WEBVTT 00:00:00.239 --> 00:00:01.760 So we're in Titus chapter two. 00:00:02.080 --> 00:00:11.839 What we talked about two weeks ago is that the gospel, uh this idea that the good news that Jesus is enough for us, the gospel is it's a totally different way of thinking. 00:00:12.080 --> 00:00:14.640 It's different than legalism, it's different than license. 00:00:14.720 --> 00:00:20.640 And what we said is like legalism and license, a lot of people use this metaphor like sort of like a seesaw, and you need to get a balance between the two. 00:00:20.800 --> 00:00:25.600 And we said, well, no, it's not really like a balance, it's just it's a totally different way. 00:00:25.760 --> 00:00:31.280 Like, don't even use that metaphor, use a different metaphor because it's a different way of thinking. 00:00:31.359 --> 00:00:33.280 And the new thinking is not balance. 00:00:33.439 --> 00:00:38.479 The new thinking is I no longer have to perform obey to be accepted. 00:00:38.640 --> 00:00:41.520 I'm already accepted, therefore I obey. 00:00:41.679 --> 00:00:43.200 It's a different way to think. 00:00:43.439 --> 00:00:48.640 I'm completely, utterly, fully accepted, therefore I obey. 00:00:48.960 --> 00:00:55.359 All right, so that was sort of chapter one, and we tied that into chapter two a little bit, and now we're going to flesh out chapter two this morning. 00:00:55.439 --> 00:00:56.799 And so let's read a little bit. 00:00:56.880 --> 00:01:01.280 Um I got ten verses to read here, so uh so hang with me, they're there in the bulletin. 00:01:01.439 --> 00:01:03.039 Chapter two, verses one through ten. 00:01:03.600 --> 00:01:08.400 But as for you, teach what accords with sound doctrine. 00:01:08.719 --> 00:01:15.680 Older men are to be sober-minded, dignified, self-controlled, sound in faith, in love, in steadfastness. 00:01:15.920 --> 00:01:21.120 Older women likewise are to be reverent in behavior, not slanderers or slaves to much wine. 00:01:21.280 --> 00:01:35.120 They are to teach what is good, and so train the young women to love their husbands and children, to be self-controlled, pure, working at home, kind and submissive to their own husbands, that the word of God may not be reviled. 00:01:35.359 --> 00:01:38.480 Likewise urge the younger men to be self-controlled. 00:01:38.719 --> 00:01:53.439 Show yourselves in all respects to be a model of good works, and in your teaching show integrity, dignity, and sound speech that cannot be condemned, so that an opponent may be put to shame, having nothing evil to say about us. 00:01:53.680 --> 00:01:55.439 So that's that's what our lives should look like. 00:01:55.599 --> 00:01:58.000 That's what that's what it should look like, is that. 00:01:59.040 --> 00:02:02.560 Bondservants are to be submissive to their own masters in everything. 00:02:02.640 --> 00:02:12.879 They are to be well pleasing, not argumentative, not pilfering, but showing all good faith, so that in everything they may adorn the doctrine of God our Savior. 00:02:13.039 --> 00:02:14.240 Well, that's quite a list. 00:02:14.479 --> 00:02:16.800 You're reading that, you're like, whoa, okay. 00:02:16.960 --> 00:02:23.199 Um, and this is the moment where you can begin to sort of uh tell you the truth, you can begin to just compare yourself. 00:02:23.360 --> 00:02:23.680 Right? 00:02:23.759 --> 00:02:32.560 Like this is where a lot of times Christians would begin to compare ourselves, or we just feel defeated right away, or we compare ourselves to feel successful in one area and then feel defeated in another area. 00:02:32.800 --> 00:02:47.680 Or perhaps, perhaps, perhaps, we will be willing to embrace what Paul is teaching here, and that is what we're gonna learn the rest of this passage is to rest in God's grace that not only rescues us but also changes us. 00:02:47.840 --> 00:02:54.479 But if you've been around the Christian world for a while, and maybe you have or maybe you haven't, then you'll learn this if you continue around the Christian world. 00:02:54.639 --> 00:02:56.240 We love to look at each other. 00:02:56.400 --> 00:03:07.520 We love to look at like who's spiritual and who's not, how spiritual are you, and then inevitably how we feel is we feel we aren't quite transformed enough. 00:03:08.879 --> 00:03:10.479 I've been a Christian for 23 years. 00:03:10.560 --> 00:03:13.120 Some of you have been Christians for for longer than that. 00:03:13.280 --> 00:03:17.120 I've never felt transformed enough. 00:03:17.360 --> 00:03:21.599 There's never been a time where I said, you know what, I mean, I'm just really I've made it. 00:03:21.759 --> 00:03:24.639 My transformation, I'm feeling very transformed today. 00:03:24.719 --> 00:03:26.800 I'm feeling very successful as a Christian. 00:03:27.039 --> 00:03:28.479 Like that's never happened. 00:03:28.639 --> 00:03:31.680 I mean, even this past week at the Blue Skies camp. 00:03:32.240 --> 00:03:44.639 Uh one day we're uh walking to the pool in the afternoon and have this break, and so taking the girls to the pool, and there's a whole bunch of guys washing the cars of uh the guests who are going to drive home. 00:03:44.800 --> 00:03:52.639 And all I'm thinking about is like, how do I, how do they not see me go to the pool so I don't feel bad that I'm not washing the cars? 00:03:52.800 --> 00:04:01.120 Like, like I'm 23 years into this, I'm still trying to figure out ways how to skip out of things I should be doing. 00:04:01.439 --> 00:04:02.400 I don't know if you're like that. 00:04:02.479 --> 00:04:05.759 You catch yourself thinking something, you're doing something, you're like, how is this still in me? 00:04:05.840 --> 00:04:07.680 How has this not gotten better? 00:04:07.840 --> 00:04:09.520 How have I not gotten better? 00:04:09.680 --> 00:04:17.759 And it's because while while I'm being transformed into a reflection of Jesus, I'm still in me. 00:04:19.439 --> 00:04:24.160 Yeah, I mean, Jesus is in me and the Holy Spirit resides in me, but I am still in me. 00:04:24.639 --> 00:04:29.120 Messy, selfish Russ is still in me. 00:04:30.480 --> 00:04:42.959 So we read this list, and it's what we should be, and is what we should aim to be, and at times, in certain ways, it is what we are, but at the same time we read this list, you know you're not this list. 00:04:43.439 --> 00:04:44.399 You know it. 00:04:45.519 --> 00:04:56.879 So we were at Disney World in April, and we think we're so clever, we think we're so smart because we had read online, we read that they were opening the gates early at 7 a.m. 00:04:57.040 --> 00:04:57.839 instead of 8 a.m. 00:04:58.000 --> 00:05:06.720 And so we're so smart and clever, and so we're gonna wake up really early, and we're not staying on the resort property, so we have to wake up even earlier to drive there, to park and walk and do all that. 00:05:06.879 --> 00:05:21.600 And so we wake up like it's dark out early, it's like 5:30, you know, get ready, drive there, and we're so clever, we're gonna get the you know, the secret knowledge, the gates open an hour early, and we're gonna get in there, we're gonna hit more rides in like the first hour. 00:05:21.839 --> 00:05:25.759 And so we get there, and there's some other people, you know, they know the same thing. 00:05:25.839 --> 00:05:28.079 We're all looking at each other, all kind of proud of each other. 00:05:28.319 --> 00:05:35.040 We all know this, the gates open an hour early, and we park and we walk and we're walking, and we're so excited. 00:05:35.120 --> 00:05:45.519 It's not hot out yet, still cool out, and we get up to the gate, and we're so ready, and it that would the gates open early for anybody who stayed on Disney property. 00:05:45.839 --> 00:05:50.720 And you're like, oh, okay, so so let they'll corral the the others. 00:05:50.879 --> 00:05:57.199 Um over here, you can wait for an hour with your children, right? 00:05:57.439 --> 00:06:00.639 For an hour, corralled for an hour. 00:06:00.800 --> 00:06:02.399 Are you getting the picture? 00:06:02.720 --> 00:06:15.759 While these other wonderful, beautiful people walk by with their Disney shirts on and they're cruising by, checking through, taking the ferry, it's cool out, getting the head start. 00:06:16.399 --> 00:06:19.600 And finally they release the for us and they herd us. 00:06:19.680 --> 00:06:22.959 We're herded at this point because there's a massive amount of people at this point. 00:06:23.040 --> 00:06:25.120 All of our cleverness is totally gone. 00:06:25.199 --> 00:06:27.600 And and so they herd us to the ferry. 00:06:27.680 --> 00:06:28.959 We're not even allowed to take the train. 00:06:29.040 --> 00:06:29.920 We didn't figure that one out. 00:06:30.079 --> 00:06:33.759 We weren't happy about it, and so we have to take the ferry, and we're all herded over there. 00:06:33.920 --> 00:06:36.959 And finally we get in, and it's still cool out. 00:06:37.120 --> 00:06:53.279 Like if you've been to Disney, you know how important that is, and so it's still cool out, and so we're we're doing rides, and we're we're happy, and and everything's good, and the people watching is the best thing about Disney World more than the rides, and so slowly you're starting to watch people and people getting a little more angry, a little more angry at each other as the day goes on. 00:06:53.439 --> 00:06:59.920 And I think at some point we were in line for some you know really vital ride that you you know we just had to ride. 00:07:00.079 --> 00:07:08.319 And start to look around and and you start to see um it's getting a little bit hotter, and everybody's getting a little hungrier, right? 00:07:08.720 --> 00:07:16.639 And everybody starts to argue, and strollers are hitting against each other, parents are arguing, and you know, and it's just for the for the love, we're gonna have fun. 00:07:16.800 --> 00:07:22.319 Like we are we are here, and for the love of it, we will have fun and smile for Instagram. 00:07:22.399 --> 00:07:38.879 Well, you you are gonna smile for Instagram right now, and then you start to look around and you start to see that there's a whole group of people, and maybe you're one of these people, like you got the Disney shirt on, and like you got a Disney bracelet or something, and um, and like you're like you're like cutting lines. 00:07:39.040 --> 00:07:39.839 There's stuff going on. 00:07:39.920 --> 00:07:41.279 You're like, what, what, what was that? 00:07:41.439 --> 00:07:47.600 Where you know, there's like a secret line, a fast pass line, and like you went online and you reserved stuff. 00:07:47.839 --> 00:07:50.720 I don't know, like you're laying out at the pool with Mickey in the afternoon. 00:07:50.800 --> 00:07:52.639 I don't even know what's going on. 00:07:52.800 --> 00:08:11.439 I'm just the moron, you know, like in my normal shirt and my normal clothes, and I'm watching this these other people, and they know stuff, and they look it and they got it, they have it going on, and I'm the moron over there, and I'm looking at this, and you just start to feel like, I mean, all these people, they really have it together. 00:08:11.680 --> 00:08:18.959 I mean, this group of people, they are so smart, they are so clever, they were not the morons herded like cattle at 7 a.m. 00:08:19.279 --> 00:08:20.319 over there with their kids. 00:08:20.399 --> 00:08:22.959 I mean, these people have it going on. 00:08:23.360 --> 00:08:26.399 And me, I am so far from that, right? 00:08:26.480 --> 00:08:32.080 Like, like for this like Disney transformation process, I am not even close to this. 00:08:32.159 --> 00:08:33.120 And this is what we do. 00:08:33.200 --> 00:08:33.600 We do this. 00:08:33.679 --> 00:08:38.559 We do this at Disney World, we do this at the at the gym, we do this if you can go to a NASCAR race. 00:08:38.639 --> 00:08:40.399 I mean, we do it at church. 00:08:40.720 --> 00:08:41.440 We do this. 00:08:41.519 --> 00:08:46.799 We compare ourselves and then we take on the burden of the lack of transformation. 00:08:47.039 --> 00:08:48.399 This is what we do. 00:08:48.879 --> 00:08:50.879 And it just kills the day. 00:08:51.279 --> 00:08:51.679 Right? 00:08:51.840 --> 00:08:53.440 It absolutely kills the day. 00:08:53.759 --> 00:09:03.600 It kills the possibility of what can go on that day, kills the possibility for the sake of the metaphor, it kills the possibility of the transformation that Mickey Mouse might do in your life. 00:09:03.759 --> 00:09:10.879 I mean, it just kills it because we just think like at this point in our lives, we should have our acts together. 00:09:11.120 --> 00:09:14.399 Like at this point of being a Christian, that I should be better. 00:09:14.559 --> 00:09:17.919 I should have, I should have known to go online and reserve the fast pass. 00:09:18.240 --> 00:09:19.120 I should have known this. 00:09:19.200 --> 00:09:21.279 I should have known some secret knowledge. 00:09:21.360 --> 00:09:23.200 I should have known something here. 00:09:23.440 --> 00:09:27.360 I mean, do you ever feel like you just haven't changed enough? 00:09:27.679 --> 00:09:29.679 Like you should be better at this point. 00:09:29.840 --> 00:09:41.919 And it's a guilt created by this idea that when you become a Christian, that the Christian life is going to be one of an endless, upward sloping, feeling better about your godliness. 00:09:43.840 --> 00:09:46.159 And the reality doesn't match up. 00:09:47.279 --> 00:09:51.600 It's not an endless, upward sloping feeling better about your godliness. 00:09:51.759 --> 00:09:58.080 Paul definitely did not feel an upward sloping feeling better about his godliness throughout the New Testament. 00:09:58.639 --> 00:10:04.960 So the question comes, is like, okay, how do we enter a process of transformation as people and as Christians? 00:10:05.200 --> 00:10:06.960 Which is what verses 1 through 10 are? 00:10:07.039 --> 00:10:08.639 Like, this is how we should, this is what we should look like. 00:10:08.720 --> 00:10:11.360 I mean, legitimately Paul's saying, this is what we should look like. 00:10:11.519 --> 00:10:16.799 We should look like this to the point that unbelievers look at us and they don't even have an argument towards us. 00:10:16.960 --> 00:10:17.840 We should look like this. 00:10:18.000 --> 00:10:22.480 So how does this happen to the point where we're not being beaten down by it? 00:10:23.440 --> 00:10:25.039 Well, read it two weeks ago. 00:10:25.200 --> 00:10:29.600 Fortunately, Paul doesn't stop the passage there and he helps us to understand how this could happen. 00:10:29.840 --> 00:10:30.960 Verse 11. 00:10:31.360 --> 00:10:33.759 For, that's a big, big word here. 00:10:33.919 --> 00:10:39.120 I mean, coming in right after all of that, he says, for the grace of God has appeared. 00:10:39.279 --> 00:10:53.360 And here's what it does: bringing salvation for all people, number one, number two, training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age. 00:10:53.519 --> 00:11:13.120 There's a summary of verses one through ten right there, waiting for our blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ, who gave himself up for us to redeem us from all lawlessness and to purify for himself a people for his own possession who are zealous for good works. 00:11:13.360 --> 00:11:20.879 This is perhaps the most concise explanation in the Bible of gospel-centered living. 00:11:23.200 --> 00:11:26.559 That all these things we should be, but we are not yet. 00:11:26.720 --> 00:11:31.919 All these things come to fruition by embracing God's grace for you. 00:11:32.080 --> 00:11:33.600 And this is why it works. 00:11:33.759 --> 00:11:43.840 It works like this, because while we are being rescued by our inability to cause transformation, we are being transformed by the very same power. 00:11:45.759 --> 00:11:46.559 I'll repeat that. 00:11:46.720 --> 00:11:55.600 While we are being rescued by our inability to cause transformation, we are being transformed by the very same power. 00:11:56.720 --> 00:12:03.840 So what this means is it means like if your house is on fire, the fireman is also the carpenter. 00:12:04.960 --> 00:12:06.399 It's the same man. 00:12:06.720 --> 00:12:10.960 He comes in and he rescues you, and then he starts to rebuild the house. 00:12:11.039 --> 00:12:12.720 It's the same man. 00:12:14.399 --> 00:12:16.159 That's the grace of God. 00:12:17.120 --> 00:12:18.080 I say it a lot. 00:12:18.480 --> 00:12:20.159 Grace relieves our hearts. 00:12:20.320 --> 00:12:22.159 We don't have to be afraid anymore. 00:12:22.399 --> 00:12:25.200 We are accepted as we are, not as we should be. 00:12:25.360 --> 00:12:37.120 So we are no longer reacting and living out of fear, constantly trying to build an identity or trying to form our core inner self out of something that's unhealthy or some sinful life. 00:12:37.279 --> 00:12:44.080 We are at peace with ourselves through Jesus, and this is what creates verses 1 through 10. 00:12:44.799 --> 00:12:46.159 So let me sum it up. 00:12:46.240 --> 00:12:47.120 Two clear points. 00:12:47.200 --> 00:12:50.639 I'm summing up everything I just said already, and that's this. 00:12:50.879 --> 00:12:51.600 Very clear. 00:12:52.399 --> 00:12:54.320 Even as I read the passage, I said them. 00:12:54.480 --> 00:12:58.320 Verse 11, God's grace brings salvation. 00:12:58.799 --> 00:13:03.360 Now, for me, my background growing up, uh, salvation, are you saved? 00:13:03.519 --> 00:13:04.000 Are you saved? 00:13:04.159 --> 00:13:05.279 I'm saved, are you saved? 00:13:05.360 --> 00:13:07.360 I mean, that was like the language where I grew up. 00:13:07.519 --> 00:13:10.480 And all that meant was is like, are you going to hell or are you not going to hell? 00:13:10.559 --> 00:13:13.600 But it's it is more than it is that, but it's more than that. 00:13:13.759 --> 00:13:16.240 And let me give you a working definition here. 00:13:16.559 --> 00:13:37.840 Salvation is God's work on our behalf in the person of Jesus to rescue us from the judgment for our sin and to bring us into freedom and fellowship with God Himself, restoring us into a kingdom of life and love that is both now and forever. 00:13:38.320 --> 00:13:40.639 And God's grace does that for us. 00:13:41.039 --> 00:13:44.240 Verse 12, so verse 11, God's grace brings salvation. 00:13:44.399 --> 00:13:46.879 Verse 12, it's not over, story's not over. 00:13:47.120 --> 00:13:47.440 Right? 00:13:47.759 --> 00:13:48.480 Story's not over. 00:13:48.720 --> 00:13:51.679 Verse 12, God's grace brings godliness. 00:13:53.200 --> 00:13:55.200 The slate is clean. 00:13:55.519 --> 00:13:59.039 So we don't have to operate out of fear anymore. 00:13:59.519 --> 00:14:01.440 And Christ is in us. 00:14:02.799 --> 00:14:10.159 And we don't even have to operate out of the burden of measuring ourselves constantly because the slate is clean. 00:14:10.320 --> 00:14:13.200 That's the thing that helps us get better. 00:14:14.480 --> 00:14:21.679 It's so interesting that the thing that helps us get better is the fact that we know we don't have to get better to be loved, and that's the thing that helps us get better. 00:14:24.000 --> 00:14:29.440 So I read this excerpt this week as I was studying and reading about transformation and Christian transformation. 00:14:29.600 --> 00:14:37.600 And so this book called Good News for Anxious Christians, and here's a quote from it, and it's not in your bulletin, so you're just gonna have to hang with me as I read it. 00:14:38.000 --> 00:14:47.600 The idea that we are supposed to have some superior blessing beyond Christ crucified for us is profoundly perversed. 00:14:49.200 --> 00:14:56.399 As if Christ were not the fount of every blessing, the one in whom we find all holiness and goodness and wisdom for our lives. 00:14:56.639 --> 00:15:04.240 It's an idea that makes our experiences, which is to say, ourselves, into the focus of our lives. 00:15:04.399 --> 00:15:09.600 And that's why transformative experiences get so shallow. 00:15:10.480 --> 00:15:17.120 We remain the same, ever-changing, consumeristic self through all the transformations. 00:15:17.919 --> 00:15:26.720 Whereas what we have, if we are nothing but ordinary Christians, is greater than all the experiences in the world. 00:15:27.039 --> 00:15:38.559 We have Christ Himself, God in person, the bridegroom, the beloved, who gave his life for us and who promised to give his own spirit to be with us. 00:15:38.799 --> 00:15:41.440 Everything else is inessential. 00:15:43.039 --> 00:15:54.559 So maybe you've moved through the Christian life and been able to measure yourself and how good you are compared to other people or how good how close you are to God on a constant daily basis. 00:15:54.720 --> 00:15:57.200 Maybe you've moved through that and you've done okay. 00:15:57.360 --> 00:16:00.080 For me, it nearly killed me. 00:16:01.840 --> 00:16:11.120 I mean, just always needing the next emotional, religious hit, like the next devotional, like what I already knew was never enough to rest in. 00:16:11.200 --> 00:16:14.000 I always needed to know something else to do. 00:16:14.720 --> 00:16:19.519 The next change had to happen in order to feel validated before God. 00:16:19.759 --> 00:16:24.799 So I was constantly insecure and lacked peace because my faith was really about me. 00:16:25.039 --> 00:16:26.480 It was about what I did. 00:16:26.960 --> 00:16:33.919 It's interesting in the Bible that uh the metaphors for personal growth and transformation are always really slow processes. 00:16:35.360 --> 00:16:44.639 Like a tree growing and producing fruit, a seed turning into a plant, a farmer plowing and farming. 00:16:46.159 --> 00:16:52.320 And all of this is oddly comforting because it's reality. 00:16:52.960 --> 00:16:54.399 It's your reality. 00:16:57.200 --> 00:17:03.440 It doesn't sell like a necessarily a book really well, but it's reality. 00:17:05.759 --> 00:17:09.119 Do you remember when Extreme Home Makeover, the TV show first came out? 00:17:09.359 --> 00:17:12.240 Remember, it came on Sunday nights, it's like pre-DVR. 00:17:12.480 --> 00:17:13.599 Everybody was watching it. 00:17:13.759 --> 00:17:14.559 Were you watching it? 00:17:14.720 --> 00:17:16.799 Let's just confession. 00:17:17.039 --> 00:17:17.920 Did you cry? 00:17:18.160 --> 00:17:18.720 Confession. 00:17:18.960 --> 00:17:20.000 Has anybody cried? 00:17:20.160 --> 00:17:22.640 Let's let's let's have an honest moment here in church. 00:17:22.799 --> 00:17:27.680 Has anybody cried with Ty Pennington at the end of Extreme Home Makeover? 00:17:27.920 --> 00:17:28.480 My hands up. 00:17:28.640 --> 00:17:30.079 I'm not le I'm not lying. 00:17:30.160 --> 00:17:32.720 I'm legitimately, right? 00:17:32.880 --> 00:17:38.960 They find the saddest possible family and story and legitimately sad. 00:17:39.440 --> 00:17:46.319 And then they're gonna build them, if you don't remember, they're gonna build them a house in a week, which is an insane idea if you've ever built a house. 00:17:46.480 --> 00:17:48.640 Um they're gonna build them a house in a week. 00:17:48.880 --> 00:17:53.440 Ty, um, he's gonna go build a special room. 00:17:53.680 --> 00:17:54.400 Do you remember this? 00:17:54.559 --> 00:17:55.759 He goes building a special room. 00:17:55.839 --> 00:17:57.759 You know, like I'm working on a special room for you. 00:17:57.839 --> 00:18:00.559 And then he takes a shirt off at a certain point in the show. 00:18:00.720 --> 00:18:03.519 And the carpenters are like the most beautiful people. 00:18:03.680 --> 00:18:08.480 At one point they find like a lady carpenter, and they're like, where did she come from? 00:18:08.640 --> 00:18:10.960 I mean, this is an amazing show. 00:18:13.359 --> 00:18:22.799 And they build it all in a week, like a crew's coming in, they're gonna make it on time, and then at the end they come in and they're crying, they've been in Hawaii for a week, and you're crying with them. 00:18:23.519 --> 00:18:27.599 But what we know is good houses are not built in a week. 00:18:28.319 --> 00:18:29.440 They're not. 00:18:30.400 --> 00:18:34.079 Not like houses that last like decades and decades or a hundred years. 00:18:34.240 --> 00:18:35.440 I mean, that doesn't happen. 00:18:35.599 --> 00:18:37.440 It can't happen. 00:18:37.680 --> 00:18:39.680 But man, we love that story. 00:18:39.920 --> 00:18:42.240 Don't we we just love the idea. 00:18:42.480 --> 00:18:51.440 We love that idea that transformation could come that quickly, that that in a week I could be that glorious. 00:18:52.240 --> 00:18:54.319 It could all be that easy. 00:18:56.880 --> 00:18:59.599 And Paul's just letting his boy Titus know. 00:19:00.400 --> 00:19:12.640 Like it's it's by the grace of God you are rescued and you are transformed, and you need it to be grace that fuels your transformation because it takes a while. 00:19:13.039 --> 00:19:17.359 And some stuff's gonna get cleaned up right away, and then it's gonna pop back up. 00:19:17.519 --> 00:19:19.680 You thought it was gone, it's not gone. 00:19:19.920 --> 00:19:22.559 Some stuff goes away right away, doesn't come back. 00:19:23.039 --> 00:19:26.640 Other stuff you never realize is there, shows back up. 00:19:27.200 --> 00:19:35.759 And you need the grace of God to be the transformative fuel because along the way, you're realizing I'm not as good as I thought I was. 00:19:36.319 --> 00:19:41.920 So you need the same force to be the rescuer and the transformation. 00:19:43.359 --> 00:19:58.559 And this past week, when I was at the Blue Skies camp and we have these sessions in the morning, and there's probably 25 parents, and their children, one of their children has cancer, and they sit in a room, and Christian and I sit in this room with them, and Christian and I don't really talk. 00:19:58.720 --> 00:20:01.599 We listen and they just talk. 00:20:02.559 --> 00:20:04.400 Like, here's our story. 00:20:04.720 --> 00:20:07.759 Here's how we've seen God in it, here's how we feel about it. 00:20:07.920 --> 00:20:10.000 And some parents are just angry. 00:20:10.559 --> 00:20:15.279 Some parents are don't know, and some people have turned away from God because of it. 00:20:15.440 --> 00:20:20.000 Uh some people maybe never believed in God and they don't know what to believe now. 00:20:20.880 --> 00:20:26.480 And this one guy uh he he shares his story and he says one night um he's a recovering doper. 00:20:26.559 --> 00:20:30.720 He I mean he was a hardcore doper,$1,500 a week for cocaine. 00:20:30.799 --> 00:20:42.480 He was hardcore, and then he gets cleaned up, and he goes to NA and he goes to A and he gets cleaned up and he becomes a believer, and then this hits his little girl, his two-year-old, gets cancer. 00:20:43.519 --> 00:20:46.240 It's the kind of cancer where she she might not live. 00:20:46.559 --> 00:20:52.400 And he says he's out in his shed one night, and it was uh it was Easter, Easter night. 00:20:52.640 --> 00:20:57.599 And he grabs a two by four and he just takes the shed apart. 00:20:58.480 --> 00:21:04.720 He said he just beats down everything in the place until he was physically exhausted. 00:21:04.799 --> 00:21:15.519 He could no longer destroy anything else, and he goes out and he lays in the middle of his backyard, and he said, It's as if the Lord just says to him, Are you finished? 00:21:16.960 --> 00:21:18.400 Are you finished fighting? 00:21:20.319 --> 00:21:25.359 And he just hears the Lord in his heart say, I love that girl too. 00:21:26.960 --> 00:21:28.240 And my son died. 00:21:28.480 --> 00:21:31.839 Remember, this is Easter, Easter Sunday night years ago. 00:21:32.559 --> 00:21:34.720 My son died and rose again. 00:21:34.960 --> 00:21:37.200 My son suffered that I might love her. 00:21:37.440 --> 00:21:38.880 And I do love her. 00:21:40.559 --> 00:21:56.960 And then he says this in that group session, when so much of the hope is solely in the healing of the child, he says, which is radically different than a lot of the other statements, he says, I don't know if she'll be okay, but it will be okay. 00:21:58.640 --> 00:22:10.400 And he says, I would never offer her up to be a great witness to the world of how good God is, but it's not a bad consolation price. 00:22:14.880 --> 00:22:20.079 You're going like, where does that where does that kind of fruit of the gospel come from? 00:22:20.720 --> 00:22:20.880 Right? 00:22:21.039 --> 00:22:26.960 I mean, that that's like the that's the statement the Lord gives and the Lord takes away, blessed be the name of the Lord. 00:22:27.119 --> 00:22:28.720 Where does that come from? 00:22:29.920 --> 00:22:31.519 Well, I'll tell you where it doesn't come from. 00:22:31.680 --> 00:22:35.440 It does not come from five tips of how to get through suffering. 00:22:38.640 --> 00:22:41.119 It comes from hearing a voice of love. 00:22:42.000 --> 00:22:49.279 See, the transformation into that kind of fruit comes by hearing a voice of love. 00:22:49.680 --> 00:22:51.920 It comes by grace. 00:22:53.440 --> 00:23:02.319 And when he was made nothing, and in that brokenness, he found rest in God's grace, and then it begins to work. 00:23:02.720 --> 00:23:03.519 That's pretty good. 00:23:12.559 --> 00:23:16.319 God, we confess we desperately need your grace. 00:23:16.799 --> 00:23:18.640 We are not as we should be. 00:23:23.680 --> 00:23:35.279 We read this list in verses one through ten, and we're not always dignified, we don't always use great words, we're not always self-controlled, we're not always reverent, we're not always submissive, we are not always these things. 00:23:35.359 --> 00:23:36.079 We know we should be. 00:23:36.240 --> 00:23:36.880 Help us to be them. 00:23:37.279 --> 00:23:47.039 God, help us to help us to be godly to the point that an unbeliever has no argument toward us, but at the same time, we need your grace to rescue us because we're not these things. 00:23:47.200 --> 00:23:49.119 We we need you. 00:23:49.440 --> 00:23:53.119 And we need you for the rescue and we need you for the transformation. 00:23:56.960 --> 00:23:58.640 We pray this in Jesus' name. 00:23:58.880 --> 00:23:59.359 Amen.