SPEAKER_00: May be seated.
SPEAKER_00: Thank you, Sam, for reading that.
SPEAKER_00: Sam's been reading a lot as we go through the book of Genesis.
SPEAKER_00: His readings are getting longer and longer.
SPEAKER_00: He's doing great.
SPEAKER_00: I love not having to read them.
SPEAKER_00: Alright, so we've been going through these different stories through the book of Genesis.
SPEAKER_00: And this morning, what I want to do is I want to tell one great, grand, sort of epic family dysfunctional story.
SPEAKER_00: And we'll as we go through it, we'll kind of pull some different things out of it that I think relate to us, and we'll eventually get caught up to the passage that Sam just read for us.
SPEAKER_00: So if you remember we had Abraham, right, a few weeks ago.
SPEAKER_00: Abraham, the kind of the father of many nations.
SPEAKER_00: And so out of Abraham, Isaac, and Ishmael, out of Isaac, Isaac comes Jacob and Esau.
SPEAKER_00: Jacob marries Rebekah.
SPEAKER_00: And so now we have this story about this story about Jacob.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, Isaac marries Rebekah, out of them comes Jacob.
SPEAKER_00: So now Jacob he steals, remember last week, you know, Jacob steals this blessing from his brother, and then he like kind of steals the inheritance, and Esau is filled with anger.
SPEAKER_00: And so Jacob goes on the run.
SPEAKER_00: Rebekah, mama, mama says to Jacob, she says, You got you got to get out of here, you gotta go.
SPEAKER_00: Esau is so angry, you've got to take off.
SPEAKER_00: Go to my brother's house, Laban, go and hide out at Laban's house.
SPEAKER_00: And so Jacob takes off, and that's where he goes.
SPEAKER_00: He runs.
SPEAKER_00: He's on the run.
SPEAKER_00: And as he's getting near and close to Laban's house, he he finds some of Laban's folks, his shepherds, and they're watering animals.
SPEAKER_00: And so he stops there, and sure enough, a girl shows up.
SPEAKER_00: She's beautiful.
SPEAKER_00: And Jacob sees this girl.
SPEAKER_00: This girl, her name's Rachel.
SPEAKER_00: And he sees her, and just right away, he's I want to marry her.
SPEAKER_00: You know, like never mind whether we can resolve conflict or have a decent conversation or have fun together.
SPEAKER_00: Uh just I want to marry her.
SPEAKER_00: Who cares about the other stuff?
SPEAKER_00: He knows that's who he wants to marry.
SPEAKER_00: And so he he goes to Laban and he starts to work for Laban, and finally Laban comes back to him and says, You know, how how should I pay you?
SPEAKER_00: How should we work this out?
SPEAKER_00: You know, how should we how should I pay you your wage?
SPEAKER_00: And he says, Well, I'll work for you so that I can marry your daughter.
SPEAKER_00: And so Laban says, Great, seven years.
SPEAKER_00: You work for me seven years, and then you can marry Rachel.
SPEAKER_00: And so Genesis 29, verse 20 says that it actually seemed to him but a few days.
SPEAKER_00: The seven years are just a few days because of the love he had for her.
SPEAKER_00: And so finally the wedding comes.
SPEAKER_00: The wedding's in the evening, the bride is veiled.
SPEAKER_00: Jacob's in the tent.
SPEAKER_00: And so in comes the bride to consummate the marriage.
SPEAKER_00: They consummate the marriage, the night occurs, they wake up in the morning, no longer is there darkness, no longer is there a veil, but morning light is there, and it's not Rachel.
unknown: Right?
SPEAKER_00: I mean, you remember the story, and then it's it's her older sister Leah.
SPEAKER_00: And the scriptures actually say that uh she was weak-eyed, which means that people thought she was ugly.
SPEAKER_00: And so uh Jacob is distraught.
SPEAKER_00: This is not the this is not the girl that he wanted to marry.
SPEAKER_00: This isn't the girl that he loved.
SPEAKER_00: And now he's married to a girl he had no intentions of marrying.
SPEAKER_00: And so Jacob goes back to Laban and says, You tricked me.
SPEAKER_00: What's going on here?
SPEAKER_00: Laban said, No, you you you the oldest sister always gets married first.
SPEAKER_00: And now what here's what we'll do, Laban.
SPEAKER_00: He's he's just working it here.
SPEAKER_00: Laban says, hey, here's what we can do.
SPEAKER_00: You can have a week of honeymoon with Leah.
SPEAKER_00: At the end of that week, you can marry Rachel right away, and but then you have to serve and work for me another seven years.
SPEAKER_00: Now we don't know where uh Rachel was that first wedding night, but we can only imagine how cheap Leah felt.
SPEAKER_00: The guy doesn't want to marry you.
SPEAKER_00: He wants to marry your younger sister who's more beautiful than you.
SPEAKER_00: And in order for you to get married, your father has to trick a guy into it.
SPEAKER_00: And furthermore, that this guy is going to honeymoon with you for a week, and then he's gonna go and marry your more beautiful sister a week from then.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, let's not forget.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, these are people, right?
SPEAKER_00: I mean, these are real people.
SPEAKER_00: They just lived a long time ago, but these are real people with real feelings.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, how cheap could she have possibly felt?
SPEAKER_00: I mean, this turns into an absolute nightmare.
SPEAKER_00: Now, polygamy is not God's design for relationships, and this turns into a polygamy, sister, dysfunction, disaster.
SPEAKER_00: They actually get into this competition, like who can have more children for Jacob, and it's all competition toward each other.
SPEAKER_00: You can read all about that in chapter 30.
SPEAKER_00: I I just keep going back to this wedding night.
SPEAKER_00: And just thinking about Leo walking into that tent with that veil on, and all she's hoping, right?
SPEAKER_00: Like she's hoping that this guy will love her.
SPEAKER_00: Could this guy possibly love me?
SPEAKER_00: When the morning comes and the veil is gone and I am known for me, I'm not covered by anything.
SPEAKER_00: Will he, could he possibly love me?
SPEAKER_00: This is what's so devastatingly wrong and shallow about hookup culture.
unknown: Right?
SPEAKER_00: We can talk about it morally, we can condemn it morally, but I'll just say it's absolutely heartless.
SPEAKER_00: Because by the cover of night and by a veil, people go into the night, and in the morning, when the light comes and the veil is removed, it's just people looking at each other going, could you possibly love me now?
SPEAKER_00: Like you did last night?
SPEAKER_00: And it's just tormenting false hope.
SPEAKER_00: And Leah does it, and maybe she felt forced to do it.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe she believed that this is the only way someone could ever love her.
SPEAKER_00: The only way was just to cover up her true self.
SPEAKER_00: Like that's the way to get love is to cover up your true self.
SPEAKER_00: Just after college, Christy and I, we were dating, and it was a big uh Georgia game coming up.
SPEAKER_00: Forgive me if you've heard this story, it's just too good of a story not to retell.
SPEAKER_00: And so big Georgia games come up.
SPEAKER_00: A friend of ours was the head of Georgia girls, and so the Georgia girls are are like the all the pretty girls who show around the recruits.
SPEAKER_00: Okay, like each recruit gets a Georgia girl for the day, and they're sweet to them, and they eat lunch with them, they show them the facilities, they attend the game with them, and that's what the Georgia girls do, and you hope that all that's gonna get your recruits, right?
SPEAKER_00: Every team does it, it's nothing special.
SPEAKER_00: And so our friend was the head of the Georgia girls, and we didn't have tickets, and we didn't want to buy tickets.
SPEAKER_00: It was a big game.
SPEAKER_00: I think it was versus Tennessee, it was a huge game at the time.
SPEAKER_00: And so we call her and say, like, hey, can you just get us in?
SPEAKER_00: Can you get us into the stadium?
SPEAKER_00: And she said, sure, I'll get you in.
SPEAKER_00: I'll put your name on the list, show up to the players' training facility at noon.
SPEAKER_00: And so Christy and I show up.
SPEAKER_00: We didn't we we figured we're gonna show up and like two tickets are gonna be handed to us.
SPEAKER_00: We show up and our names are down.
SPEAKER_00: I'm a recruit.
SPEAKER_00: So I'm a quarterback, which in only a couple positions that would work, right?
SPEAKER_00: Like punter, quarterback, kicker.
SPEAKER_00: That's about it.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, there's really nothing else that's even in the realm of possible.
SPEAKER_00: And so I'm a quarterback.
SPEAKER_00: Um, you know, I'm you know 23 or 4 at the age, but I'm acting, I look like I was 18, so it worked out fine.
SPEAKER_00: And so we eat lunch with the recruits because I'm a recruit, I'm a quarterback recruit, and so I start to you know play it a little bit, get a little, you know, a little strut when I walk and act like I'm more important than everybody else.
SPEAKER_00: And so I started to fit in very nicely.
SPEAKER_00: After lunch, we all board all the recruits.
SPEAKER_00: We all board the bus to go down the hill toward the stadium.
SPEAKER_00: And if you're a Georgia fan, you know where I'm headed because I'm headed to the dog walk.
SPEAKER_00: Now, if you're not a Georgia fan, that sounds like the most ridiculous thing you've ever heard of, but you have your own ridiculous things that you do with your teams and you know what those are.
SPEAKER_00: And so the dog walk is where thousands and thousands and thousands of people, they all come right outside the stadium, and all the recruits get off the bus, and we, the recruits, we walk through a human tunnel into the stadium where everybody's cheering for us and patting us on the back.
SPEAKER_00: And so we get there, I'm so excited to be a recruit.
SPEAKER_00: I'm so excited to be there, and possibly be a quarterback from the University of Georgia, and the doors open, and it's the most amazing moment for me.
SPEAKER_00: Uh a few people get off first, and I'm like the third, third guy off, and Chrissy's behind me.
SPEAKER_00: And I I step like down to that last step and I look over to my left, and there are two of my very good friends.
SPEAKER_00: And they just look, and I just I give them a little wink just out of the side, and I just walk, you know, just act like this normal thing that's going on, and walk through that tunnel, everybody's patting me on the back, and you know, you're amazing, you know, you gotta be a dog, you gotta be a dog.
SPEAKER_00: And you know, the beginning of it, I'm kind of by the end, I'm like, I don't know, you know, I got a lot of options, and see what happens, let's see what plays out.
SPEAKER_00: And get into the stadium and walk around the field, and you know, you have 90,000 people looking down on you.
SPEAKER_00: And man, I've never been celebrated like that before.
SPEAKER_00: Right?
SPEAKER_00: Like nobody's had a parade for me, right?
SPEAKER_00: Thousands and thousands of people patting me on the back.
SPEAKER_00: That doesn't happen, tell me that they approve of me and they love me and they want me, right?
SPEAKER_00: And for me, the ideal self inside of me, not the true self, but the ideal self.
SPEAKER_00: Oh, the ideal self loves this.
SPEAKER_00: Because the ideal self loves to project this sort of thing into the world.
SPEAKER_00: And so I'm just soaring.
SPEAKER_00: So the ideal self is just emerging, and even though it's not real, uh, just emerging and loving it.
SPEAKER_00: But you know what has to happen is the true self has to come out.
SPEAKER_00: The true self always ends up coming out.
SPEAKER_00: And so finally, Christian and I we walk off the field and we walk up and we stand in the student section with some friends, and like that's the true self.
SPEAKER_00: But I had a good time that day, right?
SPEAKER_00: Like, that was good.
SPEAKER_00: But there's always this difference between the true self and the ideal self.
SPEAKER_00: And these things are in competition with each other.
SPEAKER_00: This is going on inside of everybody, whether you're a Christian, you're a non-Christian, you're agnostic, you're atheist, you're spiritual, you're Buddhist.
SPEAKER_00: It doesn't matter what you are, this is occurring in you, the true self and the ideal self that are at odds.
SPEAKER_00: My friends at Mocky Bird, which is conferences and books, and you you should read what they put out.
SPEAKER_00: They talk about how we've we've even created platforms, right?
SPEAKER_00: Like social media for us to put out the ideal self.
SPEAKER_00: And you can think and I can think that we're being honest and we're being as honest as we want to be, but it's all curated by you.
SPEAKER_00: It's all curated by you.
SPEAKER_00: And you, as a fallen person, you're creating some measure of an ideal self that you're putting out for people to see.
SPEAKER_00: And there's no end to it, right?
SPEAKER_00: There's like there's always another post, another tweet, another picture, and there's always another reaction to read to your post or tweet or picture, so then you'll curate your next one to be in response to that one.
SPEAKER_00: And this is the ideal self at work.
SPEAKER_00: And you know it, and you know it doesn't end.
SPEAKER_00: See, the ideal self is never satisfied.
SPEAKER_00: It can't be.
SPEAKER_00: The ideal self always runs.
SPEAKER_00: It always runs.
SPEAKER_00: And the running is what Christians call the condition of sin.
SPEAKER_00: It's just a heart that's refusing redemption in Jesus to the broken, sinful self, and rather it's relying upon self-deliverance of sin for righteousness and for value.
SPEAKER_00: See, the ideal self has no need for grace, no need for divine love.
SPEAKER_00: I don't need grace.
SPEAKER_00: I don't need God when I'm on the dog walk.
SPEAKER_00: Are you kidding?
SPEAKER_00: I am God.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, I'm a quarterback God in that moment.
SPEAKER_00: There are thousands and thousands of people that are approve of me.
SPEAKER_00: Right?
SPEAKER_00: The ideal self, that's what the ideal ideal self wants.
SPEAKER_00: But it's endless pretending and performing to get it.
SPEAKER_00: This is where Leah and Jacob are headed.
SPEAKER_00: Going back to the story, Leah and Jacob are they're headed with the fact that there's this ideal self they're putting out there, but the true self is going to catch up.
SPEAKER_00: See, for Leah, the projection of her ideal self, it's seen in her childbearing.
SPEAKER_00: She begins to use her childbearing as a way to get Jacob to love her.
SPEAKER_00: So what she thinks is that she thinks what she thinks is not available to her is for her to be her.
SPEAKER_00: So we create an ideal self.
SPEAKER_00: You can't be you and be loved, therefore you create an ideal self so that that self can be loved.
SPEAKER_00: Here's what she says in Genesis 29, verse 34.
SPEAKER_00: Now this time, she says, like the other two kids, uh, number one and number two didn't do it, but now this time my husband will be attached to me because I have borne him three sons.
SPEAKER_00: So, like with the with this son, the third one, this will do it.
SPEAKER_00: I was hoping with number one, I was hoping with number two, but like this one, this one, now this time this will do it.
SPEAKER_00: Finally, he will attach me, finally I will get it.
SPEAKER_00: And then with her fourth son, finally the grace of God breaks through.
SPEAKER_00: She's at her end.
SPEAKER_00: Just the next verse it says, This time I will praise the Lord, and she has her fourth son.
SPEAKER_00: Her core root for love changed from her husband to the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: And she names that boy Judah, which means to praise.
SPEAKER_00: And it's through him the covenant is fulfilled and the lineage to Jesus occurs.
SPEAKER_00: So Leah gets it.
SPEAKER_00: She trusts in the Lord, she rests in him, she understands like now this time, right?
SPEAKER_00: Like that mentality of now this time, like this kid or this kid or this thing or this approval or this friend or this achievement, like the endlessness of the ideal self that puts us on that track.
SPEAKER_00: She finally gets that will keep going, and I'm tired of it.
SPEAKER_00: So I'm going to take my true self and present it before the Lord, and that's where I'm going to rest.
SPEAKER_00: So Leah gets it.
SPEAKER_00: And see, as we understand Leah, we can understand Jacob, and as we understand both of them, we understand ourselves.
SPEAKER_00: And we can just kind of stop here, right?
SPEAKER_00: I mean, if we if we just get real honest at this point, and many of us would say underneath a lot of walls of activity and underneath a lot of self-protective walls that have gone up over the years, you go, I don't know.
SPEAKER_00: Like, I mean, I'm at like I see Leah getting this, but there's a terror in your heart that nobody would really love you if that veil that veil came off.
SPEAKER_00: And you're caught in an endless trap of self-protecting and projecting an ideal self, thinking that you can fight love out of the world and that you're gonna win.
SPEAKER_00: And God Himself would say, be a beloved child.
SPEAKER_00: We read this little children's book in our house, and it says, I love you just because you're mine.
SPEAKER_00: Story picks back up in Genesis 31.
SPEAKER_00: Jacob and Laban, they eventually get sideways.
SPEAKER_00: Uh they just kind of at each other.
SPEAKER_00: And finally, Jacob decides he's gonna take off.
SPEAKER_00: He takes his people, he takes his animals, he takes off.
SPEAKER_00: Laban pursues him, they argue, finally, they kind of come to terms, they come to agreement, and Jacob begins his trip home.
SPEAKER_00: Now you remember who's at home?
SPEAKER_00: Esau, angry brother.
SPEAKER_00: Now, it's been a long time, you know, at least 14 years.
SPEAKER_00: But he's not sure what's going to be awaiting him.
SPEAKER_00: And Jacob's afraid.
SPEAKER_00: He's afraid for his life, yet he's headed home because he's getting to a break point.
SPEAKER_00: Jacob's getting to a breaking point.
SPEAKER_00: And he sends groups in front of him, right?
SPEAKER_00: He's like, well, let's think as strategic as possible.
SPEAKER_00: Make a bribe, my brother, here.
SPEAKER_00: So he sends groups in front of him, groups of people with gifts, may kind of warm his brother up.
SPEAKER_00: And on this journey back, Jacob meets God.
SPEAKER_00: And it's almost as if God was just sort of like watching and waiting for when he was going to step in and interrupt into Jacob's life.
SPEAKER_00: And this is a totally strange scene, right?
SPEAKER_00: This scene that Sam read for it.
SPEAKER_00: What a strange scene.
SPEAKER_00: And some people would say it's literal, some people would say it's figurative.
SPEAKER_00: There's a lot of debate with that.
SPEAKER_00: What I think is I think that the meaning is very clear.
SPEAKER_00: The text says that Jacob wrestles with God.
SPEAKER_00: And this makes sense because he's been wrestling his entire life.
SPEAKER_00: Literally, he was wrestling in the womb.
SPEAKER_00: He's always fighting, always struggling.
SPEAKER_00: He's always trying to fight out of the world the blessing he wanted.
SPEAKER_00: That ideal self, fighting and fighting and fighting and fighting.
SPEAKER_00: And the fighting is sin, is what it is.
SPEAKER_00: It's prideful self-deliverance rather than humble faith in God's sufficiency.
SPEAKER_00: It's what it is.
SPEAKER_00: It's justification by the law.
SPEAKER_00: It's creating and living up to standards to feel justified and valued rather than the relief of God's grace to do it.
SPEAKER_00: And it's a fight against God and God's provision.
SPEAKER_00: And thus the wrestling match, and thus the weariness and the exhaustion that comes with this kind of life.
SPEAKER_00: So Genesis 32, 24 and 25, and Jacob was left alone, and a man wrestled with him until the breaking of the day.
SPEAKER_00: When the man saw that he did not prevail against Jacob, he touched his hip socket.
SPEAKER_00: And Jacob's hip was put out of joint as he wrestled with him.
SPEAKER_00: So God allowed Jacob to win.
SPEAKER_00: But the hip touch suggests that God could intervene at any point, take him down at any point.
SPEAKER_00: And it's enough.
SPEAKER_00: It's enough to humble Jacob.
SPEAKER_00: And something comes over Jacob and he grasps hold of this man and he won't let go.
SPEAKER_00: And he says, he says, I will not let go unless you bless me.
SPEAKER_00: So like all the other blessings I've been trying to fight out of the world, like the inheritance I fought out of Esau, the blessing I fought out of my dad, all of that that I've been fighting and fighting for in this world.
SPEAKER_00: All of that, it doesn't matter.
SPEAKER_00: It's the blessing from you that I want.
SPEAKER_00: It's the blessing from you that I need.
SPEAKER_00: And it can't be earned.
SPEAKER_00: And he's just left begging.
SPEAKER_00: And here we see not the ideal Jacob, we see the true Jacob.
SPEAKER_00: We see the true self finally revealed.
SPEAKER_00: We see what Leah was at after child four.
unknown: Right?
SPEAKER_00: I mean, we see that Jacob's no different than Leah, and we see that we're no different than them.
SPEAKER_00: And all of us are just wondering, right?
SPEAKER_00: Like underneath the pretending and the performing and often destructive behavior, what we're wondering is that if I stop all of it, if I stop it, and if I let walls down, or I let the veil up, and I'm just known as a beggar.
SPEAKER_00: Like, will I be loved then?
SPEAKER_00: Chapter 33, Jacob returns to Esau, and Jacob's broken at this point.
SPEAKER_00: There's no fighting left in him.
SPEAKER_00: And he's formally bowing as he goes.
SPEAKER_00: Several times.
SPEAKER_00: I mean he's fearing the worst.
SPEAKER_00: He's thinking that he's going to get a fight coming at him, but there's no fight left in him.
SPEAKER_00: His ideal self is done.
SPEAKER_00: He has been blessedly caught.
SPEAKER_00: All that's left is he's at the end of himself.
SPEAKER_00: And we can read about this in verse 1 of chapter 33.
SPEAKER_00: And Jacob lifted up his eyes and looked, and behold, Esau was coming, and 400 men with him.
SPEAKER_00: So he divided the children among Leah and Rachel and the two female servants, and he put the servants with their children in front.
SPEAKER_00: Then Leah with her children, and Rachel and Joseph, last of all.
SPEAKER_00: He himself went on before them, bowing himself to the ground seven times.
SPEAKER_00: There's nothing left.
SPEAKER_00: He's at the end of himself.
SPEAKER_00: Do you get this?
SPEAKER_00: I mean, there's there's nothing left in this man.
SPEAKER_00: He is bowing as he goes until he came near his brother.
SPEAKER_00: But Esau ran to him and embraced him and fell on his neck and kissed him and they wept.
SPEAKER_00: Right?
SPEAKER_00: This is that this is like a cheek to cheek hug, like whiskers, right?
SPEAKER_00: We talked about it a few weeks ago.
SPEAKER_00: This is a real hug.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, they kiss and they weep.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, this is what we need to work on, right?
SPEAKER_00: Like to be able to To really hug and to be willing to weep.
SPEAKER_00: Last week, Jeremy, we almost wept together over there.
SPEAKER_00: We came close.
SPEAKER_00: We decided to fold chairs instead, right?
SPEAKER_00: We're going to work on it.
SPEAKER_00: Next time we're going to hug and we're going to weep.
SPEAKER_00: This is just a picture of restoration and redemption.
SPEAKER_00: It's a picture of the gospel.
SPEAKER_00: A God that does not berate and condemn, but wraps us up and weeps with us.
SPEAKER_00: And in verse 9, Jacob says, I have seen your face, which is like seeing the face of God, and you have accepted me.
SPEAKER_00: Do you see it?
SPEAKER_00: Do you see the picture we're receiving here?
SPEAKER_00: Jacob was saying to Esau, I've offended you, I've stolen from you, I've stolen your glory, I deserve nothing, and I'm left to be a beggar, and you have opened your arms to me.
SPEAKER_00: And Esau's saying, And I know you, brother.
SPEAKER_00: I know who you are.
SPEAKER_00: I know what you've done.
SPEAKER_00: I know you and I love you.
SPEAKER_00: What Jesus says to the father is he says, I know that boy Russ.
SPEAKER_00: I know who he is.
SPEAKER_00: I know he's a runner.
SPEAKER_00: I know he's still a runner.
SPEAKER_00: I know he pretends a lot.
SPEAKER_00: I know he performs.
SPEAKER_00: I know he gets really tired.
SPEAKER_00: I know him.
SPEAKER_00: I know all of him.
SPEAKER_00: Father, I know that boy.
SPEAKER_00: It's all been forgiven.
SPEAKER_00: I take away the sin.
SPEAKER_00: I take away the shame.
SPEAKER_00: My righteousness is on him.
SPEAKER_00: He is your created boy, your beloved.
SPEAKER_00: That boy's free.
SPEAKER_00: And I spread my arms out wide on the cross and I embrace him.
SPEAKER_00: See, this is the scandal of grace, the scandal of the sufficiency and the goodness of God known in the finished work of Jesus for a beloved bunch of beggars like us.
SPEAKER_00: Let's pray together.
SPEAKER_00: God, we come before you and we say, we just we have nothing except to beg.
SPEAKER_00: We are your creation that has stolen from you and ran, and we are amazed that your arms are open wide for us.
SPEAKER_00: Thank you that we do not have to find our value in what we produce.
SPEAKER_00: We do not have to find our righteousness in what we produce.
SPEAKER_00: Thank you that as we come together as a bunch of beggars, help us to be more honest.
SPEAKER_00: Help us to learn the freedom and the joy of confession that we might receive your grace in greater ways, that we might know you in greater ways, your heart, your character, the sufficiency of Jesus for us.
SPEAKER_00: Help us to refuse the kind of life that says, now, now this time, now that now this time, this child, this achievement, this person, this approval.
SPEAKER_00: Help us to come to the point that just lets you embrace us, that seeks your blessing, that seeks your love.
SPEAKER_00: And thank you for Jesus that makes it possible.
SPEAKER_00: And we pray.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.