WEBVTT 00:00:00.719 --> 00:00:05.280 So we've been making our way through the book of Exodus the past couple of months. 00:00:05.360 --> 00:00:10.160 And so if you haven't been with us, you're jumping into us by kind of midway through this journey. 00:00:10.240 --> 00:00:15.839 And the Hebrew people, they have been freed from slavery in Egypt. 00:00:16.160 --> 00:00:18.320 They've crossed the Red Sea. 00:00:18.559 --> 00:00:20.399 They are now in the wilderness. 00:00:20.480 --> 00:00:21.600 They're in this desert. 00:00:22.239 --> 00:00:28.239 God is taking them from their slavery through this desert and eventually taking them into Canaan or their land. 00:00:28.320 --> 00:00:31.519 And this is the place where they're going to build their cities and they're going to build their nation. 00:00:31.679 --> 00:00:33.439 This is where they're going to have their life. 00:00:33.600 --> 00:00:38.880 And this journey should only take a couple weeks, a few weeks, but instead it takes 40 years. 00:00:39.039 --> 00:00:43.679 And it takes 40 years because along the way they just keep settling down. 00:00:43.840 --> 00:00:51.200 And so along the way, and the story we get this morning is we get this story where God begins to give the people structure for life. 00:00:51.359 --> 00:00:56.399 This is kind of the first time we see in the scriptures where God is beginning to give structure for life. 00:00:56.479 --> 00:00:59.359 What does a healthy life look like? 00:00:59.520 --> 00:01:02.079 And it's here we get the Ten Commandments. 00:01:02.240 --> 00:01:03.920 So perhaps you're here and you're going, oh great. 00:01:04.000 --> 00:01:07.760 You know, oh, I just I was so excited to come to church, you know, the first Sunday of a new year. 00:01:07.920 --> 00:01:13.760 I was hoping for something like how to build a great resolution, and you're going to get a sermon on the Ten Commandments. 00:01:14.000 --> 00:01:14.400 Terrific. 00:01:14.480 --> 00:01:19.280 You're going to tell me everything I should do and I don't do it well, and I'm going to feel bad, and that's going to be the story. 00:01:19.439 --> 00:01:20.560 Well, that's not it. 00:01:20.640 --> 00:01:24.400 So hold on, just hold on for a second before you go there and you tune me out. 00:01:24.560 --> 00:01:26.799 And I hope you're willing to think with me this morning. 00:01:26.959 --> 00:01:31.680 It's going to be a bit of a thinking Sunday or a thinking Sunday, if you're me, that's how you say it. 00:01:31.840 --> 00:01:33.120 So I hope you're okay with that. 00:01:33.200 --> 00:01:45.920 And what could happen, if you're willing to stick with me, what could happen this morning, if you're willing to hang with me, is you might discover why perhaps you're so tired of the Christian life. 00:01:46.159 --> 00:01:49.359 Or perhaps why you don't like the Christian faith at all. 00:01:49.599 --> 00:02:02.879 Perhaps you've seen the Christian faith in a particular person, or perhaps you saw a particular church, or you read a certain book, and you didn't know why you didn't like that, but you knew you didn't like that, and you really didn't want anything to do with that. 00:02:04.480 --> 00:02:14.240 You just know, for whatever reason, maybe you haven't had words for why you had such an averse reaction to it, but you just know you don't like that. 00:02:14.719 --> 00:02:15.840 So what am I talking about? 00:02:15.919 --> 00:02:19.759 Well, first off, uh, anybody remember f the free fall at Six Flags? 00:02:20.080 --> 00:02:20.319 Anybody? 00:02:20.560 --> 00:02:23.280 Anybody anybody kicking the season pass to Six Flags? 00:02:23.520 --> 00:02:24.560 Just go ahead and admit it. 00:02:24.639 --> 00:02:25.599 Just like you're there. 00:02:26.080 --> 00:02:26.639 Teagues. 00:02:26.719 --> 00:02:28.240 Okay, Sims, so great. 00:02:28.400 --> 00:02:29.840 Okay, so is free fall still there? 00:02:30.000 --> 00:02:30.560 Is the free fall. 00:02:33.039 --> 00:02:34.000 Okay, same thing. 00:02:34.159 --> 00:02:39.599 It's like the it's like the elevator, sort of you get in this metal box, and and it, do you remember this? 00:02:39.759 --> 00:02:47.439 Some of you, the wimpier ones of us, went for the parachute ride, and you're like, I ain't going no parachute ride, I'm going the free fall. 00:02:47.520 --> 00:02:52.719 I'm gonna take a nickel and put it on my knee, because that's what the cool kids did, because at the top, you know, some of you know what I'm talking about. 00:02:52.879 --> 00:02:57.280 So you went up the elevator to the top and you got your nickel out, because that's what I did. 00:02:57.439 --> 00:03:10.800 And and and the elevator kind of went out, and you were you're hanging out there, and you had like three seconds or so, and you didn't know when it was gonna drop, and you put the nickel on your knee because when you dropped, it would kind of float up, and it was real cool to have the nickel on the knee thing going on. 00:03:10.879 --> 00:03:13.759 But you had three seconds of the top, and at the top, it was great. 00:03:13.840 --> 00:03:16.240 I loved it because you got to see the whole park. 00:03:16.400 --> 00:03:25.520 Like you got this big view, and you'd see all the walkways of where you had been walking and how the walkways connect and what rides over there, and what you're like, oh I was over there earlier. 00:03:25.599 --> 00:03:29.360 I didn't realize that was so close to that right over there, but you you could see, you could see it all. 00:03:29.439 --> 00:03:32.560 You got this kind of macro aerial view. 00:03:32.719 --> 00:03:35.520 So uh here's how we're gonna handle Ten Commandments. 00:03:35.599 --> 00:03:38.080 Well, that's that's exactly how we're gonna handle Ten Commandments. 00:03:38.319 --> 00:03:41.280 Today is the macro aerial view. 00:03:41.360 --> 00:03:45.680 So it's we're not gonna work our way verse by verse like we usually work our way through a passage. 00:03:45.759 --> 00:03:55.520 So we're just gonna take one Sunday away from our normal rhythm, and we're gonna get this kind of macro aerial view of the Ten Commandments and the law and what the law is and is not and how it works. 00:03:55.680 --> 00:04:00.400 And then in the coming weeks, we're gonna break down the Ten Commandments. 00:04:00.800 --> 00:04:02.319 So that's how we're gonna do it. 00:04:02.400 --> 00:04:11.759 So Exodus 20, verses 1 through 3, Katie read it, and God spoke all these words, saying, I'm the Lord your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. 00:04:11.919 --> 00:04:14.159 It's like, hey, remember, remember I did that. 00:04:14.400 --> 00:04:17.279 An act of grace towards you, remember I did that. 00:04:17.439 --> 00:04:19.040 And then he begins in the law. 00:04:19.199 --> 00:04:23.439 Verse 3, you shall have no other gods before me. 00:04:23.759 --> 00:04:26.160 So a little bit of education here coming into this. 00:04:26.240 --> 00:04:38.000 So the Ten Commandments comprise the core of the law of Moses, the Mosaic Law, the law of the Old Testament, and the rest of the law in the Old Testament, it begins out of here. 00:04:38.079 --> 00:04:44.959 So we so we get ceremonial law, we get judicial law, we get a lot of different cultural laws, um, I mean, even weird laws, right? 00:04:45.040 --> 00:04:48.879 Like you read stuff and you're like, what in the world does this have anything to do with anything? 00:04:49.040 --> 00:04:50.720 It all begins here. 00:04:50.879 --> 00:04:52.000 This is the core. 00:04:52.160 --> 00:04:53.680 This is the core of the law. 00:04:53.839 --> 00:05:03.839 And what's important to remember, just so important to remember, is that the Mosaic law came after the Lord saved them out of Egypt. 00:05:04.160 --> 00:05:05.600 And we can't just run over that. 00:05:06.000 --> 00:05:12.639 Just don't pass that by because what that means is that grace comes before law. 00:05:12.879 --> 00:05:18.240 And now, law could be like um, you can think of it this way: any standard of righteousness. 00:05:18.560 --> 00:05:21.120 Okay, so anything you should be or you should do. 00:05:21.600 --> 00:05:23.279 Law doesn't stop in the New Testament. 00:05:23.360 --> 00:05:26.639 There's there's law in the New Testament, like uh pray continually. 00:05:26.879 --> 00:05:31.759 That that's law, that's rule, it's a standard, it's what we should do or we should be. 00:05:32.160 --> 00:05:34.720 But grace comes before law. 00:05:34.800 --> 00:05:36.000 So this is what it means. 00:05:36.160 --> 00:05:39.680 It means our obedience, and perfect as it is, right? 00:05:39.759 --> 00:05:41.120 And some of you, it's it's really bad. 00:05:41.199 --> 00:05:42.319 I've seen I've seen some of you. 00:05:42.879 --> 00:05:53.920 So our obedience, our obedience, imperfect as it is, to law, comes from gratitude from what God has already done. 00:05:54.720 --> 00:05:55.759 I'm just gonna say it again. 00:05:55.839 --> 00:05:56.720 It's just so important. 00:05:56.800 --> 00:05:57.600 Like if we get this. 00:05:57.680 --> 00:06:09.680 And not just hear it, but like actually rest in this, is that our obedience, and perfect as it is, our obedience to law comes from gratitude of what God has done for us. 00:06:09.920 --> 00:06:20.240 Now, like I said at the beginning, perhaps you think about the Christian life, or you look at a particular church, or you read a book somebody gave you, and you had this averse reaction, like, I want nothing to do with that. 00:06:20.319 --> 00:06:23.680 That's just it just feels like a bunch of demand on me. 00:06:24.560 --> 00:06:32.160 Or maybe the Christian life just isn't working, and that's what you just keep thinking to yourself, and you haven't verbalized that because you'd be like kind of ashamed to say it. 00:06:32.240 --> 00:06:35.519 But that's what you've been thinking, like, this just isn't working. 00:06:36.160 --> 00:06:42.160 So, so this law stuff is really confusing, but I think it could be unbelievable and revolutionary for you. 00:06:42.319 --> 00:06:51.360 And why it's confusing is because in some places in the scriptures, you open it up and you see this love for the law, like this adoration for the law. 00:06:51.439 --> 00:06:57.519 And then other places you open up like the next day, you're on your quiet time again, you open up and you see this distaste for the law. 00:06:57.759 --> 00:07:00.160 You're like, how does this fit together? 00:07:00.560 --> 00:07:01.439 Here's what I'm talking about. 00:07:01.519 --> 00:07:03.839 I just pulled a couple examples, a couple samples. 00:07:04.160 --> 00:07:08.639 Psalm 119, verse 97, oh how I love your law. 00:07:08.879 --> 00:07:11.920 It is my meditation all day. 00:07:12.079 --> 00:07:15.600 Like, like this is all I want to think about. 00:07:17.040 --> 00:07:23.759 And then later in that chapter in verse 165, great peace have those who love your law. 00:07:24.000 --> 00:07:26.639 Nothing can make them stumble. 00:07:26.879 --> 00:07:29.040 So love the law and peace will come. 00:07:29.199 --> 00:07:32.560 Just love the law, and I want to think about it all the time, and I love the law. 00:07:32.639 --> 00:07:37.600 And then you open your up your Bible on a different day and you read 2 Corinthians 3, 4 through 8. 00:07:37.839 --> 00:07:43.600 So this is in your handout, you had a handout, or most of you had a handout, a printed 100, there might be a little bit more than that in here. 00:07:44.000 --> 00:07:45.680 2 Corinthians 3, 4 through 8. 00:07:45.839 --> 00:07:55.360 Such is the confidence that we have through Christ toward God, not that we are sufficient in ourselves to claim anything as coming from us, but our sufficiency is from God. 00:07:55.439 --> 00:08:00.000 I know that's all really good news, who has made us sufficient to be ministers of the new covenant. 00:08:00.079 --> 00:08:02.000 So it's a little bit different than it used to be before Jesus. 00:08:02.079 --> 00:08:03.120 What's he talking about? 00:08:03.279 --> 00:08:04.639 Not of the letter, all right? 00:08:04.720 --> 00:08:06.399 So hold on to that word, what's he talking about? 00:08:06.480 --> 00:08:10.959 He's gonna explain himself, but of the spirit, for the letter kills. 00:08:12.240 --> 00:08:13.680 But the spirit gives life. 00:08:14.079 --> 00:08:15.279 What's he talking about, the letter? 00:08:15.439 --> 00:08:22.959 Now, if the ministry of death, so something has a ministry of death, and what is it, carved in letters on stone? 00:08:24.399 --> 00:08:26.480 He's talking about the Ten Commandments. 00:08:28.240 --> 00:08:35.279 Came with such glory that the Israelites could not gaze at Moses' face because of its glory, which was being brought to an end. 00:08:35.440 --> 00:08:38.320 Will not the ministry of the Spirit have even more glory? 00:08:38.559 --> 00:08:42.159 So the psalmist is saying, I love your law, I want to think about it all the time. 00:08:42.240 --> 00:08:46.799 And then Paul's saying, No, no, no, like it's a ministry of death. 00:08:52.720 --> 00:08:54.879 So Paul views it as this horrible thing. 00:08:54.960 --> 00:08:59.919 I mean, he views it as something that will kill you, it will drown you. 00:09:01.519 --> 00:09:10.399 And I hope you grab hold of where we're gonna go with this because for me, seven years ago, this was revolutionary to all my perfectionism and performancism. 00:09:10.639 --> 00:09:13.360 I don't even think that's a word, but it should be because we all do it. 00:09:13.519 --> 00:09:15.679 But it was revolutionary for that. 00:09:15.840 --> 00:09:17.759 Because here's Paul's point. 00:09:17.919 --> 00:09:21.679 Paul doesn't hate the law because it's not good. 00:09:21.840 --> 00:09:24.879 The law is good and holy and righteous. 00:09:25.120 --> 00:09:31.600 Paul hates incorrect use of the law, and that's what he's seeing in his culture. 00:09:31.919 --> 00:09:42.879 People are trying to be right with God by what they do, waking up to score their behavior and their improvement, and just being about what they do and their behavior. 00:09:43.039 --> 00:09:46.000 And the law was being incorrectly used. 00:09:46.080 --> 00:09:51.440 And what Paul knows is when that happens, it's a ministry of death to you. 00:09:51.679 --> 00:09:53.600 It will drown you. 00:09:54.639 --> 00:09:56.720 That's why you've had an averse reaction. 00:09:56.879 --> 00:09:58.720 Or maybe that's why you're exhausted. 00:09:58.960 --> 00:10:02.320 That's why you went to that church and you hated it and you didn't know why you hated it. 00:10:02.399 --> 00:10:08.639 Or maybe, maybe you sort of liked it, but you just kept getting more and more exhausted the more the longer you were there. 00:10:08.799 --> 00:10:11.360 And you never had words for it, and you didn't know why. 00:10:11.600 --> 00:10:14.799 And it's because it was an incorrect use of the law. 00:10:17.360 --> 00:10:21.360 So when I was 19 years old, I had really, really shaggy hair, much worse than this. 00:10:21.519 --> 00:10:22.159 It was really bad. 00:10:22.240 --> 00:10:24.000 And I did a lot of bench press because I was 19. 00:10:24.080 --> 00:10:29.120 I thought I was gonna be big one day, and if I was if my 19-year-old self could see myself today, I'd be very depressed. 00:10:29.440 --> 00:10:31.440 That never worked out. 00:10:32.240 --> 00:10:35.759 And I was training to be a raft guide because when you're 19, these are the things you do. 00:10:35.840 --> 00:10:39.120 You have shaggy hair and you do a lot of bench press, so you train to be a raft guide. 00:10:39.279 --> 00:10:41.679 Um, so cliche at this point. 00:10:41.840 --> 00:10:42.960 I see how cliche it was. 00:10:43.039 --> 00:10:47.759 And so I'd probably been down, I'd probably be down the Okoe River 30 times. 00:10:47.840 --> 00:10:48.639 I'm I'm guessing. 00:10:48.720 --> 00:10:52.879 I mean, we would just go down like multiple trips in a day, just over and over and over again. 00:10:52.960 --> 00:10:54.000 So I knew the drill. 00:10:54.159 --> 00:11:00.720 I knew the drill of loading the rafts up on top of the bus and tying them down, and we'd ride up to the top of the Okoi. 00:11:00.799 --> 00:11:14.159 And if you've been down the Okoe at the top, it's dammed, and and kind of to the right to get down is this this wide concrete sidewalk, and it's it goes kind of down beside the dam down to the beginning of the river. 00:11:14.320 --> 00:11:26.399 And you had to lift the raft, you have to lift the raft up over your head and carry it down this uh decline, and you're in line behind all the other rafts and the rafts on top of your head with the other people, and and it's just it's heavy. 00:11:26.480 --> 00:11:28.639 And you're in this line, you just want to get to the bottom. 00:11:28.720 --> 00:11:37.840 I mean, the whole time you're in this line, I've done this so many times, and every time I'm on that decline, and I'm taller than everybody else, so I'm carrying more weight than like the short person. 00:11:37.919 --> 00:11:40.000 They're just kind of hanging out, they're not even helping. 00:11:40.159 --> 00:11:46.720 And I I I'm just I'm just under this raft and hating it and want to get out. 00:11:47.759 --> 00:11:49.919 You just want I just want you just want to get to the bottom. 00:11:50.000 --> 00:11:55.519 You want to get to the bottom, and because when you get to the bottom, you get to take the raft down and you get to sit on it. 00:11:55.600 --> 00:12:02.639 You put it in the water and you wade into the water and you get on it, and and you get to sit on the raft and let the raft guide you down the river. 00:12:02.879 --> 00:12:06.399 What you would never do is stay under the raft. 00:12:07.759 --> 00:12:14.879 You you you would never get down, you would never get down to the base there and just go, can we can we hold it on top of our heads a little bit longer? 00:12:15.039 --> 00:12:18.320 I would really like to just keep the raft on top of my head a little bit longer. 00:12:18.399 --> 00:12:20.240 I want to see how long I can keep it on top of my head. 00:12:20.320 --> 00:12:23.200 No, everybody gets down there like, oh, finally, I get to take this off. 00:12:23.360 --> 00:12:26.480 I get I I can get out from under it. 00:12:27.279 --> 00:12:29.039 Because it's crushing. 00:12:29.279 --> 00:12:31.519 It's not fun, it's heavy. 00:12:31.919 --> 00:12:35.279 And you just want to get out and you want to sit on it, and eventually you do. 00:12:35.360 --> 00:12:36.480 You would never stay under it. 00:12:36.559 --> 00:12:38.080 To stay under it would be insane. 00:12:38.159 --> 00:12:40.559 It would be an exhausting life. 00:12:41.679 --> 00:12:42.960 And you would drown. 00:12:44.720 --> 00:12:49.600 See, some of you are drowning and you don't know why. 00:12:53.360 --> 00:12:56.240 You are exhausted and you don't know why. 00:12:57.519 --> 00:12:59.039 And this is why. 00:13:00.320 --> 00:13:03.840 Is because incorrect use of the law. 00:13:04.399 --> 00:13:08.320 Incorrect use of standards of what you should be. 00:13:09.360 --> 00:13:12.480 And you're using law and standards to fuel your life. 00:13:12.559 --> 00:13:14.960 And the reason why I can speak this is because I did it. 00:13:15.039 --> 00:13:15.600 I know it. 00:13:16.080 --> 00:13:31.039 Using law and standards to fuel your life, and in doing so, you're under law and you're being crushed by it, and it's like walking into a river with a heavy raft over your head when you're supposed to be sitting on top of the raft and let it guide you. 00:13:31.440 --> 00:13:34.799 So, Guru of Wisdom and Pastoring and Books, Tim Keller, right? 00:13:34.879 --> 00:13:40.639 I mean, the handout, you I got the reading for you because I have a couple long readings, and I just want you to stick with me. 00:13:40.720 --> 00:13:42.480 So I'll print them out for you. 00:13:43.679 --> 00:13:48.879 To be under the law refers not to law obeying, but law relying. 00:13:49.120 --> 00:13:56.720 When we think we can win God's approval through our moral performance and obedience becomes a crushing burden. 00:13:57.200 --> 00:13:58.960 Then we are under law. 00:13:59.360 --> 00:14:12.559 But when we learn that Christ has fulfilled the law for us and that now we who believe in him are secure in God's love, then we naturally want to delight, resemble, and know the one who has done this. 00:14:12.799 --> 00:14:13.919 How can we do this? 00:14:14.159 --> 00:14:15.600 By turning to the law. 00:14:15.840 --> 00:14:24.399 Paul puts it this way: Though he is not under the law, I am not free from God's law, but I am under Christ's law. 00:14:24.639 --> 00:14:38.799 Though he is not under the law as a way to earn salvation, he now is freed to see the beauties of God's law as fulfilled in Christ and submits to it as a way of loving his Savior. 00:14:39.279 --> 00:14:41.360 So maybe you've never understood this in the Bible. 00:14:41.519 --> 00:14:45.279 Like when you read like all this demand, and then there's all this grace, and how does this work together? 00:14:45.360 --> 00:14:51.120 And on one side you're like, oh, I should be doing all this, but on the other side I'm relieved of how I fall short. 00:14:51.200 --> 00:14:52.559 How does this all work together? 00:14:52.720 --> 00:14:57.759 So, two points to kind of organize this, to understand it a little bit. 00:14:58.000 --> 00:15:04.320 And the first point is this that the law guides us, and then simultaneously it breaks us. 00:15:04.559 --> 00:15:08.320 So the law guides us, and then simultaneously it breaks us. 00:15:08.480 --> 00:15:09.679 So the law is good. 00:15:09.759 --> 00:15:12.159 And when I say the law, you remember what I mean? 00:15:12.399 --> 00:15:18.159 I mean any rule or standard of righteousness or of what you should be that we read in the scripture. 00:15:18.320 --> 00:15:26.799 So all of that, of what you should be, that is good, it is righteous, it is right, is an expression of God Himself. 00:15:26.879 --> 00:15:32.320 It is a guide for us, but we as imperfect, we are broken by it. 00:15:32.480 --> 00:15:35.840 So it guides us and simultaneously it breaks us. 00:15:36.000 --> 00:15:38.080 And here is the good news. 00:15:38.559 --> 00:15:46.720 Jesus not only died the death we deserve and took our sin upon himself, but he lived the righteous life we should have lived. 00:15:46.879 --> 00:15:56.000 That's why we always say around here, we say it constantly, that he takes our sin and is laid upon himself, and his righteousness is laid upon us. 00:15:58.080 --> 00:16:02.720 Okay, so I know I'm getting very seminary class on you, but we're gonna go to that next reading. 00:16:02.960 --> 00:16:05.360 And I didn't want to lose you, so I printed it out. 00:16:05.440 --> 00:16:14.720 I really didn't want to lose you because it just might explain your exhaustion or your addiction to perfectionism or performancism, or maybe even disillusionment with faith in general. 00:16:14.879 --> 00:16:20.000 So Martin Luther, 500 years ago, he wrote this about the book of Galatians. 00:16:21.679 --> 00:16:31.519 The law of the Ten Commandments has no power to accuse and frighten the conscience in which Jesus Christ reigns by his grace, for he has abolished its power. 00:16:31.679 --> 00:16:39.360 Not that the conscience does not feel the terrors of the law, but the commandments cannot condemn it or reduce it to despair. 00:16:39.679 --> 00:16:47.519 So then, however much we may be terrified by the law when it shows us our sin, we still do not despair, for we believe in Jesus Christ. 00:16:47.600 --> 00:16:52.480 And being baptized in him and cleansed by his blood, we have forgiveness of all of our sins. 00:16:52.639 --> 00:17:07.279 When our sin is pardoned through Christ, who is the Lord of the law and gave himself for us, the law, which is a servant, has no more power to accuse and condemn us for our sin, since our sin is forgiven and we are now made free. 00:17:07.440 --> 00:17:10.799 For the Son had delivered us from slavery. 00:17:10.960 --> 00:17:16.640 Therefore, the law is completely abolished to those who believe in Christ. 00:17:17.599 --> 00:17:18.880 So, second point. 00:17:19.440 --> 00:17:25.200 The law drives us to the grace of God known in Jesus. 00:17:26.160 --> 00:17:34.000 The hope is whole hearted, free living in gratitude with the aim of obedience. 00:17:34.559 --> 00:17:35.759 That's the hope. 00:17:36.079 --> 00:17:38.160 But the grace comes before law. 00:17:38.400 --> 00:17:39.359 So we're free in it. 00:17:39.440 --> 00:17:44.400 So we're so so we're we're free to live without the crushing despair. 00:17:44.799 --> 00:17:48.160 We're free to be in the imperfect obedience. 00:17:48.720 --> 00:17:54.079 We're free without being drowned, and when you fail, that is not the end. 00:17:55.680 --> 00:17:59.279 So Christmas morning, my seven-year-old gets a Kindle fire. 00:17:59.599 --> 00:18:02.559 This is a big deal in my house. 00:18:02.720 --> 00:18:03.680 A really big deal. 00:18:03.839 --> 00:18:06.079 And so I was like, hey, can we set this up immediately? 00:18:06.160 --> 00:18:06.799 That was the quick. 00:18:06.880 --> 00:18:07.680 Can we set it up, Dad? 00:18:07.759 --> 00:18:08.319 Can we set it up? 00:18:08.480 --> 00:18:12.799 And you know, in me, more on to technology, I'm not looking forward to this. 00:18:12.880 --> 00:18:16.319 I mean, I'd rather put together some desk or something. 00:18:16.400 --> 00:18:19.119 I'd rather like put together some piece of wood. 00:18:19.279 --> 00:18:21.440 But the technology thing just overwhelms me. 00:18:21.519 --> 00:18:31.519 So I'm like, okay, we're gonna go after this and so plug it in, and it's like a charge, it's gonna update, and it's gotta turn off, and then it turns back on, and it turns off, and then it's updates and back on and back off and plug it back in. 00:18:31.759 --> 00:18:33.359 I mean, it was like four sessions of this. 00:18:33.440 --> 00:18:37.839 I was like, I don't understand why all this was not already done to start with, why they didn't do it for us. 00:18:37.920 --> 00:18:40.079 And then we so we register it, okay? 00:18:40.240 --> 00:18:42.079 So it ties to my Amazon account. 00:18:42.240 --> 00:18:43.759 Has anybody set up the Kindle Fire? 00:18:44.079 --> 00:18:46.640 Have you been there through this process of patience? 00:18:47.039 --> 00:18:54.079 So it ties to my Amazon account, um, and so we get that tied in to my Amazon account, and then she's a separate user. 00:18:54.160 --> 00:19:02.799 So on the Kindle Fire, there's myself, I'm like the guardian of the fire, and then she is um she is a user, and I want to protect her. 00:19:02.880 --> 00:19:06.880 So I'm going into all the settings and figuring this out how to protect her. 00:19:07.119 --> 00:19:13.519 So um I'm in it, she has$50 of Amazon money that she got in her stocking. 00:19:13.680 --> 00:19:18.319 So um, so I'm okay, we're gonna figure that out so she can buy some books and some apps and stuff like that. 00:19:18.480 --> 00:19:27.200 And so we're trying to figure that out, and but then when I buy something, it's charging my American Express and my Amazon account, I'm like, oh, there's free money here, and now I'm getting charged. 00:19:27.359 --> 00:19:37.920 And so I have to break the laptop out and put in the Amazon gift card money into the laptop, and then still when I buy it on the Kindle, the one says I'm back to the laptop and I'm buying a laptop and pointing it. 00:19:38.079 --> 00:19:39.599 Anybody pointed something before? 00:19:39.839 --> 00:19:48.960 Pointing it to the fire, but then when I point it to the fire, it just goes to my user on the fire, and I can't get it to show up in her user account on the fire, and I'm done. 00:19:49.200 --> 00:19:51.519 I'm I'm furious. 00:19:51.680 --> 00:19:53.200 I want to put it in a blender. 00:19:53.359 --> 00:19:58.079 I just want to put it into my ninja blender and just let it mix up and just throw it away. 00:19:58.240 --> 00:20:03.920 I'm so over this thing, I can't figure it out, I'm worn out, I'm sweating, I'm mad. 00:20:05.119 --> 00:20:08.160 And I had I had to take a break, and eventually YouTube helped me out. 00:20:08.240 --> 00:20:13.119 But the feeling was it's like I'm going in circles and getting nowhere. 00:20:13.359 --> 00:20:15.359 Like it was breaking me. 00:20:15.599 --> 00:20:17.200 Like the imperfect in me. 00:20:17.359 --> 00:20:19.039 Like it was breaking me. 00:20:19.359 --> 00:20:21.759 And that's my point, is we know the feeling. 00:20:21.920 --> 00:20:32.400 We know the feeling of I'm going in circles and I'm getting nowhere, and this thing, which is right, is breaking me. 00:20:34.240 --> 00:20:35.519 Just breaking me. 00:20:36.640 --> 00:20:43.599 And maybe you're worn out and you're frustrated and you're so let down with yourself because you're not perfect. 00:20:45.920 --> 00:20:59.759 And maybe you're reacting to how you grew up and what church you grew up in, or that friend, or your mom, or your dad, or the book you read, and you don't know why you had that averse reaction, but you just know you don't like that. 00:21:00.079 --> 00:21:02.720 Or you know you're being exhausted by that. 00:21:04.160 --> 00:21:06.559 You're seeing life under the law. 00:21:08.400 --> 00:21:17.920 I mean, that's life under a raft when you're supposed to have gotten on top of it and let it guide you and break you and guide you to the grace of God and Jesus. 00:21:18.240 --> 00:21:23.279 Listen, the the law gives us a guide to morality and righteousness, and we need it. 00:21:23.839 --> 00:21:28.079 The law uh gives us boundaries for life, we need it. 00:21:28.960 --> 00:21:35.680 But when it comes to where we place our hearts, we must allow the law to break us and send us on. 00:21:37.039 --> 00:21:39.119 Or else the law is over you. 00:21:39.440 --> 00:21:45.920 And the law can take the form of a taskmaster, it can take the form of a shame reminder. 00:21:47.359 --> 00:21:59.920 Or it may just take take the task the role of like every morning when you wake up, just gonna keep that score again on all your behavior and all your failings, and just keep that score. 00:22:01.519 --> 00:22:17.759 It may make you keep making sacrifices over and over again, like sacrifice yourself instead of like living in the sacrifice of Jesus, sacrifice yourself over and over again to feel accepted by God or to feel like finally you're serious for Jesus, and now all of a sudden this is enough. 00:22:17.920 --> 00:22:23.519 And then you realize a couple days later, oh that's not enough, and I gotta like re-up or something, sacrifice yourself again. 00:22:23.759 --> 00:22:28.960 See, the the law is the burden of everything you are not. 00:22:31.119 --> 00:22:32.400 Brothers and sisters. 00:22:33.279 --> 00:22:34.480 That's good news. 00:22:35.920 --> 00:22:37.839 Because you're not under the law. 00:22:39.119 --> 00:22:54.720 You are under the grace of God, known in Jesus, and that is a place of incredible rest and incredible freedom when we understand that grace comes before law, and we live out of great gratitude for the grace shown to us. 00:22:55.039 --> 00:22:56.000 Let's pray together. 00:23:02.400 --> 00:23:05.119 God, we thank you that you give us the law. 00:23:05.519 --> 00:23:11.599 We thank you that in the law we see your righteousness and goodness and a healthy life. 00:23:14.000 --> 00:23:16.640 We thank you that it also shows us ourselves. 00:23:19.440 --> 00:23:31.119 We are so grateful that your grace comes before the law so that as the law shows us in all of our imperfections, that we can become honestly to you and say, here's who we are. 00:23:32.240 --> 00:23:34.559 And then in the sacrifice of Jesus. 00:23:35.599 --> 00:23:37.200 You completely accept us. 00:23:40.000 --> 00:23:41.680 Always with open arms. 00:23:43.839 --> 00:23:46.319 And that you don't even see us as imperfect. 00:23:47.759 --> 00:23:51.359 That you see us into the blood of Jesus, sacrifice of your own. 00:23:55.920 --> 00:24:01.039 Would you help us as we wake up, inevitably wake up tomorrow to live under the law? 00:24:02.480 --> 00:24:10.000 Perfectionism and performance and work hard and just forgetting that you greatly comes before the law. 00:24:10.160 --> 00:24:11.759 Would you help remind us? 00:24:14.160 --> 00:24:17.839 Would you just surface it in our hearts and our minds? 00:24:18.079 --> 00:24:19.839 That we might live in freedom. 00:24:24.960 --> 00:24:26.160 In Jesus' name we pray. 00:24:26.480 --> 00:24:26.799 Amen.