WEBVTT 00:00:00.160 --> 00:00:00.800 So glad you're here. 00:00:00.959 --> 00:00:01.520 So excited. 00:00:01.600 --> 00:00:04.320 I'm so excited to be here and glad you're here. 00:00:04.400 --> 00:00:25.280 And I'm excited about what God wants to say to us this morning through this passage that maybe even when you first read it, you're not quite sure what in fact maybe an Old Testament feast uh given to the Israelites thousands and thousands of years ago might have to do with your life today in Marietta in 2016. 00:00:25.359 --> 00:00:26.480 But it has a lot to do with it. 00:00:26.559 --> 00:00:33.119 And last week um we read the first uh section of this passage in Exodus 23, and we talked about rest. 00:00:33.439 --> 00:00:44.159 And God's been laying out for these people, so he rescued these people out of slavery in Egypt, and then now they're in uh they're in the desert, they're out in the wilderness, and he's given them the Ten Commandments. 00:00:44.240 --> 00:00:50.640 He's starting to lay out for them ways for their life and what life should look like for them as a people. 00:00:50.799 --> 00:00:53.520 And so last week we talked about how we saw this rhythm. 00:00:53.679 --> 00:01:02.079 He was laying out this rhythm for them, the six in one rhythm, the six in one uh work your land for six years, and then every on the seventh year, remember this? 00:01:02.240 --> 00:01:04.560 Let your land lie fallow. 00:01:04.719 --> 00:01:09.519 And then the six and one rhythm of a week, and that seventh day to take take a break. 00:01:09.680 --> 00:01:14.159 And what we saw, and what we said is that when the rhythm is off, things just don't work out. 00:01:14.239 --> 00:01:14.640 Do you remember? 00:01:14.719 --> 00:01:22.799 And Sam played um Happy Birthday off rhythm, and Josh Teague guessed it suspiciously quickly, I might add. 00:01:23.280 --> 00:01:27.680 I don't know if he knew there's a Starbucks card in it, and him and Sam worked something out. 00:01:27.920 --> 00:01:30.239 That was suspicious how quick that was. 00:01:30.400 --> 00:01:38.799 Um but he got it right, and but what we saw was because the rest of us weren't quite sure what song that was, and then Sam played it on rhythm, and all of a sudden you're like, yeah, it's happy birthday. 00:01:38.959 --> 00:01:40.560 Everybody knows happy birthday. 00:01:40.719 --> 00:01:43.920 But when the rhythm is off, um things just don't work out. 00:01:44.000 --> 00:01:50.159 And so we what we said is that that rhythmic rest is vital to our existence. 00:01:50.400 --> 00:01:57.439 And so we said that first as a principle, and then we said what we actually see out of that principle is it takes us, it actually takes us deeper. 00:01:57.599 --> 00:02:05.680 It takes us to the fact that even a discipline of rest, uh, even a practice of rest is not enough for the core of our being. 00:02:05.760 --> 00:02:14.400 And so even that practice points us to the reality that us as people need a rest given to us. 00:02:14.879 --> 00:02:20.639 That we need God's grace known in Jesus Christ, which is He. 00:02:21.199 --> 00:02:23.439 He is our Sabbath rest. 00:02:23.919 --> 00:02:30.960 So, so the day of the week is a metaphor that should point us to the person of Jesus for us. 00:02:31.120 --> 00:02:38.319 And now this morning what we're gonna see is we're gonna talk a little bit about a kind of a universal human need that all of us have, you have, and I haven't. 00:02:38.400 --> 00:02:44.879 And then we're gonna see two principles, and then we're gonna come back around to this universal uh this need that's inside of us. 00:02:45.039 --> 00:02:45.439 You get that? 00:02:45.520 --> 00:02:49.759 And we got these three feasts, we're gonna tie them all together, and we're gonna see how this works out. 00:02:50.000 --> 00:02:51.039 Okay, so here we go. 00:02:51.199 --> 00:03:01.280 So uh, first off, there's a quote in your handout uh by David Foster Wallace, who is uh a great writer that surfaced tragically, his life ended. 00:03:01.360 --> 00:03:07.439 Um sort of haunted his whole life, but incredibly, incredibly insightful. 00:03:07.599 --> 00:03:13.599 Um he was writing unbelievable books and essays in his early 20s. 00:03:13.840 --> 00:03:16.080 And here's what he says about that. 00:03:16.719 --> 00:03:26.800 The great lie of the Ocean Liner Cruise, and that's his metaphor here for life, is that enough pleasure and enough pampering will quiet this discontented part of you. 00:03:27.360 --> 00:03:30.479 When in fact all it does is up the requirement. 00:03:30.719 --> 00:03:40.479 I can remember being 24 years old and having my, you know, uh smiling mug and the New York Times book review and it feeling really good for exactly like 10 seconds. 00:03:40.719 --> 00:03:42.560 And then you're hungry for more. 00:03:42.800 --> 00:03:52.080 So that clearly, I mean, if you're not stupid, sorry, the language there, uh, you figure out that the real problem is the discontented self. 00:03:52.879 --> 00:03:59.120 That all this stuff that you think will work for a second, but then all it does is set up a hunger for more and better. 00:03:59.280 --> 00:04:11.280 And that general pattern and syndrome seems to me to get repeated, at least in our culture, for our kind of plush middle class part of the culture over and over and over again in a million different arenas. 00:04:11.680 --> 00:04:14.240 Anybody anybody know what he's talking about yet? 00:04:14.400 --> 00:04:18.000 Okay, just wondering if anybody's going to like can associate with this guy. 00:04:18.319 --> 00:04:20.240 And that we don't seem to get it. 00:04:20.560 --> 00:04:23.120 We do not seem to get it. 00:04:23.439 --> 00:04:32.000 It may be that those ambitions are what get you to do the work, to get the exposure, to realize that the original ambitions were misguided, right? 00:04:32.800 --> 00:04:35.600 So that it's a weird paradoxical link. 00:04:35.759 --> 00:04:41.199 If you didn't have the ambitions, you'd never find out that they were sort of deluded. 00:04:42.160 --> 00:04:43.920 So here's what he's saying. 00:04:44.399 --> 00:04:47.519 He's saying the problem is the discontent itself. 00:04:47.759 --> 00:04:49.920 He's saying, he's saying you're the problem. 00:04:50.399 --> 00:04:51.600 And I'm the problem. 00:04:51.839 --> 00:04:53.519 That we, in fact, are the problem. 00:04:53.680 --> 00:05:04.480 That like materialism in our culture is not really the problem, or the the evil on television is really the problem, or the or politics is really the problem. 00:05:04.720 --> 00:05:06.639 Really, the problem is us. 00:05:06.879 --> 00:05:07.920 We are the problem. 00:05:08.319 --> 00:05:09.839 Our reactions to all of this. 00:05:10.160 --> 00:05:12.959 That we are the problem, the discontented self. 00:05:13.120 --> 00:05:15.920 And now we could chase that a little bit and say, well, where does that come from? 00:05:16.000 --> 00:05:18.959 And in the scriptures, they use the word sin for that. 00:05:19.040 --> 00:05:22.319 That that's a sin, that's a sinful condition, that we just don't get it right. 00:05:22.480 --> 00:05:28.319 We're just we're not happy, we're not bent towards the source that can actually make us content, which is God Himself. 00:05:28.480 --> 00:05:33.439 We're bent toward all the other stuff, which actually is the stuff that's not helping. 00:05:33.680 --> 00:05:36.560 We're trying to squeeze some love out of that. 00:05:36.800 --> 00:05:47.199 So when Christy and I were dating a long time ago, so this had to have been uh 13, 14 years ago, uh, she was living in Athens and I was working in Tucker. 00:05:47.600 --> 00:06:00.160 And so what I would do on Wednesdays, was we see each other on the weekend, but on Wednesdays I would drive two hours through rush hour traffic from Tucker all the way up 85 and out 316 all the way to Athens. 00:06:00.240 --> 00:06:06.079 And so I'd drive two hours to spend about two hours with her to drive home an hour. 00:06:06.319 --> 00:06:11.680 Now, the math on that's not real great, and especially the frustration factor of two hours in Russia. 00:06:12.160 --> 00:06:17.199 The math on that's not great, but that that's the sort of thing you do when you want to be with somebody. 00:06:17.360 --> 00:06:17.519 Right? 00:06:17.759 --> 00:06:20.000 That's the sort of thing you do when you're in love. 00:06:20.480 --> 00:06:33.759 I had a friend in high school who he would drive 45 minutes to get a salad for his girlfriend of a particular restaurant, and then drive 45 minutes back to give her the salad. 00:06:34.160 --> 00:06:35.120 A salad. 00:06:36.879 --> 00:06:37.519 Right? 00:06:38.560 --> 00:06:43.199 And this is the sort of thing we do when we're in love. 00:06:44.240 --> 00:06:45.759 We do these things. 00:06:46.000 --> 00:06:51.519 We do these things for romantic love, we do these things for a child. 00:06:52.399 --> 00:06:56.399 At some point, us children do these things for our parents. 00:06:56.800 --> 00:07:05.519 I mean, we'll move across the country for somebody, we'll move to another country for somebody, we'll give up a career for somebody. 00:07:06.800 --> 00:07:13.680 I mean, this is the sort of thing when you love someone, you will rearrange things in your life around that love. 00:07:13.920 --> 00:07:16.800 And a lot of you can look back and go, oh, yeah, I've done that. 00:07:17.040 --> 00:07:18.000 I did that. 00:07:19.680 --> 00:07:23.759 I mean, we've heard it in some great, great poetry. 00:07:24.319 --> 00:07:34.000 It don't need money, don't take fame, don't need no credit card to ride this train. 00:07:34.240 --> 00:07:36.240 It's strong and it's sudden. 00:07:36.879 --> 00:07:39.839 Anyone want to and it's cruel, thank you in the back. 00:07:39.920 --> 00:07:43.360 It's cruel sometimes, and it might just save your life. 00:07:44.879 --> 00:07:48.319 That's the power of love. 00:07:48.800 --> 00:07:51.360 Huey Lewis knew it. 00:07:51.600 --> 00:07:52.000 Right? 00:07:52.160 --> 00:07:53.680 He he knew it. 00:07:53.920 --> 00:07:55.680 Good artists always know it. 00:07:55.920 --> 00:07:56.160 Right? 00:07:56.319 --> 00:07:58.079 I mean, good artists, artists always know it. 00:07:58.160 --> 00:08:06.160 Now, now maybe Huey didn't realize that even human love wasn't going to actually be powerful enough because it's not. 00:08:06.319 --> 00:08:08.560 It's sort of the clue for us. 00:08:09.439 --> 00:08:26.079 The clue, the fact that romantic love will cause us to rearrange so much in our lives is a clue to us that love has incredible power, but even human love won't cut it for our universal need. 00:08:26.240 --> 00:08:27.120 And that's what I'm saying. 00:08:27.360 --> 00:08:29.839 I'm saying the universal human need is love. 00:08:30.000 --> 00:08:31.759 We're simply looking for love. 00:08:31.920 --> 00:08:38.000 We're looking for love, and within love we get forgiveness, and out of that we get relief, and we get we get healing. 00:08:38.240 --> 00:08:39.440 And that's what we're looking for. 00:08:39.919 --> 00:08:42.639 When we overwork, that's what we're looking for. 00:08:43.440 --> 00:08:46.240 When we're just consumeristic, the next thing, the next thing, the next thing. 00:08:46.320 --> 00:08:47.200 That's what we're looking for. 00:08:47.519 --> 00:08:54.879 We're just looking for something to love us, something to deem us valuable and loved. 00:08:56.080 --> 00:08:57.840 And we can see it in all sorts of things. 00:08:57.919 --> 00:09:01.279 We see it how we treat our jobs or a particular person or a car. 00:09:01.840 --> 00:09:10.240 We can see it when we so desperately want a heart, a little heart after a tweet or after an Instagram post. 00:09:10.399 --> 00:09:13.279 You keep checking back and checking back and checking back and how many you got. 00:09:13.440 --> 00:09:14.799 I mean, we're wanting love. 00:09:14.879 --> 00:09:16.480 We're wanting people to love us. 00:09:16.639 --> 00:09:20.080 And if we feel loved, then we will feel redeemed. 00:09:21.519 --> 00:09:28.879 But we need a love that's more secure than what other people can give, or a job, or car, and you know that because this is the universal need, you know it. 00:09:29.200 --> 00:09:30.000 The famous quote by C. 00:09:30.080 --> 00:09:30.159 S. 00:09:30.240 --> 00:09:41.840 Lewis in Mere Christianity: if I find in myself desires which nothing in this world can satisfy, the only logical explanation is that I was made for another world. 00:09:42.879 --> 00:09:45.440 So we know the universal human need. 00:09:45.919 --> 00:09:57.039 And just our own experience of trying all these different things, that's leaving us still with a discontented self, like David Foster Wallace said, it should give us some logical conclusion, what C.S. 00:09:57.120 --> 00:10:00.080 Lewis is saying, that I'm made for another world. 00:10:00.159 --> 00:10:03.600 I'm made for another love, a perfect love. 00:10:04.240 --> 00:10:05.600 So there's the human need. 00:10:05.919 --> 00:10:08.879 Now let's look at these three feasts in this passage. 00:10:09.039 --> 00:10:10.639 Let me reread a few of these verses. 00:10:10.799 --> 00:10:12.960 Exodus 23, 14 and 15. 00:10:13.200 --> 00:10:16.720 Three times in the year you shall keep a feast to me. 00:10:17.600 --> 00:10:20.399 You shall keep the feast of unleavened bread. 00:10:20.639 --> 00:10:28.399 As I commanded you, you shall eat unleavened bread for seven days at the appointed time in the month of Abib, for in it you came out of Egypt. 00:10:28.559 --> 00:10:31.759 So remember your slavery, remember you came from, remember your deliverance. 00:10:31.919 --> 00:10:34.320 None shall appear before me empty-handed. 00:10:34.480 --> 00:10:35.679 So we get this first principle. 00:10:35.759 --> 00:10:36.320 Remember ourselves. 00:10:36.799 --> 00:10:39.039 Universal need, two principles, universal need. 00:10:39.120 --> 00:10:40.720 Here's the first of the two principles. 00:10:41.039 --> 00:10:46.960 Stopping to remember your deliverance is good for you. 00:10:47.919 --> 00:10:49.200 Pretty simple. 00:10:49.600 --> 00:10:52.559 Stopping to remember your deliverance is good for you. 00:10:52.720 --> 00:10:56.399 And by the way, it's the deliverance you already have. 00:10:57.519 --> 00:10:59.360 It's not the one you're presently earning. 00:10:59.440 --> 00:11:01.759 It's not the one that's through halfway, halfway done. 00:11:01.919 --> 00:11:04.320 It's the deliverance you already have. 00:11:04.639 --> 00:11:08.159 For these people, they've already been delivered out of Egypt. 00:11:08.320 --> 00:11:24.879 So, hey, take a feast, unleavened bread, cook the bread, don't even wait for it to rise because I want you to remember how quickly I brought you out of that slavery and making those bricks day after day after day. 00:11:27.120 --> 00:11:28.480 And that was their life. 00:11:28.720 --> 00:11:30.639 I mean, they had a life of making bricks. 00:11:30.799 --> 00:11:31.440 That's what we've said. 00:11:31.600 --> 00:11:33.360 It seems like about every four or five weeks. 00:11:33.600 --> 00:11:38.399 We come back to the idea, the remembrance of what the slavery was, and for them it was making bricks. 00:11:38.559 --> 00:11:43.840 Every day they made bricks where it seemed like nothing would ever change. 00:11:43.919 --> 00:11:52.399 And for us, it's just so quickly these questions about have you ever felt like you would never get out of living out of shame? 00:11:52.879 --> 00:12:08.080 Being motivated by shame, being motivated by fear, being motivated out of guilt, or by merit, or out of some expectation secular or religious. 00:12:08.799 --> 00:12:15.039 And then maybe in a moment or in a day or through a scripture, through a sermon, or you're walking in the woods, and the Holy Spirit speaks to you. 00:12:15.679 --> 00:12:25.600 Maybe in a crisis, when you're at the end of yourself, you're flooded with the truth that the deliverance was already given to you. 00:12:26.320 --> 00:12:30.240 And you just need to remember that it's already been done and you can rest. 00:12:32.240 --> 00:12:33.759 And now you have freedom. 00:12:35.919 --> 00:12:46.720 And the bricks that you used to make are no longer the life that you have to live today, because remembering the deliverance that's already been given to you is what brings you the freedom. 00:12:47.279 --> 00:12:52.799 And so this feast of oven love and bread, they bring the first sheaf of grain to God through the special ceremony. 00:12:52.879 --> 00:12:56.639 They'd cook this bread, but they wouldn't let it rise, and they're not letting it rise. 00:12:56.799 --> 00:13:08.320 And what we see, like all feasts, the feast points to Jesus, because Jesus described himself as the bread of life, and then his burial coincided with the offering of this first grain. 00:13:08.879 --> 00:13:11.360 So we see that Jesus is our deliverance. 00:13:11.759 --> 00:13:19.440 And for us, we should have a practice of stopping to remember that we've already been delivered. 00:13:19.679 --> 00:13:20.879 So that's principle number one. 00:13:21.039 --> 00:13:27.759 Number two is that uh stopping to be thankful is good for you. 00:13:29.039 --> 00:13:30.320 And this is just good, right? 00:13:30.399 --> 00:13:31.919 Because we're forgetful people. 00:13:32.240 --> 00:13:34.720 I mean, I forget to thank people all the time. 00:13:35.679 --> 00:13:38.320 I mean, I forget to thank you if you do something nicer. 00:13:38.399 --> 00:13:40.159 I forget to thank Christie for things. 00:13:40.240 --> 00:13:41.360 I forget to thank my children. 00:13:41.600 --> 00:13:49.440 I get accustomed to my life or my clothes or my house or my car or uh or you know, little things like having a toothbrush. 00:13:49.519 --> 00:13:51.679 I mean, when's the last time you've been thankful for a toothbrush? 00:13:51.840 --> 00:13:55.840 Well, until you go to a country where people don't have toothbrush and all of a sudden you're thankful for that. 00:13:55.919 --> 00:13:58.960 But on a normal life, we're we're surrounded, we're just forgetful. 00:13:59.039 --> 00:14:00.799 All the time we're forgetful. 00:14:01.120 --> 00:14:10.799 And so stopping to be thankful for people or things or your life or your health or just the fact that you're breathing today, to be thankful for that is good for you. 00:14:11.039 --> 00:14:19.279 Exodus 23, the first part of 16, you shall keep the feast of harvest, of the first fruits of your labor, of what you sow in the field. 00:14:19.440 --> 00:14:22.320 And so he's saying, this is about celebrating God's gift of the harvest. 00:14:22.399 --> 00:14:28.320 Stop and be thankful for God's food and provision, because this is when the harvest is coming in. 00:14:28.399 --> 00:14:31.200 So take the first fruits of the harvest, stop. 00:14:32.000 --> 00:14:32.720 Stop. 00:14:33.200 --> 00:14:35.039 And be thankful for it. 00:14:36.480 --> 00:14:42.080 And this is all about being thankful, not just keep moving along. 00:14:43.600 --> 00:14:50.240 So last November in the New York Times, there's this article entitled, Choose to Be Grateful, it will make you happier. 00:14:51.759 --> 00:14:59.279 And I'm sure you uh I'm sure you gave away your copy of the Cerebral Cortex Journal, which cites research. 00:14:59.360 --> 00:15:02.399 Um, I know you've been Sunday afternoons, you really get into that. 00:15:02.559 --> 00:15:10.559 Uh it cites research that shows that expressing gratitude actually makes most of us happier. 00:15:10.799 --> 00:15:11.759 And here's how it works. 00:15:12.159 --> 00:15:17.600 You got a little handout there, you can read the sentence because it has some really big words, and maybe like three of you know what I'm talking about here. 00:15:17.759 --> 00:15:19.519 I don't know what I'm talking about, I'm just gonna read it. 00:15:19.759 --> 00:15:24.559 Gratitude stimulates the hypothalamus, which is the key part of the brain that regulates stress. 00:15:24.960 --> 00:15:32.960 So when we're grateful, we practice gratitude, it stimulates the hypothalamus and the ventral tegminal area. 00:15:33.120 --> 00:15:36.639 And I'm sure probably not the VTA is actually what a lot of people call it. 00:15:36.720 --> 00:15:38.000 You've probably heard it referred to that. 00:15:38.159 --> 00:15:39.840 You know, when you talk about it, it's probably what you do. 00:15:40.159 --> 00:15:47.039 So uh, and that's part of our reward circuitry that produces this sensation of pleasure. 00:15:48.000 --> 00:15:49.840 Okay, so there's the science of it, right? 00:15:49.919 --> 00:15:53.039 Like God created the science of it, by the way. 00:15:53.120 --> 00:15:55.039 That's why it works, that's why it's true. 00:15:55.200 --> 00:16:02.080 Uh and the science in the science says that we feel better when we stop and we're thankful. 00:16:02.320 --> 00:16:07.679 And here is God saying, busy, forgetful people, stop and be thankful. 00:16:09.200 --> 00:16:11.440 Six and one, six and one. 00:16:12.000 --> 00:16:15.600 Get a rhythm, stop, remember, be thankful. 00:16:15.919 --> 00:16:16.159 Right? 00:16:16.320 --> 00:16:20.080 I mean, it's just the principle of life, it's the principle of how we work as human beings. 00:16:20.240 --> 00:16:23.600 You know, stopping to be thankful is good for you. 00:16:23.759 --> 00:16:34.399 Now, if we come back to this feast of the harvest about this stopping to be thankful, this was about God being the giver of every good thing. 00:16:36.879 --> 00:16:42.559 And then we learn that this feast coincides with Jesus' resurrection. 00:16:44.000 --> 00:16:46.720 So Jesus became the first fruit. 00:16:47.840 --> 00:16:55.200 And God provided every good thing that we need through Christ for us. 00:16:56.480 --> 00:16:58.240 So there's our two principles. 00:16:58.399 --> 00:17:05.680 Now we circle back around to this universal human need that we all have in the second part of verse 16. 00:17:05.839 --> 00:17:13.599 You shall keep the feast of engathering at the end of the year when you gather in from the field of the fruit of your labor. 00:17:13.759 --> 00:17:21.039 So the feast of ingathering is also known as the Feast of Tabernacles, because they would all construct tents and they would live in a tent for a week. 00:17:21.200 --> 00:17:23.759 Some of you, that's right up your alley, and you're going camping. 00:17:23.839 --> 00:17:25.119 I knew that was close to spirituality. 00:17:25.279 --> 00:17:26.799 The others of you can't imagine. 00:17:27.039 --> 00:17:33.759 But they would live in tents and they would have a water ceremony and they would pray for next year's rain. 00:17:34.480 --> 00:17:37.759 They would get together, they would pray for God, please would it rain? 00:17:37.839 --> 00:17:38.640 Please would it rain? 00:17:38.799 --> 00:17:41.680 This is hard for us to understand, unless you're a farmer. 00:17:42.000 --> 00:17:44.880 Unless you're a farmer and you're praying this prayer. 00:17:46.319 --> 00:17:52.640 This is like you coming before God with the core of your existence. 00:17:53.359 --> 00:18:16.480 Like with the ache of the inner self, where anxiety and fear and shame and bitterness, and that part of you that wants to consume more to solve the discontented self or control more to solve the discontented self, that core of the inner self to bring that before God and say, I am dry. 00:18:17.359 --> 00:18:23.119 And I need you to reign down in this place. 00:18:25.279 --> 00:18:27.839 And God's saying, do that, take a feast. 00:18:28.400 --> 00:18:29.200 Stop. 00:18:30.240 --> 00:18:30.960 Stop. 00:18:31.440 --> 00:18:35.119 And take a feast and pray that. 00:18:36.160 --> 00:18:43.759 And what's just remarkable and awesome is in John 7, Jesus shows up to this feast. 00:18:44.640 --> 00:18:50.000 In verses 37 and 38, and he shows up to this feast where they're praying for rain. 00:18:50.079 --> 00:18:57.920 And he says to them in John 7, 37, 38, if anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. 00:18:58.400 --> 00:19:06.079 Whoever believes in me, as the scriptures have said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water. 00:19:07.359 --> 00:19:10.400 Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water. 00:19:10.559 --> 00:19:14.480 So this word heart means uh it would be like belly. 00:19:15.359 --> 00:19:27.839 Like like the center of your being, that place where that adequacy or inadequacy resides, where your belovedness or your total insecurity resides. 00:19:28.000 --> 00:19:32.480 The core, the the belly, your belly, out of there. 00:19:34.240 --> 00:19:40.400 It could be nourished to the point that flow rivers of living water, but the passage isn't over there. 00:19:40.480 --> 00:19:41.839 Thank God the passage is not over there. 00:19:41.920 --> 00:19:53.200 Because when I was reading this, I sort of just read those first couple verses, and I'm going, man, there's a lot of days I don't feel, I don't feel like there are rivers of living water flowing from my belly. 00:19:53.359 --> 00:19:56.000 Like, I mean, I just don't feel that. 00:19:56.799 --> 00:20:01.839 That would be sort of depressing, and I'd feel like I've got to conjure that up every single day. 00:20:02.880 --> 00:20:07.440 But then verse 39 says this, now this he said about the spirit. 00:20:08.480 --> 00:20:18.559 So he didn't say that you are going, that your personality or even your fruit, the fruit of your life, is gonna be the rivers of living water. 00:20:18.720 --> 00:20:22.240 It's about the spirit whom those who believed in him were to receive. 00:20:22.400 --> 00:20:27.279 So Jesus is telling you, if you believe and you trust in him, the Holy Spirit resides in you. 00:20:27.519 --> 00:20:32.319 God himself, inside of you, he set up a home inside of you. 00:20:33.039 --> 00:20:40.880 And he's working alongside you inside all your issues and around your issues and helping you see your issues to comfort you. 00:20:41.680 --> 00:20:44.319 This strong word of fortitude. 00:20:44.480 --> 00:20:45.359 He wants to comfort you. 00:20:45.440 --> 00:20:53.759 He's on a mission to help you believe and remember and rest and be thankful in the fact that the slavery days are over. 00:20:58.480 --> 00:21:01.599 That we are redeemed by God's work on our behalf, not by our word. 00:21:01.920 --> 00:21:09.359 So we see that this inner thirst, this human need that we talked about, can be quenched by the power of this love. 00:21:09.920 --> 00:21:12.000 Because this love is perfect. 00:21:12.559 --> 00:21:22.079 It is so perfect, it takes on all of our sin, even all the reality that we just keep we keep acting out of our discontentment. 00:21:22.720 --> 00:21:28.079 He takes on all of that, and he deems us righteous. 00:21:29.680 --> 00:21:36.880 And it is a divine love by the creator of your soul, who can redeem you back to himself, who has the power to do that. 00:21:37.039 --> 00:21:42.319 It's perfect in its application to you, and it is secure because it's not based on you. 00:21:42.640 --> 00:21:46.160 It's based on his work toward you and his grace towards you. 00:21:47.839 --> 00:21:54.319 So Jesus shows up to this feast, and he's basically declaring himself to be the Messiah. 00:21:54.640 --> 00:21:59.680 So you have the Father, and then you have the Son, and then He says, Oh, yeah, and then when you trust in me, you're gonna have the Spirit. 00:22:00.160 --> 00:22:04.160 In you, so we have the spirit, so here we see the Trinity at play. 00:22:04.960 --> 00:22:19.279 And if you trust in Him, the work of redemption is at work in you, and the Spirit resides in the core of your being and your belly, and that spirit is working, even when you think it's all over, it's He's working. 00:22:19.519 --> 00:22:23.920 And what I'm learning is we're all searching for the great metaphor for the Trinity. 00:22:24.000 --> 00:22:25.680 Like, how do we understand this? 00:22:26.400 --> 00:22:30.319 What I'm learning is maybe the best metaphor is that of a dance. 00:22:31.200 --> 00:22:33.920 That there is a dance going on. 00:22:34.640 --> 00:22:40.720 That it's not a picture of the Spirit of God inside of you waiting to zap you. 00:22:41.200 --> 00:22:47.839 He's making that list, and he's just, he is getting you, and you oh, you're horrible in that one, and that one, that one, and that one, and that one, that one, that one. 00:22:48.000 --> 00:22:54.640 He's in there comforting you, trying to relieve you so you don't have to go to those things anymore, those idols anymore. 00:22:55.359 --> 00:22:58.880 He's comforting, he's loving, he's healing. 00:23:01.279 --> 00:23:05.839 And there's this dance, and there's this singing going on over you. 00:23:06.240 --> 00:23:11.519 I just have you heard the Spirit of God in your belly and the core of your being? 00:23:11.680 --> 00:23:17.279 And if you've heard it as condemnation, you have not heard the Spirit of God. 00:23:17.680 --> 00:23:29.599 Maybe you heard some conviction, which is part of the process of love toward you to get you out of depending on things that you don't need to, but not condemnation, not shame. 00:23:31.519 --> 00:23:32.720 That is not the voice of God. 00:23:33.039 --> 00:23:40.160 That's the voice of like moralistic, perfectionistic, performance-oriented uh religion, moralism. 00:23:40.559 --> 00:23:41.359 That's what that is. 00:23:41.599 --> 00:23:48.880 The Spirit of God is a dancing and a singing over you that is saying, Yes, you're imperfect. 00:23:49.039 --> 00:23:49.680 I know about that. 00:23:49.759 --> 00:23:51.039 That's why I died on the cross. 00:23:51.119 --> 00:23:54.400 I took all your imperfection and your sin on me, and I deemed you righteous. 00:23:54.559 --> 00:23:56.240 Do you remember your righteous today? 00:23:56.480 --> 00:23:57.839 Do you remember your value today? 00:23:58.000 --> 00:23:59.200 Do you remember your love today? 00:23:59.440 --> 00:24:01.279 Because that would be game-changing for you. 00:24:01.440 --> 00:24:10.319 And I'm gonna dance in here, I'm gonna sing in here, I want to keep singing this to you because I need this to become the soundtrack of your heart and your life and your mind. 00:24:11.279 --> 00:24:13.839 That you are already righteous. 00:24:16.000 --> 00:24:32.079 I'm seeing that personally, I'm seeing all of my anxieties, all of them, and all of my insecurities and my ridiculous thinking always comes from my lack of trust in that declarative word. 00:24:32.880 --> 00:24:42.000 That I am already righteous, already loved, already deemed valuable by my Creator. 00:24:42.799 --> 00:24:49.680 And what helps me is not to work harder, what helps me is to stop and take a feast. 00:24:50.559 --> 00:24:53.839 To feast on the fact that I'm not making bricks anymore. 00:24:53.920 --> 00:24:55.680 I don't have to do that. 00:24:57.359 --> 00:25:03.440 And this is where we have to keep preaching the gospel to ourselves, because our hearts will keep, you know what they'll keep returning to. 00:25:03.519 --> 00:25:05.839 Well, you know, because you do it every day, just like I do. 00:25:06.160 --> 00:25:12.480 They'll wake up, your heart will wake up to want to return to merit or return to living out of shame. 00:25:14.079 --> 00:25:16.319 But the gospel is a different story. 00:25:16.640 --> 00:25:21.599 Because we've been relieved from having to live by merit, and we've been relieved from having to live out of the shame. 00:25:21.920 --> 00:25:30.079 Because we are already loved, the work is finished, the redemption is secure, and we need to hear it again and again and again. 00:25:30.240 --> 00:25:33.680 So when you wake up tomorrow, you need to tell yourself you're already loved. 00:25:35.759 --> 00:25:45.119 So, my brothers and sisters, feast, feast on the reality that you are already loved by God. 00:25:45.440 --> 00:25:57.519 You are already righteous, you are justified, you are already complete before any person or job or car or house or religious striving. 00:25:59.680 --> 00:26:06.160 And this was done by the work of Christ crucified, buried, and risen. 00:26:06.319 --> 00:26:07.759 Let's pray together. 00:26:13.759 --> 00:26:33.039 God, would you help us in our lack of faith and our lack of implementing trust on the great work, the complete work of Christ crucified and risen, would you would you help us? 00:26:33.359 --> 00:26:41.599 Would you show us where we lack trust and where we turn to loves that never love us in return? 00:26:42.480 --> 00:26:48.799 Or don't have the power to love us in return in the way that we need to be loved. 00:26:52.000 --> 00:27:05.839 And would we turn our eyes upon Jesus and see how sufficient his work for us is and that we have been adopted fully as your children? 00:27:06.160 --> 00:27:11.599 And when you see us, that you deem us a child, beloved. 00:27:13.200 --> 00:27:14.960 In Jesus' name we pray. 00:27:15.200 --> 00:27:15.599 Amen.