359 --> 00:17:16.640 So I've been in church 27 years. 00:17:16.720 --> 00:17:17.759 I'd hear it. 00:17:19.680 --> 00:17:20.640 I didn't know what this meant. 00:17:20.720 --> 00:17:22.960 I'm not sure we say it a lot, a lot of verbiage. 00:17:23.440 --> 00:17:26.559 I don't know if we know what we're saying when we say things like that. 00:17:26.720 --> 00:17:30.160 And what we're saying is, we're saying there's power in the name of Jesus. 00:17:30.319 --> 00:17:34.640 What we're saying is, is there's no power in the law. 00:17:34.799 --> 00:17:37.359 There's no power in standards or merit. 00:17:37.519 --> 00:17:44.319 But there is power in the grace of God and his sufficiency and his completion of the law toward you. 00:17:45.200 --> 00:17:53.279 That's where power is, that you are defined and secured outside of your production, good or bad. 00:17:53.440 --> 00:17:54.799 This is the gift of grace. 00:17:54.960 --> 00:18:04.400 This is the love of God to you that comes into you, the Spirit of God in you, and begins transformation of a new identity within you. 00:18:04.720 --> 00:18:09.279 So when I was a senior at Georgia, I had a marketing project and we got grouped up in our class. 00:18:09.359 --> 00:18:11.359 I think our class was maybe 40 people in there. 00:18:11.519 --> 00:18:13.039 We got grouped up in groups of four. 00:18:13.200 --> 00:18:14.799 And I got grouped up with a few people. 00:18:14.880 --> 00:18:17.680 I think there's two ladies and two guys in the group. 00:18:17.759 --> 00:18:21.519 And uh one of the girls is sort of girl, brown hair. 00:18:21.839 --> 00:18:23.359 She lived in a townhouse off Lumpkin. 00:18:23.519 --> 00:18:25.119 I can remember the townhouse, I remember exactly where it was. 00:18:25.200 --> 00:18:29.680 And we all met, the four of us met at her house to split up the project, right? 00:18:29.759 --> 00:18:31.200 I mean, that's what you did, group project. 00:18:31.359 --> 00:18:34.880 You just showed up, split it up, you didn't talk to each other again, and then you came back, put it all together. 00:18:35.039 --> 00:18:36.640 That's that was a group project. 00:18:36.880 --> 00:18:41.279 And so we showed up, we split it up, and very clearly she was the boss. 00:18:41.359 --> 00:18:48.640 Like it was clear, like we met at her townhouse, like right away, somehow that happened, and we met at her townhouse, we split it up. 00:18:48.799 --> 00:18:53.440 She definitely came away with a load, like 75% of it or so, and the rest of us were doing a few things. 00:18:53.680 --> 00:19:00.640 And we come back, we get back to a week later, we come back, same townhouse, same living room, we come back, she's finished it. 00:19:00.720 --> 00:19:02.240 She finished the whole project. 00:19:02.480 --> 00:19:04.000 She just did she did it all. 00:19:04.160 --> 00:19:04.559 She did all. 00:19:04.720 --> 00:19:12.319 I think I think we came in with I came in with my little bit here, and everybody else came in with their little bit, but she did the whole thing. 00:19:12.480 --> 00:19:15.359 She was the perfect classmate. 00:19:15.839 --> 00:19:17.920 She completed it. 00:19:18.079 --> 00:19:20.160 She pulled all the weight. 00:19:20.720 --> 00:19:23.039 We got a great grade. 00:19:23.440 --> 00:19:26.480 We all received the same grade because of her work. 00:19:26.799 --> 00:19:29.039 And we loved her because of this. 00:19:29.279 --> 00:19:29.680 Right? 00:19:29.839 --> 00:19:34.160 It produced, it produced love toward her. 00:19:35.519 --> 00:19:37.279 It's just how it worked. 00:19:38.319 --> 00:19:42.160 We were good students because of her, not because of us. 00:19:42.319 --> 00:19:43.359 We didn't do anything. 00:19:43.599 --> 00:19:45.440 But we were good students because of her. 00:19:45.599 --> 00:19:48.880 See, this is the language of the gospel in the Christian life. 00:19:49.279 --> 00:19:49.920 Because. 00:19:50.960 --> 00:19:53.759 The language of the law is when and if. 00:19:54.720 --> 00:20:06.160 When I get those friends, when I get that girl, when I get that next whatever I order on Amazon Prime, when I get, I don't even need it, I'm gonna order it because it'll make me feel better. 00:20:06.319 --> 00:20:21.920 When I have those perfect kids, if I if people finally realize how smart I am, if people are finally impressed with me, if I can keep all the Christian living principles I've been writing in my journal, if I can keep all of them, not eight out of the ten, but all ten, then, right? 00:20:22.000 --> 00:20:24.960 Like then I will feel secure before God. 00:20:25.200 --> 00:20:28.559 Then I'll be redeemed, then I'll be okay. 00:20:28.799 --> 00:20:31.119 But the gospel is something entirely different. 00:20:31.279 --> 00:20:35.039 It's a different language, it's the language of because. 00:20:35.920 --> 00:21:01.359 The core of who you are is redeemed and secured because he has been so good, because he completed the law, because God is gracious toward you and regards you as his beloved, because you are righteous even before you're righteous, because you are forever his. 00:21:02.160 --> 00:21:21.359 Because, because, because you get to imperfectly and joyfully exist today because you get to imperfectly and joyfully love others because you get to imperfectly and joyfully move toward godliness because. 00:21:23.359 --> 00:21:24.880 See, there's nothing for me to add. 00:21:24.960 --> 00:21:25.759 There's nothing for me, yeah. 00:21:25.920 --> 00:21:28.400 When I showed up at that girl's townhouse, there's nothing for me to add. 00:21:28.640 --> 00:21:31.920 She completed it all, and we got a great, great because of her word. 00:21:32.240 --> 00:21:36.720 There's nothing for you to add to the work Jesus has already done for you. 00:21:36.960 --> 00:21:44.799 Because of that, because of that, you are a secure, loved, beloved child, always, no matter what your life looks like, always. 00:21:44.960 --> 00:21:46.319 That's the greatness of the gospel. 00:21:46.400 --> 00:21:48.000 That's the language of the gospel. 00:21:48.240 --> 00:22:00.400 That's the very thing that transforms the Spirit of God speaking that into all the parts of your heart that are insecure and fearful and anxious and wounded. 00:22:01.599 --> 00:22:08.720 Every assignment, every demand, all the shoulds of who we should be, Jesus was that for us. 00:22:09.119 --> 00:22:24.319 So, my brothers and sisters, may you continue to refuse to live in the way of if and when, and may you live in the grace of God living more in the because you are mercifully understood by your Father. 00:22:24.640 --> 00:22:25.680 Let's pray together. 00:22:30.400 --> 00:22:37.119 God, thank you that we do not have to play a game of when and if for the rest of our lives. 00:22:38.000 --> 00:22:45.920 We confess that we love the game because we love our pride and to feel good by our efforts. 00:22:46.400 --> 00:22:52.880 And we would never say it, but we sort of think that Jesus completed about 80% of the law and we're gonna go to finish it off. 00:22:54.960 --> 00:23:03.599 God, would you teach us the great wisdom that there is not a piece of the law to relax. 00:23:04.160 --> 00:23:09.440 That we need high law, and yet we need to see that you completed it all. 00:23:10.960 --> 00:23:12.160 We need high grace. 00:23:13.680 --> 00:23:16.880 That these two things go together for the Christian life. 00:23:21.440 --> 00:23:26.720 Freedom and godliness and our lives, great transformation and healing and wholeness. 00:23:29.599 --> 00:23:31.680 And all the ways that we are using law.