WEBVTT 00:00:00.320 --> 00:00:04.080 So we've been going through the book of Titus in between being in and out of town. 00:00:04.160 --> 00:00:09.119 So this is the third message in the book of Titus, the third chapter in the third message. 00:00:09.199 --> 00:00:18.320 And so I want to do a bit of review, perhaps for my sake as well as for your sake, because I think the first message was back in June sometime, and the second one is the beginning of July. 00:00:18.480 --> 00:00:19.839 Now we're toward the end of July. 00:00:20.000 --> 00:00:28.399 So the first message, what we talked about is we said that the gospel, the good news of the Christian message that Jesus died for you, that this is a totally different way of thinking. 00:00:28.559 --> 00:00:30.239 If you remember, we talked about a seesaw. 00:00:30.399 --> 00:00:30.879 Do you remember this? 00:00:30.960 --> 00:00:36.960 And we we talked about how on one side you have Christian legalism, and then on the other side you have Christian license. 00:00:37.119 --> 00:00:44.960 And we said so often what we how we tend to think about Christian living in the gospel is that, well, just we need to get the balance. 00:00:45.119 --> 00:00:48.479 We need to be in between legalism and license. 00:00:48.960 --> 00:00:53.119 If we can just get it balanced right, then we'll be okay. 00:00:53.520 --> 00:01:03.600 And we talked about all the problems with that way of thinking, and what we talked about is that the gospel is actually it's a totally different way of thinking, that we have the wrong metaphor when we're thinking about it that way. 00:01:03.679 --> 00:01:10.319 And perhaps a better metaphor is to think about the fact that Christian legalism is heading north on I-75. 00:01:10.400 --> 00:01:11.040 Do you remember this? 00:01:11.120 --> 00:01:18.560 And license is heading south on I-75, and we said, well, the gospel in Christian living is actually a totally different road. 00:01:18.640 --> 00:01:20.959 It's like I-20 out heading west. 00:01:21.120 --> 00:01:23.680 I mean, it's just it's a different path. 00:01:24.319 --> 00:01:33.120 And the new thinking, the new way is this: it's I no longer perform, I no longer obey as to be accepted. 00:01:33.920 --> 00:01:36.319 I am accepted, therefore I obey. 00:01:36.640 --> 00:01:37.840 And that's the new way. 00:01:37.920 --> 00:01:39.200 That's the gospel thinking. 00:01:39.280 --> 00:01:41.439 So that was first message, Titus. 00:01:42.079 --> 00:01:49.920 Second message, we talked about that God's grace doesn't just save us into relationship with him, it actually transforms us. 00:01:50.079 --> 00:01:51.920 And that we need it this way. 00:01:52.159 --> 00:01:55.040 Because we're never transformed enough. 00:01:56.159 --> 00:02:02.959 I've never been lying in bed at night, roll over, look at Christy, and say, Christy, I just think I've done it. 00:02:03.280 --> 00:02:05.920 I just think I've arrived. 00:02:06.319 --> 00:02:06.879 You know what? 00:02:06.959 --> 00:02:13.599 I I've just been contemplating and I just think I have hit the pinnacle of selflessness. 00:02:13.840 --> 00:02:16.400 I no longer struggle with impatience. 00:02:16.560 --> 00:02:18.159 I have really don't have any issues. 00:02:18.319 --> 00:02:19.199 I'm very content. 00:02:19.360 --> 00:02:24.319 I'm extremely humble, as you see in this moment, that like that conversation has never happened. 00:02:24.479 --> 00:02:26.319 Christi would never allow it to happen. 00:02:26.479 --> 00:02:27.919 It can't happen, right? 00:02:28.159 --> 00:02:28.960 It doesn't happen. 00:02:29.039 --> 00:02:31.439 It can't happen for you, it can't happen for me. 00:02:31.680 --> 00:02:41.360 And so even while God's grace is transforming us, we have to have God's grace rescuing us because we're never transformed enough. 00:02:42.240 --> 00:02:45.520 Okay, so in that message, do you remember the question I asked? 00:02:45.599 --> 00:02:48.159 Well, I didn't remember it, so I had to look it up actually. 00:02:48.240 --> 00:02:54.960 Uh this was the question is do you ever feel like you haven't changed enough? 00:02:57.919 --> 00:03:03.919 Do you ever feel like man, I was like this when I was 16? 00:03:04.879 --> 00:03:06.560 I was like this when I was 12. 00:03:06.800 --> 00:03:09.120 I was like this when I was 25, and now I'm 50. 00:03:09.280 --> 00:03:11.680 I was like this when I was 30, and now I'm 60. 00:03:12.400 --> 00:03:16.719 Do you ever just feel like you haven't changed enough? 00:03:16.879 --> 00:03:20.879 Like you should be better at this point in your life. 00:03:22.639 --> 00:03:49.599 So on my three-week sabbatical, I think what hit me week one was I was just reflecting back over the just the load of work leading up to it as we bought our building, and then you know, we're working with architect, and then we're having those vision tours, and a lot of y'all came through to hear what we want to do, and I'm pitching what we want to do and how we can do it, and I have all this confidence and all this, and I get week one in sabbatical, and I just get flooded with doubt. 00:03:49.680 --> 00:03:50.879 Like, re like really? 00:03:51.120 --> 00:03:53.280 You're you you're gonna do that? 00:03:53.520 --> 00:03:55.280 And you with them? 00:03:55.520 --> 00:04:01.199 Like, like, and just flooded with doubt about all of it. 00:04:03.360 --> 00:04:08.719 And and just and going, I I really, and you're gonna take three weeks off? 00:04:09.280 --> 00:04:10.800 Like right in the middle of this? 00:04:10.960 --> 00:04:13.360 Like it's kind of a crucial time. 00:04:13.439 --> 00:04:20.399 You you probably need to log back on, you probably need to pick the phone back up, you probably need to open that laptop, you probably need to be hitting it hard. 00:04:20.639 --> 00:04:26.720 And behind that was this question for me is is can I really trust God with something? 00:04:27.360 --> 00:04:30.720 Or do I need to control that building? 00:04:30.879 --> 00:04:32.240 Do I need to control that church? 00:04:32.319 --> 00:04:34.319 Or maybe do I need to control that relationship? 00:04:34.399 --> 00:04:35.759 Do I need to control that parenting? 00:04:35.839 --> 00:04:37.199 Do I need to control that job? 00:04:38.000 --> 00:04:43.199 Do I need to strangle that thing so hard that I actually will end up killing it? 00:04:44.079 --> 00:04:45.519 But I'll be in control. 00:04:46.480 --> 00:04:52.879 And he's asking me the whole time uh, what do you really use to define yourself? 00:04:53.120 --> 00:04:55.040 Why can't you let go of that? 00:04:56.639 --> 00:04:58.319 Why all this urgency? 00:04:59.439 --> 00:05:06.480 Why why why is so why is there this addiction to control and self-dependency? 00:05:08.800 --> 00:05:11.040 Here's how this relates to Titus. 00:05:12.000 --> 00:05:19.600 Because it's this question, how do I safely and honestly without fear process something like that with God? 00:05:21.439 --> 00:05:22.480 See, I can. 00:05:22.959 --> 00:05:30.399 But I only can do it if God's grace rescues and transforms. 00:05:32.319 --> 00:05:36.160 If it's not that way, I don't have any safety with Him. 00:05:38.079 --> 00:05:44.959 I'll just revert back into my own self-dependency to work harder, or I just I just I'll just be done with it. 00:05:45.199 --> 00:05:46.800 I'll just ignore it. 00:05:47.680 --> 00:05:49.040 See, here's the great secret. 00:05:49.360 --> 00:05:54.319 Whether you're new to being a Christian, new to church, or whether you've been around forever, here's the secret. 00:05:54.480 --> 00:05:55.199 A lot of us know it. 00:05:55.279 --> 00:05:57.680 I'll go ahead and tell you if you're not clued in. 00:05:58.079 --> 00:06:00.319 None of us feel like we're good enough. 00:06:02.399 --> 00:06:04.720 None of us are good enough. 00:06:05.519 --> 00:06:07.680 None of us will be good enough. 00:06:08.399 --> 00:06:19.600 And so there's this huge exhale for us that we can confess over to God all of our issues, and we can trust Jesus' work for us on the cross. 00:06:19.680 --> 00:06:26.240 And see, then, then the grace of God which rescues you will begin to transform you. 00:06:26.480 --> 00:06:33.199 And even while you're being transformed and you're not getting that much better all the time, or you're not sure if you are, you're being rescued. 00:06:34.959 --> 00:06:43.439 Alright, so I just said a lot, a lot of that was review if you were paying attention in Titus 1 and Titus 2, and this brings us into Titus chapter 3. 00:06:43.519 --> 00:06:55.120 And the main point for Titus chapter 3 is this that the gospel, the Christian message, which means good news, the gospel means good news, is not the first step and a stairway of better and better behavior. 00:06:55.279 --> 00:07:00.000 Rather, the gospel is more like a hub and a wheel. 00:07:00.879 --> 00:07:04.959 So it's not so much like a ladder, it's more like a hub and a wheel. 00:07:05.120 --> 00:07:06.160 So let me read the text. 00:07:06.240 --> 00:07:09.759 We're gonna look at the text and we're gonna talk about what in the world does that mean. 00:07:10.079 --> 00:07:12.800 All right, so Titus chapter 3, verses 1 through 3. 00:07:12.879 --> 00:07:14.560 Let me reread what Sam read for us. 00:07:14.800 --> 00:07:18.000 Remind them to be submissive to rulers and authorities, to be obedient. 00:07:18.079 --> 00:07:20.319 So Paul's saying, hey, hey, this is what you should be like. 00:07:20.480 --> 00:07:33.199 Be submissive to rulers and authorities, be obedient, to be ready for every good work, to speak evil of no one, to avoid quarreling, to be gentle, and to show perfect courtesy toward all people. 00:07:34.079 --> 00:07:41.839 For we ourselves were once foolish, disobedient, led astray, slaves to various passions and pleasures. 00:07:42.000 --> 00:07:51.279 And he's saying this is what used to drive us, this is what used to define us, passing our days in malice and envy, hated by others and hating one another. 00:07:51.439 --> 00:07:53.839 And so let me, I'm not, I'm not leaving. 00:07:53.920 --> 00:07:55.600 Let me just pull out a couple of things here. 00:07:55.680 --> 00:07:56.160 I think we'll. 00:07:56.480 --> 00:07:59.120 So this is, you know, you need to change a light bulb. 00:07:59.360 --> 00:08:02.639 Um everybody has one, right? 00:08:02.879 --> 00:08:05.759 You change the light bulb, pull out your stepladder. 00:08:05.920 --> 00:08:08.720 Maybe, maybe you dust the top of your fan blades. 00:08:09.120 --> 00:08:11.839 Maybe there's like two of you that do that, most of us don't. 00:08:12.000 --> 00:08:17.279 Uh maybe pull it out before, you know, there's a roach on the ceiling. 00:08:17.680 --> 00:08:19.600 Anybody just want to go ahead and confess that? 00:08:19.680 --> 00:08:20.639 And you've had to do that. 00:08:20.879 --> 00:08:25.279 Scary because it might fall on you, scary moment, but you pull this out. 00:08:25.360 --> 00:08:29.600 And you step on first step, you go up, second step. 00:08:29.839 --> 00:08:31.279 Not supposed to step on the top one, right? 00:08:31.360 --> 00:08:32.720 We all know that, but we all do it. 00:08:32.799 --> 00:08:37.360 And each step you go, you go higher and you go higher and you go higher. 00:08:37.519 --> 00:08:38.799 And it's a ladder. 00:08:39.360 --> 00:08:41.120 It's a ladder mentality. 00:08:41.519 --> 00:08:44.559 Every step you take, you get higher. 00:08:44.720 --> 00:08:48.720 Now, sadly, we can bridge a ladder mentality into Christianity. 00:08:48.799 --> 00:08:52.320 And what it looks like is this is that the gospel is the first step. 00:08:52.879 --> 00:08:58.000 And then we begin to misuse things like morality, disciplines. 00:08:58.159 --> 00:08:59.840 I mean, like good things. 00:09:01.679 --> 00:09:06.559 Religiosity to make ourselves feel more godly or validated before God. 00:09:06.639 --> 00:09:15.360 And so just take another step, take another step, take another step, and maybe you've been in a church like that or denomination or some religious system, and it's just another step and another step and another step. 00:09:15.440 --> 00:09:18.159 And the first step was like, you are loved. 00:09:18.320 --> 00:09:20.639 But after that, it was like just get the work. 00:09:20.799 --> 00:09:23.039 And it's another step and another step and another step. 00:09:23.200 --> 00:09:25.200 And if you've been around that, you know the deal. 00:09:25.360 --> 00:09:26.240 It just doesn't end. 00:09:26.320 --> 00:09:27.279 There's no end. 00:09:29.759 --> 00:09:44.240 And what it does is it reverts back to you the pressure to become better rather than being empowered by some work that's been done outside of yourself. 00:09:44.879 --> 00:09:47.200 But this text is totally different. 00:09:47.440 --> 00:09:50.559 Because this text is not so much an image of a ladder. 00:09:50.879 --> 00:09:55.200 This text is more of an image of a wheel. 00:09:56.559 --> 00:10:01.120 So we've been riding bikes like crazy the last few weeks at the beach. 00:10:01.200 --> 00:10:06.480 So I've been spent a lot of time on a bike, uh, my little girl's in front of me, behind me. 00:10:06.639 --> 00:10:14.879 I've been looking at wheels, sitting on a seat, hot, sweaty at the beach, pedaling, looking down at wheels, and it's all about the hub. 00:10:15.039 --> 00:10:24.480 I mean, really, that's what it's about is you know, on a given wheel, the thing that holds it all together to make it work, what you are dependent on is the hub. 00:10:26.159 --> 00:10:27.919 It breaks, you're going down. 00:10:28.960 --> 00:10:33.039 It's the thing that empowers everything. 00:10:35.519 --> 00:10:40.399 The gospel, God's grace to you and the work of Jesus is the center. 00:10:40.559 --> 00:10:52.320 It is the hub that holds everything together, and everything else revolves around it, and it's constantly coming back to it, and it is empowering everything else. 00:10:53.440 --> 00:11:04.799 So your identity, your disciplines, your morality, your confession, your effort, everything is revolving around this great hub, Christ's work, for you that you are dependent on. 00:11:05.039 --> 00:11:08.639 And it's this message, the gospel, the good news that it's over. 00:11:09.759 --> 00:11:10.399 That it's over. 00:11:10.559 --> 00:11:15.200 You are made right with God based on Jesus' work, and he has no condemnation toward you. 00:11:17.279 --> 00:11:26.559 So in this text, what we get in these first couple verses is in verse 1, we see Paul calling us out to be, you know, be submissive, be law-abiding in our society. 00:11:26.720 --> 00:11:29.200 Then Paul says, be willing to lend a helping hand. 00:11:29.279 --> 00:11:30.879 He also says, have a big heart. 00:11:31.039 --> 00:11:32.879 Have big hearts and be kind. 00:11:33.440 --> 00:11:36.080 In verse 2, he talks about speaking words of love. 00:11:36.240 --> 00:11:45.440 See, this is what the gospel is creating in us, not all at once, but little by little, maybe without you noticing. 00:11:46.960 --> 00:11:50.080 See, remember, grace relieves our hearts. 00:11:51.440 --> 00:11:53.279 So we don't have to be afraid anymore. 00:11:54.639 --> 00:12:08.159 We don't have to live reactive to fear all the time because we're already accepted, so we don't have to use our words and use our actions to try to constantly earn acceptance, which means we can be law-abiding, we can be submissive, and we can use our words to love people. 00:12:08.320 --> 00:12:09.759 We can risk love. 00:12:10.320 --> 00:12:13.360 We can risk love because we've already been loved. 00:12:14.000 --> 00:12:22.159 Now, this is where I'm a huge work in progress because I still use my words to impress people constantly. 00:12:23.519 --> 00:12:27.120 Let people know I'm smart, or I think I'm smart. 00:12:28.720 --> 00:12:33.679 Let them know who I am, who I know, where I've been. 00:12:38.639 --> 00:12:46.159 But when you're resting and you're coming back to the hub that you should be dependent upon, you don't need to be using your words that way. 00:12:46.240 --> 00:12:48.240 You don't have to use your actions that way. 00:12:48.399 --> 00:12:50.399 You can live a different way. 00:12:52.240 --> 00:12:57.840 And see, from that hub, that core inner peace that is in Christ, that's where the change comes. 00:12:57.919 --> 00:13:00.720 This is how God creates change in us. 00:13:01.759 --> 00:13:05.440 And creates a gentle and kind and humble spirit. 00:13:06.799 --> 00:13:11.840 So because Paul knows we're gonna take these things in verses one and two, we're gonna build a ladder, because that's what we do. 00:13:11.919 --> 00:13:13.360 We go, oh, well, this is what I'm gonna do. 00:13:13.440 --> 00:13:13.919 I'm gonna do this. 00:13:14.000 --> 00:13:26.080 I'm gonna be humble, and then I'm gonna be submissive, I'm gonna use kind words, I'm gonna do this really good, and he knows we're gonna do this, so he immediately brings us back away from that ladder mentality, back to a wheel mentality. 00:13:26.240 --> 00:13:28.159 In verse 3, he says, you know what? 00:13:28.320 --> 00:13:32.720 You you're morons, you're stubborn, you're foolish, but God stepped in. 00:13:32.799 --> 00:13:33.919 That's what verse 4 says. 00:13:34.159 --> 00:13:45.360 But when the goodness and loving kindness of God, our Savior, appeared, he saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy. 00:13:45.679 --> 00:13:58.960 By the washing of regeneration and the renewal of the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior, which means this there is nothing you have done to earn God's love. 00:13:59.039 --> 00:14:00.879 It's by his work. 00:14:03.440 --> 00:14:08.559 And that work washes you, and his spirit lives in you and is working in you. 00:14:08.639 --> 00:14:16.799 And then we get verse 7, so that being justified by his grace, we might become heirs according to the hope of eternal life. 00:14:17.039 --> 00:14:27.039 So all of this makes us right, makes us complete, blameless, holy, his children, which gives us life now and gives us life forever. 00:14:27.200 --> 00:14:28.799 See, are you seeing the pattern in Titus? 00:14:29.039 --> 00:14:40.159 The pattern in Titus is this Paul keeps telling us about the fruits of the gospel, what our lives should look like, and then he immediately returns us back to God's grace for us. 00:14:40.320 --> 00:14:54.399 So it's like he takes us from the hub of the wheel out to the outside edge of the wheel, and he takes us out to this outside edge, and then he knows we're gonna kind of like turn the outside edge into like a ladder, so he takes us back to the hub to remind us that no, you always are coming back. 00:14:54.879 --> 00:15:00.799 That this is what generates the power, this is your stability, this is where everything rests. 00:15:02.399 --> 00:15:08.399 So last week when we were at the beach with Christy's family, there's 17 of us in a house all together, big house. 00:15:08.559 --> 00:15:09.200 Thank you for that. 00:15:09.440 --> 00:15:10.480 That's a lot of people. 00:15:10.639 --> 00:15:13.039 And so one day we had uh Beach Olympics. 00:15:13.360 --> 00:15:15.759 Anybody play Beach Olympics on their family vacation? 00:15:15.919 --> 00:15:25.840 So we played Beach Olympics one day as we have a whole bunch of little kids, and so we had stuff like um water balloon toss, spoon egg relay, uh cornhole, right? 00:15:26.080 --> 00:15:27.440 That's maybe more common to you guys. 00:15:27.519 --> 00:15:32.799 Uh we had shaving cream cover somebody in shaving cream, then they had to go run down and wash off in the ocean and come back. 00:15:32.879 --> 00:15:34.639 And so we had all these events. 00:15:34.799 --> 00:15:55.039 Well, the last event, the last event was uh um a cup that had a hole in the bottom of it, and you had to, uh your team is all lined up in a row, and you pass the cup all the way down the row, and then they dipped it into the ocean, and then they pass the cup back up, and so water's coming out, and then you're trying to fill a bucket and then back and forth over and over again. 00:15:55.200 --> 00:16:02.320 I think I misjudged the amount of time this would take because as we're going, the adults are kind of looking at each other like, should we figure out a way to cut this short? 00:16:02.480 --> 00:16:03.759 And we just kept doing it. 00:16:03.919 --> 00:16:09.519 The only way to win this, the only way to win it is to keep returning to the ocean. 00:16:09.679 --> 00:16:11.360 This is the only way to win it. 00:16:11.440 --> 00:16:12.559 There's no other way. 00:16:13.440 --> 00:16:14.000 That's it. 00:16:14.080 --> 00:16:17.279 You have to keep dipping into the ocean. 00:16:17.519 --> 00:16:26.720 Martin Luther, the great reformer, the writer, the writer in the 1600s, he said this to progress is to always begin again. 00:16:28.240 --> 00:16:29.440 It's the only way. 00:16:59.840 --> 00:17:05.359 So I started to think about thinking about you know, I was trying not to think about this when I was on sabbatical, but inevitably I was. 00:17:05.440 --> 00:17:20.480 And so I was thinking about some of this while just sitting on the beach and thinking about this imagery of what it means if the gospel is a hub of a wheel and empowers us, and it's everything we rest in, and and at the same time hearing the waves. 00:17:20.960 --> 00:17:25.359 I have these weird, I have weird uh hearing. 00:17:25.759 --> 00:17:29.039 I just I hear everything, like these little noises. 00:17:29.440 --> 00:17:31.440 Um noises bother me. 00:17:31.519 --> 00:17:33.039 I'm sure it's a condition. 00:17:33.359 --> 00:17:36.880 Some I saw somebody nudging somebody over here because you're like me. 00:17:37.039 --> 00:17:39.920 I mean, I just anything just bothers me. 00:17:40.000 --> 00:17:42.720 It's just constantly, I'm just constantly bothered by noise. 00:17:43.039 --> 00:17:44.000 It really is a condition. 00:17:44.160 --> 00:17:50.880 And the at the beach, I I love the beach because the the waves it just drowns out all the other noises, right? 00:17:50.960 --> 00:17:53.279 It's it's it's God's like sound machine, is what it is. 00:17:53.440 --> 00:17:54.640 It's so wonderful. 00:17:54.720 --> 00:18:01.519 It is constant, endless, persistent affection for my ears, right? 00:18:01.680 --> 00:18:04.559 You just sit there and it just lulls you. 00:18:05.119 --> 00:18:07.039 And it just doesn't stop. 00:18:07.920 --> 00:18:11.440 And maybe this is a better way for you to think about what the gospel is. 00:18:11.920 --> 00:18:13.119 Same thing as a hub. 00:18:13.200 --> 00:18:14.799 It just doesn't stop. 00:18:15.359 --> 00:18:17.839 This good news of God's grace for you. 00:18:17.920 --> 00:18:27.039 It is the endless, persistent affection for us, which keeps loving us even though we're failing in our transformation. 00:18:27.200 --> 00:18:30.240 And yet that's the very thing that transforms us. 00:18:32.160 --> 00:18:53.680 And as we let that great revolutionary truth just get into us, and we rest in it more and more, and we overcome a merit-based kind of ladder mentality to Christianity, we will find a rest that not just relieves us from ungodliness, but actually empowers us to godliness. 00:18:54.160 --> 00:18:55.599 That's what Titus is about. 00:18:55.759 --> 00:18:57.680 That's what Paul is saying in Titus. 00:19:01.440 --> 00:19:08.079 Titus has been so huge for me as a book in the Bible because I just I used to always need the next religious hit. 00:19:08.960 --> 00:19:12.880 I don't know if that resonates with you, if you know what I'm talking about when I say that. 00:19:13.039 --> 00:19:16.000 I just always needed the next personal transformation. 00:19:16.160 --> 00:19:19.920 I needed the next book, I needed the next level of maturity. 00:19:20.400 --> 00:19:21.839 I just always needed enough. 00:19:21.920 --> 00:19:28.799 And so it's sort of like, well, Jesus is enough, but really today I'm gonna supplement all of that. 00:19:28.960 --> 00:19:38.240 I'm gonna supplement that with how I feel about how good I am in response to that work, and that wore me out because I was climbing a ladder. 00:19:39.359 --> 00:19:41.839 And I wasn't getting a lot better. 00:19:45.200 --> 00:19:47.759 I do wish I was better, right? 00:19:48.000 --> 00:19:50.240 I mean, I think all of us wish we were better. 00:19:50.400 --> 00:19:52.880 I think as Christians, we should wish we were better. 00:19:53.039 --> 00:19:57.599 We should hope to be better, we should want to glorify God and be kind to others. 00:19:57.680 --> 00:20:02.720 I mean, we want to be better, and we could we beat ourselves up for not being better. 00:20:03.599 --> 00:20:07.680 And every once in a while I catch a glimpse of myself. 00:20:08.240 --> 00:20:08.480 Right? 00:20:08.640 --> 00:20:11.359 Every once in a while you you catch a glimpse of yourself. 00:20:11.920 --> 00:20:15.440 You go, how am I how am I still angry? 00:20:17.519 --> 00:20:19.279 How am I still ashamed of that? 00:20:23.039 --> 00:20:26.240 How do I still struggle with body image? 00:20:27.599 --> 00:20:32.079 42 years old, how do I still struggle with this like I did when I was 16? 00:20:32.559 --> 00:20:36.000 Shouldn't I be over this by now? 00:20:38.079 --> 00:20:39.759 How am I still so impatient? 00:20:39.920 --> 00:20:41.279 Why do I still get frustrated? 00:20:41.519 --> 00:20:44.960 Why do I cuss like a sailor when I get stressed out? 00:20:45.119 --> 00:20:48.240 Like, how is this still going on? 00:20:49.680 --> 00:20:57.519 And then maybe there's some other things you see where you have concern for other people. 00:21:00.160 --> 00:21:04.720 A few weeks ago, a friend of a friend's little girl died. 00:21:05.680 --> 00:21:07.759 It bothered me for a week. 00:21:08.079 --> 00:21:11.039 I used to be like hear something like that and go eat a burrito. 00:21:11.599 --> 00:21:13.200 I mean, I'll be honest. 00:21:14.000 --> 00:21:14.799 I didn't know her. 00:21:19.759 --> 00:21:20.880 It's not much. 00:21:23.759 --> 00:21:24.480 Something. 00:21:24.799 --> 00:21:29.359 But but even even that, even that fruit isn't anything to hold on to. 00:21:30.559 --> 00:21:35.119 I mean, right, that would just be another form of addiction to performance all over again. 00:21:35.279 --> 00:21:37.920 Fruit just isn't made to be held on to. 00:21:38.079 --> 00:21:41.680 The hub of the wheel is what's made to be held on to. 00:21:43.359 --> 00:21:48.640 Don't be paralyzed in life by counting apples and oranges of your life. 00:21:48.799 --> 00:21:50.000 Don't do that. 00:21:50.160 --> 00:21:54.079 You have to begin again, over and over again. 00:21:54.240 --> 00:21:55.359 Return to the hub. 00:21:55.519 --> 00:22:03.599 What if the breakthrough you need wasn't you getting better behaviors, but simply remembering how sufficient Jesus is for you? 00:22:03.759 --> 00:22:07.759 What if that was the only true way for you to become godly? 00:22:08.720 --> 00:22:10.319 From the heart outward. 00:22:12.240 --> 00:22:20.319 Bearing fruit, failing, remembering what God has done for you and Jesus, and trusting in it in a greater way. 00:22:21.440 --> 00:22:28.559 There's a reason why Paul begins and ends almost all his books with the way he ends this book. 00:22:28.880 --> 00:22:30.559 Grace be with you all. 00:22:31.839 --> 00:22:33.119 It's because we need it. 00:22:33.519 --> 00:22:34.880 Let's pray together. 00:22:44.880 --> 00:22:50.400 God, we confess that we are not transformed enough. 00:22:54.000 --> 00:23:00.960 In many ways in many ways we're not transformed at all, and in other ways we see great progress. 00:23:05.440 --> 00:23:12.720 God, would you help us to turn our eyes from constantly analyzing ourselves to trusting in you in greater ways? 00:23:13.839 --> 00:23:19.839 Would you give us great hope of what's possible for our lives and at the same time humility and brokenness? 00:23:22.000 --> 00:23:24.319 For all the ways that we constantly need you. 00:23:25.920 --> 00:23:27.200 For you are the hub. 00:23:29.440 --> 00:23:30.799 On you everything runs. 00:23:34.640 --> 00:23:37.680 Would we be empowered by your word for us? 00:23:38.319 --> 00:23:44.559 Does it relieve us right with you? 00:23:54.240 --> 00:23:54.960 Empowered us.