WEBVTT 00:00:00.239 --> 00:00:05.120 You're going, and why did Russ have Sam read all of that? 00:00:06.400 --> 00:00:08.480 Well, for a distinct reason, actually. 00:00:08.720 --> 00:00:09.279 I cut it down. 00:00:09.359 --> 00:00:11.119 I mean, it was chapters 21 and 22. 00:00:11.439 --> 00:00:12.720 I cut it down for you. 00:00:12.800 --> 00:00:15.519 Um, but for I I did that for a reason. 00:00:15.599 --> 00:00:23.679 Uh because by the end of all that, uh, I think what you get out of that is you go, wow, pretty detailed, right? 00:00:23.839 --> 00:00:27.600 Like by the end of the year, I mean, we have some really detailed scenarios here. 00:00:27.679 --> 00:00:40.399 And actually, my reaction to this text Monday morning, um, sit down, open it up, and I look at it, I'm like, oh man, I don't know if I've ever read these chapters. 00:00:40.640 --> 00:00:44.399 Or if I was reading them, this was the quick just kind of flip, right? 00:00:44.640 --> 00:00:49.439 Just get over to something that is gonna really be applicable to my life. 00:00:49.679 --> 00:00:52.799 Um, definitely haven't preached from these chapters. 00:00:52.880 --> 00:00:56.960 Um, probably haven't been very many devotions from these chapters. 00:00:57.039 --> 00:01:03.119 Uh, but here's the thing about it, as I got into it, it got better and better uh throughout the week. 00:01:03.200 --> 00:01:11.280 Um, and I think part of it for me was looking at it as a whole, like all those details you just heard. 00:01:11.439 --> 00:01:17.519 The fact that God was so detailed tells us something, and that's what we're gonna be talking about. 00:01:17.760 --> 00:01:23.680 That is actually some really good reminders out of these passages and then some phenomenal news out of it. 00:01:23.840 --> 00:01:30.959 So I the first thing sort of that hits me when I read this text was wow, there's almost it almost feels severe at times. 00:01:31.120 --> 00:01:32.159 I mean, quite severe. 00:01:32.319 --> 00:01:36.480 I mean, like whoever curses his father or mother shall be put to death. 00:01:36.560 --> 00:01:37.280 And what? 00:01:37.439 --> 00:01:43.599 I mean, I'd like to read it to my kid every once in a while, but uh it seems sort of severe. 00:01:43.840 --> 00:01:54.719 And uh, the first thing we have to know and realize in this Old Testament so many times when we're looking at law in the Old Testament is that this is perfect law. 00:01:54.959 --> 00:01:57.359 This is perfect justice. 00:01:57.599 --> 00:02:02.239 This is what justice looks like uh without grace and mercy. 00:02:02.480 --> 00:02:06.719 Now, fortunately, we do not we do not govern our lives like that. 00:02:06.879 --> 00:02:09.520 We do not govern each other like that. 00:02:09.680 --> 00:02:15.199 Uh we govern each other in the aim of justice, but through grace and mercy. 00:02:15.360 --> 00:02:17.439 But what we see here is we see the law of God. 00:02:17.599 --> 00:02:29.360 We see the perfect standard to honor your father and mother, and that is the perfect standard, is what we should do, it's what we should be, and that when we break that, there's a payment for that. 00:02:29.439 --> 00:02:31.280 There's always a payment. 00:02:31.360 --> 00:02:44.479 And what we see is that this law, just like we've been talking about the past 12 sermons through the Ten Commandments and the right before it, that this law, what we've been saying over and over and over again, it guides us, right? 00:02:44.879 --> 00:02:46.560 Honor your father and mother. 00:02:46.719 --> 00:02:48.000 Don't curse them. 00:02:48.319 --> 00:02:49.120 Honor them. 00:02:49.360 --> 00:02:53.280 It guides us, but then it crushes us because inevitably we don't live up to it. 00:02:53.439 --> 00:02:56.800 And then inevitably we need grace. 00:02:56.960 --> 00:03:10.879 We need the grace and mercy of God to us because the idea of living up to perfect holiness or the ability to repay something back to God because of how we lived, that is not something that we have in our ability. 00:03:11.199 --> 00:03:13.759 We actually need God's help in it. 00:03:13.840 --> 00:03:15.520 And that's what Jesus is all about. 00:03:15.680 --> 00:03:18.319 It's not your work for yourself, it's his work for you. 00:03:18.479 --> 00:03:21.759 If that's new to you, even that phrasing, um, stick around. 00:03:21.840 --> 00:03:23.520 We talk about it every single week. 00:03:23.680 --> 00:03:24.319 So now what is it? 00:03:24.400 --> 00:03:26.080 What does any of this have to do with you, right? 00:03:26.159 --> 00:03:34.400 Like, what does it have to do with details about slaves and scenarios and an ox goring somebody's kid and somebody falls into a pit? 00:03:34.479 --> 00:03:35.439 I mean, who owns a pit? 00:03:35.599 --> 00:03:37.680 Not like a tar I was curious about this. 00:03:37.840 --> 00:03:41.360 Not a target, like fire pit, like little metal thing. 00:03:41.439 --> 00:03:46.159 Like, anybody just really you own a pit, like somebody could fall into it. 00:03:46.479 --> 00:03:49.840 Anybody have a pit on their property? 00:03:50.479 --> 00:03:51.039 No pit. 00:03:51.280 --> 00:03:52.479 Anybody own an ox? 00:03:52.719 --> 00:03:54.159 Anybody farming? 00:03:54.719 --> 00:03:55.039 No. 00:03:55.680 --> 00:04:00.159 So we come into this text, you're going, this is so far out of my life. 00:04:00.400 --> 00:04:02.159 It's just so far out of my life. 00:04:02.319 --> 00:04:05.520 But what we see is that God is getting up into their lives. 00:04:05.919 --> 00:04:07.199 This is their lives. 00:04:07.360 --> 00:04:13.439 I mean, this has everything to do with their life and their culture and their economics and their families and their properties. 00:04:13.680 --> 00:04:16.879 This is totally how their lives work. 00:04:17.680 --> 00:04:19.519 And this tells us something. 00:04:19.759 --> 00:04:29.360 I mean, he's getting up in their business, and this tells us something that's so wonderful for us because what it means is that he cares completely about the practicals of our lives. 00:04:29.600 --> 00:04:35.759 And that is so reassuring to me as you can wonder about does he does he care about my problem? 00:04:36.720 --> 00:04:39.600 That does he does he care about the practicals of my life? 00:04:39.759 --> 00:04:41.120 Does he want to speak into that? 00:04:41.199 --> 00:04:44.480 Or is he is he only speaking into like like the election? 00:04:44.639 --> 00:04:48.560 Or will he speak into like this, will he speak into my health? 00:04:48.720 --> 00:04:50.000 Does he want to know about my health? 00:04:50.160 --> 00:04:52.160 Does he want to know about my anxiety? 00:04:52.399 --> 00:04:53.600 Does he want to know about my fears? 00:04:53.680 --> 00:04:55.120 Does we know about my family dynamic? 00:04:55.279 --> 00:04:57.519 Does he want to know about my dating or my singleness? 00:04:57.600 --> 00:04:58.959 Does he want he wanna know about my fear? 00:04:59.120 --> 00:05:00.560 Does he want to know about all of this? 00:05:00.720 --> 00:05:03.279 Or is it only for like big things? 00:05:03.439 --> 00:05:11.439 And what we see here, he's getting down into very detailed, small scenarios of people's lives. 00:05:11.600 --> 00:05:12.800 And so that's what point number one. 00:05:12.879 --> 00:05:14.240 I got three points, three-point sermon. 00:05:14.480 --> 00:05:18.800 Point number one is that God infuses all of life. 00:05:19.120 --> 00:05:20.720 That's what we see in these chapters. 00:05:20.800 --> 00:05:22.079 He is infusing all of that. 00:05:22.319 --> 00:05:24.720 Like this is their life in the context of the time. 00:05:24.879 --> 00:05:29.279 This is how their lives were structured, and he comes right into it. 00:05:30.079 --> 00:05:35.040 So this is my uh, it's kind of wardrobe month at uh Redeemer. 00:05:35.360 --> 00:05:36.639 It's my rain jacket. 00:05:36.720 --> 00:05:38.079 Um, love my rain jacket. 00:05:38.160 --> 00:05:43.040 One of the reasons I love my rain jacket is compartments. 00:05:43.680 --> 00:05:45.120 Love, you love compartments. 00:05:45.279 --> 00:05:46.480 Anyone love compartments? 00:05:46.639 --> 00:05:50.240 All right, your tackle box or your caboodle. 00:05:50.480 --> 00:05:52.480 Anybody own a caboodle or the caboodle? 00:05:53.040 --> 00:06:01.519 Right, your two your toolbox, um, why well like jack, like it has the two pockets, and then you have the inside pocket, and then you had the outside pocket. 00:06:01.600 --> 00:06:04.319 And what I what I love about it is that you got you have your phone and your keys. 00:06:04.399 --> 00:06:13.839 I don't like my phone and my keys in the same pocket, and you got your wallet, and then I like to carry a lot of times a little pen and paper just in case I have that like pastoral preacher inspirational moment. 00:06:14.000 --> 00:06:17.199 I like to write that down and so and I like to keep all of it separate. 00:06:17.279 --> 00:06:18.879 Like I like the compartments. 00:06:19.040 --> 00:06:25.199 If you're a control freak, you know what I'm talking about because you compartmentalize, you know, everything, everything in your life, in your house. 00:06:25.279 --> 00:06:31.279 You love compartments, and compartmentalization is uh is really efficient, right? 00:06:31.680 --> 00:06:36.560 Like it's efficient for a jacket or for your tackle box or for whatever. 00:06:36.639 --> 00:06:42.560 It's very it's efficient for our homes, like you know, the dishes are in the kitchen, the dishes aren't in the bedroom. 00:06:42.720 --> 00:06:44.560 That's more efficient for them to be in the kitchen. 00:06:44.639 --> 00:06:47.759 Your clothes are in your bedroom because that's more efficient. 00:06:47.920 --> 00:06:50.319 So compartmentalization is very efficient. 00:06:50.399 --> 00:06:55.680 I mean, it's efficient in some areas of our life, like you know, you're coming home from work, just leave work at work. 00:06:55.759 --> 00:06:56.160 You know what? 00:06:56.240 --> 00:06:59.600 Sometimes you just need to leave it there, and you come home and just be at home. 00:06:59.680 --> 00:07:03.680 So that's some compartmentalization that can be really, really efficient. 00:07:03.839 --> 00:07:08.480 But when it comes to spirituality, that's not how it works. 00:07:08.800 --> 00:07:11.920 Because God, God, God moves about. 00:07:12.079 --> 00:07:26.800 He goes into all sorts of compartments, and so it looks much more like our lives, which have all these different compartments that we form, but then the scriptures say in the New Testament that in him we live and move and have our being. 00:07:27.120 --> 00:07:31.120 And so actually, all of our entire existence is within him. 00:07:31.600 --> 00:07:41.360 And then what we see in this text is that God is coming into all these compartments of their life, into all these economics, his family structure. 00:07:41.519 --> 00:07:46.000 He's coming into all this, and he's saying, I speak into that is what he's saying. 00:07:46.319 --> 00:07:53.120 Because he's holistic in relationship to us, and he's he infuses all of life, he's all permeating. 00:07:53.759 --> 00:07:56.720 So some of this some of this text sounds weird to us. 00:07:56.879 --> 00:07:58.319 Yeah, it sounds weird to us, isn't it? 00:07:58.399 --> 00:07:59.040 Our context. 00:07:59.199 --> 00:08:04.399 I mean, slaves and how someone was killed or how they were hurt, and the result of that hurt, and who repays who. 00:08:04.560 --> 00:08:08.959 I mean, a pit is open, an ox gores somebody, and God's saying, I speak into that. 00:08:09.040 --> 00:08:12.720 Like I speak into that level of detail for your life. 00:08:12.800 --> 00:08:20.800 Like you lend your donkey, that's in this chapter, lend your donkey to your neighbor, and while it's lent, something happens to your donkey, and you're gonna like that. 00:08:26.879 --> 00:08:27.920 But God speaks into that. 00:08:28.000 --> 00:08:28.560 What's right? 00:08:28.720 --> 00:08:30.639 What's right for that scenario? 00:08:30.800 --> 00:08:41.759 And God's saying, I want to speak into these types of details about how relationships work and what it means to be honest with each other, what it means to treat each other right. 00:08:41.919 --> 00:08:47.279 God's saying over and over and over again, with these details that when we read the scripture, you think, well, this is insane. 00:08:47.360 --> 00:08:48.080 What is this? 00:08:48.240 --> 00:08:51.360 He's saying, I speak into all things. 00:08:52.159 --> 00:09:02.159 And that this is true spirituality, not just like mountaintop, emotional experience, but but and not just to receive those Ten Commandments and like that's it. 00:09:02.240 --> 00:09:06.960 No, like he goes straight out of the Ten Commandments and he gets all up in their lives. 00:09:08.320 --> 00:09:11.120 And what I love is that he starts with how we treat each other. 00:09:11.279 --> 00:09:12.879 I mean, that's what all this is. 00:09:13.759 --> 00:09:23.440 He starts with the dignity of people, and that's point number two is God desires to protect the dignity of all people. 00:09:23.679 --> 00:09:27.600 So the first major part of chapter 21 is about slavery. 00:09:27.919 --> 00:09:29.759 Exodus 21, 1 through 3. 00:09:29.919 --> 00:09:39.360 Now, these are the rules that you shall set before them when you buy a Hebrew slave, he shall serve six years, and then the seventh year he shall go out free for nothing, for nothing. 00:09:39.679 --> 00:09:41.759 So not lifelong slavery here. 00:09:42.000 --> 00:09:44.159 If he comes in single, he shall go out single. 00:09:44.320 --> 00:09:47.519 If he comes in married, then his wife shall go out with him. 00:09:47.759 --> 00:09:55.200 So anytime I come across slavery in the Bible, I mean right away, like this wall comes up, and I'm like, oh, this horror, you know, you know, right away, right? 00:09:55.360 --> 00:09:58.639 And and by no means is this like the ideal structure for life. 00:09:58.799 --> 00:10:03.440 At no point, I think, can we come into even slavery in the Old Testament and say, here's the ideal. 00:10:03.600 --> 00:10:04.799 This is not the ideal. 00:10:05.039 --> 00:10:10.799 But this is also not the horror of the transatlantic slave trade that we knew in our country. 00:10:10.960 --> 00:10:12.399 This is not what this is. 00:10:12.639 --> 00:10:18.720 The Hebrew word for slave is much more of a word like servant than we think of as slave. 00:10:19.120 --> 00:10:24.000 And their understanding was that a slave came into their into their family. 00:10:24.879 --> 00:10:28.559 Now, some slave masters were much better and more loving than others. 00:10:28.879 --> 00:10:30.559 I mean, naturally that would have happened. 00:10:30.720 --> 00:10:35.440 But this is not forced lifelong slavery as we tend to think about it. 00:10:35.600 --> 00:10:38.320 This is servanthood that had an out. 00:10:38.879 --> 00:10:40.080 It had an out. 00:10:40.240 --> 00:10:41.279 It was a life. 00:10:41.519 --> 00:10:43.120 This was a life for people. 00:10:43.440 --> 00:10:47.360 And God is speaking into this system that was going on. 00:10:47.600 --> 00:10:58.320 He's speaking into the system for the well-being of the human being, that that child of God that could so easily be forgotten and easily be taken advantage of. 00:10:58.480 --> 00:10:59.360 He speaks into that. 00:10:59.440 --> 00:11:00.879 And that's what's clear in this text. 00:11:01.039 --> 00:11:03.279 He comes in on the side of the slave. 00:11:03.519 --> 00:11:05.200 He comes in on the side of the needy. 00:11:05.360 --> 00:11:07.039 That's 21, 1 through 11. 00:11:07.200 --> 00:11:10.720 He's giving all these protective rules for the slave. 00:11:11.440 --> 00:11:18.879 And then next, he comes in on the side of the victim, on the person, uh, the victim and their family, 21, 12 through 13. 00:11:19.039 --> 00:11:23.840 The verses go into detail about people being harmed and what the ruling should be. 00:11:24.000 --> 00:11:34.000 So he comes in on the side of the slave, then he comes in on the side of the victim, and then so what we see over and over again, and then he goes into being in on the side of those who have been economically harmed. 00:11:34.320 --> 00:11:38.080 God keeps coming in on the side of those that are needy. 00:11:38.559 --> 00:11:41.039 He is for the rights of that person. 00:11:41.759 --> 00:11:44.799 He wants to protect them and their dignity. 00:11:45.039 --> 00:11:48.799 And what he's saying, I have everything to do with everything. 00:11:49.279 --> 00:11:50.879 And to how we treat people. 00:11:51.039 --> 00:12:02.639 So how you should be honest and how you should pay people back, but the but the dignity of how you treat people in general, how you should treat employees that work for you, or the clerk at the gym, or the person who checks you out at Kroger. 00:12:02.960 --> 00:12:04.960 I mean, this comes into all of this. 00:12:06.720 --> 00:12:09.039 He gets into people's business. 00:12:10.080 --> 00:12:14.720 So we try to compartmentalize, but our lives are inside of God. 00:12:14.799 --> 00:12:17.840 And God comes into all of these compartments. 00:12:18.000 --> 00:12:19.840 He's speaking into them. 00:12:20.000 --> 00:12:23.440 That's what the Holy Spirit in you is doing. 00:12:24.480 --> 00:12:25.840 And we might find that scary. 00:12:25.919 --> 00:12:27.279 I mean, some of us might find that scary. 00:12:27.360 --> 00:12:34.240 I mean, based on your background, what church you've been in, that might be incredibly scary because you might think the only thing he would want to speak to you is condemnation. 00:12:34.399 --> 00:12:38.879 Like he's just waiting to get you, like to find you out, and really he's gonna get you. 00:12:39.840 --> 00:12:43.600 And there might be some conviction for your well-being. 00:12:43.679 --> 00:12:51.360 There might be some conviction, but but he is waiting to help you heal, he's waiting to help speak into that area that is dark. 00:12:56.320 --> 00:13:02.559 So we see that God is saying something to us and the fact that he is saying so much to them. 00:13:03.519 --> 00:13:07.919 But also we see that he is saying something by how he's saying it. 00:13:08.320 --> 00:13:14.960 Meaning this, that the narrative, even the structure of the narrative in these chapters tells us something. 00:13:15.840 --> 00:13:17.919 So let me kind of explain that in point number three. 00:13:18.000 --> 00:13:24.080 That's that God gives us dignity even when we deserve no dignity. 00:13:24.799 --> 00:13:30.080 So if if we're honest, right, like the honest moment, we don't always treat each other well. 00:13:30.480 --> 00:13:37.360 We don't always treat uh the clerk at the gym or the person at Kroger or our neighbor. 00:13:37.519 --> 00:13:44.960 We don't always treat each other what we don't always treat our family well, our children well, our parents well, we don't always treat our friends well. 00:13:45.279 --> 00:13:49.120 We can easily take advantage of other people groups economically. 00:13:50.080 --> 00:13:53.279 Uh we can treat someone mechanically rather than relationally. 00:13:53.519 --> 00:14:01.600 We can use people for function, or we can use them for status rather than for their creative value. 00:14:02.159 --> 00:14:07.600 Uh we can hurt people physically, we can hurt them emotionally, we can ignore people, we can neglect people. 00:14:07.759 --> 00:14:08.720 We can do this. 00:14:08.960 --> 00:14:10.240 We do this. 00:14:12.799 --> 00:14:22.559 So this week I was reading another interview with Bernie Madoff as I've kind of gotten on the Bernie Madoff kick lately, um, and so I've become a little obsessed, but the guy's got some good quotes. 00:14:22.720 --> 00:14:36.159 So uh he's probably the modern definition of taking advantage of people, of not having any idea like this chapter 21 and 22 that God wants to speak into fairness of people's lives. 00:14:36.399 --> 00:14:45.440 Pretty much he took, he just he just ignored 21 and 22 totally the idea that God might want to speak into details of how we rightly treat each other. 00:14:45.679 --> 00:14:56.960 And so uh this interview uh he talks about how he's been reconciling as he's been in prison and and working with a psychologist, like how he could do the thing he did, um, this side of it. 00:14:57.120 --> 00:14:58.480 And here's what he says. 00:14:58.799 --> 00:15:06.879 I've spent a lot of time with a psychologist in prison, which I've never done before in my life, in order to try to figure out how I could have done it. 00:15:07.120 --> 00:15:13.120 There are these mafia people who can kill people all day long, do terrible things, and then go home to their families. 00:15:13.279 --> 00:15:18.240 I used to wonder how it was that people in wars could shoot people. 00:15:18.399 --> 00:15:22.720 But the thing is, is that you can compartmentalize things in your life. 00:15:22.960 --> 00:15:25.759 In the end, I was almost relieved. 00:15:26.159 --> 00:15:30.879 The pressure I was under in the last 16 years was almost unbearable. 00:15:31.200 --> 00:15:33.600 I wish they caught me sooner. 00:15:34.799 --> 00:15:35.200 Right? 00:15:35.600 --> 00:15:58.399 A life of compartmentalization, of not realizing that your whole life is in God's supreme reign and that the Holy Spirit is inside of you and wants to speak into all these different areas of your life, all these things we want to compartmentalize out, that he wants to speak into the just the most minute detail. 00:15:58.799 --> 00:16:00.080 That thing he doesn't care about. 00:16:00.159 --> 00:16:01.039 He still wants to speak in. 00:16:01.279 --> 00:16:01.919 See, that's the greatness. 00:16:02.240 --> 00:16:04.799 The greatness of God is not that he can care about the election. 00:16:04.960 --> 00:16:05.519 That's great. 00:16:05.679 --> 00:16:10.720 The greatness of God is that he can care about the election and he can care about that health issue you have. 00:16:11.039 --> 00:16:12.080 See, that's greater. 00:16:12.240 --> 00:16:15.519 That's greater than him just caring about uh genocide. 00:16:15.679 --> 00:16:26.320 The fact that God can care about genocide and care about your anxiety over your job, the fact that he can care about both means he's just incredibly glorious. 00:16:27.679 --> 00:16:29.200 I remember playing hide and seek. 00:16:29.279 --> 00:16:36.559 Um, we'd play hide and seek in the dark when I was when I was a boy, like nine, ten years old, and my sister is three years older, so she was about 13. 00:16:36.879 --> 00:16:46.480 And so some of the girls in the neighborhood, they'd come over, and then my my friends, my guy friends, they'd come over, and so there might be eight or ten of us, and we're all like between the ages of 10 and 13. 00:16:46.559 --> 00:16:49.840 And we play hide and seek in the dark, and this is what we love to do. 00:16:50.000 --> 00:17:00.159 And so uh the person who is it would have to go into the garage and count for two minutes, and then everybody else we'd all go hide in our yard in the dark. 00:17:00.399 --> 00:17:02.960 And you know, this was I mean, this was so much fun. 00:17:03.120 --> 00:17:11.920 We love this, and I'd find myself a nice little spot behind the bush, you know, just tucked away, like there's no way you can see me. 00:17:12.079 --> 00:17:19.039 And the game would start, and whoever was it come out of the garage, you know, ready or not, and they start walking around, they'd find somebody, they'd find somebody else. 00:17:19.200 --> 00:17:24.319 And and the more you were hiding in that spot, the darker it got, right? 00:17:24.400 --> 00:17:30.559 Like it got so dark, and you start to hear things, and like you're pretty sure there was a snake by really close to me. 00:17:30.640 --> 00:17:38.240 Like you start to imagine things, and there was this part of you that all these other people, the people who were finding the other people, they were having all the fun. 00:17:38.400 --> 00:17:50.640 Like when you were the one still hiding, like your heartbeat is rushing, you're in the dark, you're not sure what's around you, you start to get paranoid, and there was always this part of me that wanted to be on the search party. 00:17:50.799 --> 00:18:02.480 Like there's this part, there's this part of me that just knew there was so much relief in being found of not just continuing to hide. 00:18:03.839 --> 00:18:09.920 See, there's nothing more relieving than becoming honest about the fact that we do compartmentalize. 00:18:10.559 --> 00:18:22.559 That we can come into chapters like 21 and 22, and we can see how God is going after all these details and just breaking down compartments in their life and saying, I speak into that, I speak into that, I speak into that, I speak into that. 00:18:22.720 --> 00:18:35.440 And to be honest and go, you know what, I do, I do compartmentalize, I segment off my finances, and I kind of run that with greed, or I segment off my personal life, maybe my sexuality, and I don't let God speak into that, or maybe my friends, or maybe my job. 00:18:35.599 --> 00:18:45.599 And and you can compartmentalize it off so easily, but there's nothing more freeing to come before God and confess and say, I I do this, I do it. 00:18:47.599 --> 00:18:52.400 To be caught and be found by the one who wants to transform you. 00:18:53.039 --> 00:18:54.319 That's incredible. 00:18:54.799 --> 00:18:55.920 And here's the good news. 00:18:56.079 --> 00:19:02.880 The good news is that the the solution is not for you to become perfect in your ability to have one compartment. 00:19:03.039 --> 00:19:05.039 Like that's not the solution. 00:19:05.839 --> 00:19:12.240 The solution is the fact that God doesn't give up on you in the reality that you do create compartments. 00:19:12.400 --> 00:19:23.039 And those are two very different things because one is a path of like legalistic perfectionism, and the other is a path of receiving God's grace to you, which helps you in your transformation. 00:19:23.200 --> 00:19:27.279 And that you resonate and you rest in the reality of this. 00:19:27.440 --> 00:19:28.720 This is the surrendered life. 00:19:28.799 --> 00:19:30.079 That's Christian spirituality. 00:19:30.240 --> 00:19:45.200 So it's not white knuckling yourself into an illusion of perfection, it's receiving God's reign over your life and the fact that He wants to help you transform as a believer and follower of Jesus. 00:19:45.440 --> 00:19:50.640 And so, like I said, what we see in the narrative structure is what we need. 00:19:50.799 --> 00:19:51.839 And here's what I mean by that. 00:19:52.000 --> 00:19:55.440 So just before all this application in chapters 21 and 22, right? 00:19:55.519 --> 00:20:00.880 Like a lot of what Sam read in chapter 21, all this application, we go, wow, that's that's a lot. 00:20:01.039 --> 00:20:04.640 What we see is we see that grace precedes law. 00:20:04.880 --> 00:20:05.599 We see it again. 00:20:05.680 --> 00:20:11.759 We saw it with the Ten Commandments, right before all these rules of the Ten Commandments, right before it, God reminds them that he has rescued them. 00:20:12.000 --> 00:20:20.319 We see it again here because what happens in chapter 20, the end of it in verses 18 through 21, uh, God comes to the people and he says, Hey, draw near to me. 00:20:20.480 --> 00:20:21.759 Y'all draw near to me. 00:20:22.000 --> 00:20:23.200 And they go, No, no, no. 00:20:25.759 --> 00:20:26.720 Just Moses. 00:20:27.200 --> 00:20:28.880 Just let Moses go. 00:20:29.279 --> 00:20:29.680 Right? 00:20:29.759 --> 00:20:35.359 I mean they they reject the invitation to draw near to God and they say, No, no, no, no. 00:20:35.839 --> 00:20:38.480 We'll just let Moses go, he can report back. 00:20:38.720 --> 00:20:41.759 We'll compartmentalize that one off for Moses. 00:20:42.400 --> 00:20:47.200 And what's so awesome about this is that God had no plan to back away from them. 00:20:47.759 --> 00:20:59.039 Because then he comes to them, he has no hesitancy toward them, or to us, thankfully, and he comes to them, and in verses uh 23 and 24, he says, Hey, build an altar. 00:21:00.160 --> 00:21:01.759 And you don't have to be perfect. 00:21:02.160 --> 00:21:03.680 Go go find an animal. 00:21:04.000 --> 00:21:08.880 Sacrifice animal, so you don't have to keep sacrificing yourself in order to be perfect before me. 00:21:09.039 --> 00:21:10.880 You sacrifice an animal. 00:21:11.279 --> 00:21:13.519 Let that animal be your substitute. 00:21:13.759 --> 00:21:14.079 Right? 00:21:14.160 --> 00:21:18.240 This is the beginning of that sacrificial system in the Old Testament that we see. 00:21:18.559 --> 00:21:26.160 And then God says this in every place where I cause my name to be remembered, I will come to you and bless you. 00:21:27.519 --> 00:21:30.000 So you can't pay for your justification. 00:21:30.480 --> 00:21:32.240 Not before God and not in this world. 00:21:32.400 --> 00:21:34.000 You'll never be justified as a human being. 00:21:34.079 --> 00:21:40.319 You'll never feel justified as a human being in this world by merit, and you'll never be justified before God by merit. 00:21:40.640 --> 00:21:46.720 It's only by the grace of God to you, the work of Jesus. 00:21:46.880 --> 00:21:52.319 And what we see on this side of Jesus, that Jesus was the final sacrifice. 00:21:52.480 --> 00:21:55.839 So we don't have to keep sacrificing ourselves. 00:21:56.400 --> 00:21:57.920 We don't have to be sacrificed. 00:21:58.000 --> 00:22:01.839 Jesus was the perfect sacrifice once and for all, final. 00:22:02.160 --> 00:22:04.799 So there's nothing else for us to add. 00:22:06.160 --> 00:22:09.599 So we can take all this application, or any application, right? 00:22:09.759 --> 00:22:12.240 Like any application for Christian teaching. 00:22:12.400 --> 00:22:27.440 We can take it, if we just take it all by itself, we've talked about this, if we take it all by itself without grace, it becomes law because you slowly, by human nature, you'll slowly use it to attempt to justify yourself by all the application. 00:22:27.519 --> 00:22:28.640 And you'll fall below it. 00:22:28.720 --> 00:22:30.720 Eventually, you won't do all the application, right? 00:22:30.799 --> 00:22:35.440 Like even today, probably some application out of this would be um, you know what, treat people right. 00:22:36.319 --> 00:22:41.519 Like treat people work for you, treat your neighbor, treat people right, repay people when you owe them something. 00:22:43.759 --> 00:22:44.400 That's good. 00:22:44.559 --> 00:22:45.200 Like that's good. 00:22:45.279 --> 00:22:46.160 That's what we need to do. 00:22:46.319 --> 00:22:47.519 That's what we need to do. 00:22:47.759 --> 00:22:49.839 And inevitably, you know what you'll do? 00:22:50.400 --> 00:22:51.920 You won't treat somebody right. 00:22:52.160 --> 00:22:53.440 And what are you gonna do at that point? 00:22:53.519 --> 00:22:57.359 Are you gonna sacrifice yourself in your guilt and in your shame? 00:22:58.000 --> 00:23:08.160 Are you gonna remember that God was so gracious to you that there was an altar built and he sacrificed himself for you. 00:23:08.400 --> 00:23:13.039 So you don't have to keep sacrificing yourself every time you fall short. 00:23:13.440 --> 00:23:22.000 That's how the law points us to the grace of God, the great Redeemer, the deliverer, the final sacrifice to Jesus the Christ. 00:23:22.240 --> 00:23:29.440 My brothers and sisters, rest greater in the great care God has for every area of your life. 00:23:29.839 --> 00:23:37.279 May you hear the Holy Spirit speaking words of comfort to you in every area of your life. 00:23:37.519 --> 00:23:41.839 And may you rest in the work that Jesus accomplished for you. 00:23:42.160 --> 00:23:43.200 Let's pray together. 00:23:49.039 --> 00:23:54.640 God, thank you that you give us such good application for our lives. 00:23:55.279 --> 00:24:08.160 Thank you that you speak into all areas, into our economics, into our family structures, into how we treat people, into the dignity of all human beings. 00:24:09.599 --> 00:24:13.200 God, would you help us to treat people in better ways? 00:24:13.680 --> 00:24:20.960 And in our failure, would you help us to rest greater in the final sacrifice of Jesus? 00:24:22.000 --> 00:24:23.599 That we do not live. 00:24:25.440 --> 00:24:32.000 That we do not live by our own merit, that we live by your word for us, and your grace and mercy to us. 00:24:33.440 --> 00:24:34.960 In Jesus' name we pray. 00:24:35.119 --> 00:24:35.759 Amen.