WEBVTT 00:00:00.479 --> 00:00:03.200 So this week I started watching a new TV series. 00:00:03.279 --> 00:00:04.719 It's on HBO. 00:00:04.799 --> 00:00:05.919 It's called Newsroom. 00:00:06.160 --> 00:00:07.919 A couple friends had recommended it to me. 00:00:08.000 --> 00:00:09.679 And so we watched a few episodes. 00:00:09.839 --> 00:00:11.439 This first episode is kind of interesting. 00:00:11.519 --> 00:00:26.800 It's about this news anchor, and he was very intelligent, very intellectual guy, and somewhere along the lines, he sort of sold out from an intellectual, intelligent discourse about news and events into more of kind of a pop culture way of presenting news. 00:00:26.879 --> 00:00:36.640 And this was eating away at him, and finally he kind of overflowed and outburst into the media about what he really thought about what was going on and about the United States and about the world. 00:00:36.799 --> 00:00:43.679 And so I'm watching this, and so they decide they're going to turn his show from this pop culture thing into this more honest intellectual discourse. 00:00:43.759 --> 00:00:46.240 And so the whole show is about this transition. 00:00:46.560 --> 00:00:49.280 And the end of the show is all billed to this. 00:00:49.439 --> 00:00:54.159 The end of the show is the newscast, and they they do the newscast, and it's fantastic. 00:00:54.320 --> 00:00:55.359 It's out of the park. 00:00:55.520 --> 00:01:03.039 I mean, it's intelligent, it's intellectual, he holds people's feet to the fire, there's no bickering, there's actual discussion and argument. 00:01:03.200 --> 00:01:04.000 It's amazing. 00:01:04.079 --> 00:01:07.120 It's the kind of news show we would actually want to watch. 00:01:07.359 --> 00:01:13.680 And so what's interesting about this is that Christy's asleep like normal on the couch, and then I'm next to her and I'm awake. 00:01:13.920 --> 00:01:15.760 And uh I get teary. 00:01:16.400 --> 00:01:22.319 I start to kind of get teary, and I I recognize this might be because I ate too many Milano cookies that were there. 00:01:22.480 --> 00:01:25.680 There's some background music going on that probably affected me some. 00:01:25.840 --> 00:01:27.359 But I've done this before. 00:01:27.519 --> 00:01:29.120 I mean, I cried in the rookie. 00:01:29.280 --> 00:01:31.840 Have you seen the rookie when he walks out to pitch? 00:01:32.000 --> 00:01:32.879 Y'all know what I'm talking about? 00:01:34.319 --> 00:01:35.359 I teared up at that. 00:01:35.519 --> 00:01:49.040 There's something there's something about, at least for me, there's something about an effort that is fully honest and true and good, and it's it is an expression of the individual and it's coming to fruition. 00:01:49.120 --> 00:01:51.840 And you put a little background music to that, and it gets me. 00:01:51.920 --> 00:01:54.879 That's my that's my my point there, and it gets me. 00:01:55.040 --> 00:01:59.439 I say all that because John chapter 1 is this for God. 00:02:00.879 --> 00:02:08.080 It is a passage about the most honest, true, good, creative expression ever. 00:02:08.800 --> 00:02:09.599 Period. 00:02:09.919 --> 00:02:21.280 And more than newsroom or Shakespeare or Michelangelo or Bankske or James Taylor or Mozart or Bonavert. 00:02:21.520 --> 00:02:30.719 I mean, more than any artist you could you could think of, the creative expression that we're gonna read about in John chapter 1 is the ultimate creative expression. 00:02:30.960 --> 00:02:32.879 We like to work through passages of scriptures. 00:02:32.960 --> 00:02:36.879 I like to take a passage and we just kind of work our way through it, and so that's what we're gonna do. 00:02:37.120 --> 00:02:38.400 Uh verses one and two. 00:02:38.719 --> 00:02:43.039 In the beginning was the word, and the word was with God, and the word was God. 00:02:43.360 --> 00:02:45.759 He was with God in the beginning. 00:02:45.919 --> 00:02:58.080 Okay, so maybe you're here, and some of you love like really deep Bible studies, like dig in, and maybe you're here and you don't like that, and you like stories, or you really like the fact that a little story, or maybe you're here, you like helpful tips. 00:02:58.240 --> 00:02:58.879 I don't know. 00:02:59.120 --> 00:03:00.159 We're all new, right? 00:03:00.240 --> 00:03:01.919 We're all sort of visitors here. 00:03:02.000 --> 00:03:04.240 Um, but we're gonna work through it this morning. 00:03:04.319 --> 00:03:06.319 We're gonna talk a little philosophy, if that's okay. 00:03:06.400 --> 00:03:13.120 We're gonna talk a little astronomy, if that's okay, and then we're gonna talk about me and talk about you, talk about people. 00:03:13.599 --> 00:03:19.520 So, this term word in this passage, uh, in the beginning was the word, the word was with God, the word was God. 00:03:19.599 --> 00:03:21.360 This this term word is the word logos. 00:03:21.599 --> 00:03:23.360 It's kind of this mystery word, a little bit. 00:03:23.439 --> 00:03:30.080 I mean, there's it what we do know is that Greek philosophers were using this word. 00:03:30.400 --> 00:03:35.840 And this word meant world soul, like the soul of the universe. 00:03:36.479 --> 00:03:40.240 So the Greeks were wondering some of the same things we wonder. 00:03:40.400 --> 00:03:43.599 They were wondering, how did all this get here? 00:03:43.840 --> 00:03:45.599 Like, how did it get how did it happen? 00:03:45.759 --> 00:03:47.120 How did it start? 00:03:47.919 --> 00:03:49.039 How did we get here? 00:03:49.120 --> 00:03:50.400 That's our first question this morning. 00:03:51.599 --> 00:03:53.199 How did all of this get here? 00:03:53.439 --> 00:03:57.919 The second question, if there is a God, how does he make himself known? 00:03:58.639 --> 00:04:10.960 So, Plato, a few hundred years before Jesus arrives, Plato says this logos is this impersonal, unchanging energy. 00:04:12.159 --> 00:04:16.879 It keeps the planets on course, it's the way that even the planets came into being. 00:04:17.040 --> 00:04:19.759 It's the all-pervading principle. 00:04:20.000 --> 00:04:23.199 It's the rational principle of the universe, it's the creative energy. 00:04:23.279 --> 00:04:26.879 All things came from it, men derive wisdom from it. 00:04:27.040 --> 00:04:31.439 It is the logos, we're not even sure how it works. 00:04:31.920 --> 00:04:32.480 Plato. 00:04:33.120 --> 00:04:36.800 So John comes along and says, Hey, you know this logos you've been talking about? 00:04:38.480 --> 00:04:42.000 Jesus is the logos, is what John is saying. 00:04:42.240 --> 00:04:53.279 So years ago, we moved into Grant Park, would have been seven or eight years ago at this point, and it was a the house was old, beat up, little bungalow, and we're gonna renovate it and room by room. 00:04:53.360 --> 00:05:02.000 But I decide I'm gonna build in this little scrappy side yard we have, I'm gonna build a patio, a field stone patio, and I'm gonna do this. 00:05:02.079 --> 00:05:09.439 And so I start reading about it, and you have to dig down like six to eight inches, and you gotta get your layer of gravel and then your sand and then your stone. 00:05:09.519 --> 00:05:16.160 So I order all my materials and realize I gotta dig a pretty big, I gotta dig like eight inches deep, like eighteen by twelve. 00:05:16.319 --> 00:05:18.720 And I quickly realize I don't want to do that. 00:05:18.879 --> 00:05:21.279 I don't want to be out there doing that. 00:05:21.439 --> 00:05:24.319 And so uh a friend says, Well, you should run a bobcat. 00:05:24.720 --> 00:05:26.879 I said, Well, I've never operated a bobcat. 00:05:26.959 --> 00:05:27.759 Oh, it doesn't matter. 00:05:27.920 --> 00:05:30.480 They'll show you how to work it just on the street when they drop it off. 00:05:30.560 --> 00:05:33.920 And so I call and say, I want to run a bobcat in like half a day, how's that work? 00:05:34.079 --> 00:05:35.759 I've never driven, do I need to get like a license? 00:05:35.839 --> 00:05:37.279 Do I go to a class or something? 00:05:37.439 --> 00:05:37.759 Something. 00:05:37.839 --> 00:05:40.079 And we'll show you on the street when we drop it off. 00:05:40.160 --> 00:05:45.199 So I learn on the street, I go in, I have a blast for a few hours. 00:05:45.439 --> 00:05:48.160 Give me a bobcat and a field of dirt. 00:05:48.399 --> 00:05:50.319 I can be very entertained. 00:05:51.600 --> 00:05:59.120 So weeks and weeks later, I dig the hole and then the gravel and then the sand and then the stone and the placement and then the pea gravel in between. 00:05:59.279 --> 00:06:08.160 And at the end of this, I have a moderately attractive field stone 18 by 12 patio. 00:06:08.639 --> 00:06:12.000 And I am impressed with myself. 00:06:12.240 --> 00:06:16.959 And I will walk out there and I will look at my creation. 00:06:17.839 --> 00:06:20.079 And then we went to the Grand Canyon. 00:06:22.319 --> 00:06:22.879 Right? 00:06:23.759 --> 00:06:26.000 Okay, jumping, just kind of hang on to that. 00:06:26.079 --> 00:06:30.879 Um, my brother-in-law, Steve, lives in Virginia, and he got into astronomy. 00:06:31.040 --> 00:06:36.000 And so he decides he's gonna put an observatory in the top of his house. 00:06:36.240 --> 00:06:41.120 Um, some people build patios, some people put observatories on the top of their house, and so he puts an observatory on the top of his house. 00:06:41.199 --> 00:06:54.480 So we're up there last year, and at night we open up the roof, looking up, massive telescope, looking up, and he starts to tell us about we're looking at this supercluster and this cluster, and there's this galaxy telling all of this. 00:06:54.639 --> 00:06:59.519 And he says, he just kind of says, you know, by the way, um, you know the universe is growing. 00:07:00.319 --> 00:07:04.639 I said, No, I did not know the universe is growing. 00:07:04.720 --> 00:07:06.240 What does that mean? 00:07:07.040 --> 00:07:10.959 He says, Well, you know, like space is growing. 00:07:11.519 --> 00:07:16.160 I like when my Azalea bush grows, it grows into space. 00:07:16.800 --> 00:07:18.720 What is space growing into? 00:07:19.600 --> 00:07:21.759 Like, well, where is it going? 00:07:22.319 --> 00:07:24.480 Like, right, we don't I don't I don't know. 00:07:24.720 --> 00:07:25.759 I'm sure you don't know either. 00:07:25.920 --> 00:07:27.199 I don't think anybody really knows. 00:07:27.360 --> 00:07:29.519 I mean, we know space is growing, but where is it? 00:07:29.680 --> 00:07:31.199 What is it growing into? 00:07:31.439 --> 00:07:34.720 So I was reading recently about the universe, about this stuff. 00:07:34.800 --> 00:07:38.399 Um the universe is made up of superclusters, and we'll get it let's get a working knowledge here. 00:07:38.480 --> 00:07:40.240 So we have superclusters, right? 00:07:40.319 --> 00:07:47.920 And we're in this supercluster called the Virgo supercluster, and where there's 54 galaxies in this supercluster, lots of superclusters in the universe. 00:07:48.079 --> 00:07:56.959 So, supercluster, galaxy, Milky Way, that's us, and then solar systems within the galaxy, that's us, you know, sun, third planet. 00:07:57.279 --> 00:08:03.199 All right, so and all of this big universe that is growing, by the way. 00:08:03.680 --> 00:08:08.480 The edge of the universe is 90 billion trillion miles away. 00:08:08.720 --> 00:08:10.959 They're sort of unsure about this. 00:08:13.120 --> 00:08:14.560 It's growing. 00:08:15.920 --> 00:08:20.399 Our Milky Way, our galaxy is traveling right now. 00:08:20.639 --> 00:08:26.720 We we are traveling 666,000 miles an hour. 00:08:27.040 --> 00:08:36.159 Our solar system inside that galaxy, we are traveling right now 558,000 miles an hour. 00:08:36.639 --> 00:08:41.519 Now, it we know it takes Earth a year to go around the sun, right? 00:08:41.679 --> 00:08:43.440 Most of us, hopefully we know that. 00:08:43.600 --> 00:08:45.679 Um I didn't realize this. 00:08:45.840 --> 00:08:55.120 When we feel the sun, we're or we see the light of the sun, it's the light that left the sun eight minutes ago. 00:08:56.240 --> 00:09:01.200 So the universe is so big, we don't even get to see it as it is. 00:09:02.000 --> 00:09:04.559 We only get to see the universe as it was. 00:09:05.279 --> 00:09:08.320 This is how big this is. 00:09:09.360 --> 00:09:12.799 And one time I built an 18 by 12 patio. 00:09:15.519 --> 00:09:17.679 Psalm 19, verse 1. 00:09:18.000 --> 00:09:25.039 The heavens declare the glory of God, the skies proclaim the work of his hands, and all of this is expanding, and we don't understand all this. 00:09:25.200 --> 00:09:28.000 Even more absurd is if you want to go the opposite way. 00:09:28.159 --> 00:09:35.919 Um, my uncle got into like quantum theory a couple years ago, and he was telling me about this stuff about subatomic particles and how they behave. 00:09:36.080 --> 00:09:41.200 And it's just crazy, it's even crazier when you get small, it gets crazier. 00:09:42.080 --> 00:09:48.960 The heavens, the subatomic world, does not declare his glory because we can know nothing about it. 00:09:49.679 --> 00:09:54.799 It declares his glory because it works and because it was all created. 00:09:55.440 --> 00:10:00.320 What John is saying, saying, yeah, it all came from the Logos. 00:10:01.279 --> 00:10:04.399 The creative expression of God Himself. 00:10:05.039 --> 00:10:10.320 Verse 3, through Him, and what we're going to learn if we context of the passage, this is Jesus. 00:10:10.480 --> 00:10:12.240 Through Him, all things were made. 00:10:12.399 --> 00:10:15.600 Without Him, nothing was made that has been made. 00:10:17.759 --> 00:10:20.720 Some of you might believe in literal creation. 00:10:21.360 --> 00:10:22.720 We won't do hands. 00:10:22.799 --> 00:10:27.600 Um, some of you might believe in progressive evolution, some of you might believe in full-on evolution. 00:10:27.759 --> 00:10:30.399 Later we're gonna have a wrestling match in the parking lot. 00:10:30.480 --> 00:10:32.000 It's gonna be in the back of the parking lot. 00:10:32.080 --> 00:10:34.240 If you're passionate about these things, we'll let y'all wrestle. 00:10:34.320 --> 00:10:35.919 Um that's not our discussion for this morning. 00:10:36.000 --> 00:10:36.799 It's a good discussion. 00:10:36.960 --> 00:10:38.480 Not our discussion for this morning. 00:10:38.639 --> 00:10:46.639 Uh whatever you believe about creation, which we can talk about on another day, happily, here's what's clear. 00:10:46.799 --> 00:11:06.080 There was enough ability within God, there was enough wisdom and creative energy and technical intricacy to produce all the particles and all the possibility to maintain all of this as we are hurling through space while the universe is growing. 00:11:06.399 --> 00:11:10.080 So back to our first question: how did all this get here? 00:11:10.320 --> 00:11:18.639 It got here by the creative expression of God, which John is saying, yeah, that's the logos that the Greek philosophers were talking about. 00:11:18.799 --> 00:11:20.960 John, John's saying Jesus is the logos. 00:11:21.200 --> 00:11:22.720 This brings us to our second question. 00:11:22.879 --> 00:11:25.279 If there is a God, how does he make himself known? 00:11:25.440 --> 00:11:32.559 And I've always said for years, if there is a God and he decides to make himself known, no matter what he does, it's weird. 00:11:33.360 --> 00:11:33.679 Right? 00:11:33.840 --> 00:11:36.399 I mean, he speaks audibly, that's weird. 00:11:36.799 --> 00:11:39.279 There's like weird stuff in the Old Testament. 00:11:39.679 --> 00:11:42.960 I mean, God becoming a man through a virgin. 00:11:43.519 --> 00:11:45.679 I mean, we've believed this for a long time, some of us. 00:11:45.759 --> 00:11:47.120 This is a weird story. 00:11:47.360 --> 00:11:55.840 But if there's a God outside of what we see and he decides to make himself known, no matter what it ends up being, it's going to be a weird story. 00:11:56.159 --> 00:11:58.240 Fantastic story, but a weird story. 00:11:58.480 --> 00:12:01.840 So at first God creates, creates the world and people, and then he speaks. 00:12:02.000 --> 00:12:10.000 He speaks principles, he speaks the law of righteousness, the Old Testament, what is right, what is wrong, and then it gets radical when Jesus comes. 00:12:10.320 --> 00:12:12.799 This brings us to verses four and five. 00:12:13.440 --> 00:12:17.919 In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. 00:12:18.080 --> 00:12:21.200 The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it. 00:12:21.360 --> 00:12:24.639 So in the right time, the Logos becomes known. 00:12:26.080 --> 00:12:30.639 We see over and over and over again, it's God's heart to be known. 00:12:31.279 --> 00:12:34.559 And in Jesus, we see that it's God's heart to know us. 00:12:36.320 --> 00:12:42.799 Verse 4 says that in Jesus' life, this word life, it's not just like good times here. 00:12:43.519 --> 00:12:49.440 It's not biological, it's it's it's forever life, it's inner life, it's eternal life. 00:12:49.919 --> 00:12:53.039 See, creation says I am magnificent. 00:12:54.080 --> 00:12:57.759 The law of the Old Testament says I am righteous and you are not. 00:12:58.639 --> 00:13:00.879 And then Jesus says, I'm here and I love you. 00:13:01.200 --> 00:13:02.799 And I'll make you righteous. 00:13:04.320 --> 00:13:05.919 This is what we've been wondering. 00:13:07.120 --> 00:13:09.919 Like even though I'm kind of I'm just I'm just kind of screwed up. 00:13:12.159 --> 00:13:13.360 Does God love me? 00:13:13.759 --> 00:13:14.960 Like, do I have to earn love? 00:13:15.120 --> 00:13:17.200 Do I have to learn acceptance do I have to earn acceptance? 00:13:17.360 --> 00:13:19.360 Do I have to earn value? 00:13:19.919 --> 00:13:21.120 This is what we're wondering. 00:13:21.200 --> 00:13:33.600 This is what we're wondering when we look for approval from other people, or we look for approval from by our looks, or we look for approval by achievement or control or power, feeling superior to others. 00:13:33.919 --> 00:13:39.519 And we find a version of love, this kind of polluted version of it, but the problem with it is that it keeps asking us for more. 00:13:39.840 --> 00:13:41.519 Demands more and more and more. 00:13:43.759 --> 00:13:46.559 We shouldn't shrink darkness, verses four and five. 00:13:46.639 --> 00:13:49.919 Don't shrink darkness down to something other people do. 00:13:50.240 --> 00:13:51.759 Oh, darkness, oh yeah, yeah. 00:13:52.080 --> 00:13:54.080 It's like you know, like strip clubs. 00:13:54.320 --> 00:13:55.279 No, no, no, no. 00:13:55.440 --> 00:13:56.720 Darkness is like you. 00:13:57.120 --> 00:13:58.320 And it's like me. 00:13:58.799 --> 00:14:00.240 That's darkness. 00:14:00.720 --> 00:14:13.360 Because what darkness is, whether it takes the form of like rebellious hedonism or it takes the form of like moralistic striving to feel accepted by God, that both are darkness. 00:14:13.440 --> 00:14:19.600 And it's the relentless pursuit to deliver ourselves from our own inadequacy. 00:14:20.320 --> 00:14:22.000 It's being your own God. 00:14:22.639 --> 00:14:24.000 That's darkness. 00:14:24.639 --> 00:14:28.000 Self-delivering, but never entering God's rest. 00:14:28.559 --> 00:14:30.159 Verse 5 speaks of light. 00:14:30.240 --> 00:14:31.279 This word light. 00:14:32.080 --> 00:14:34.559 Light, by the way, it's fascinating in and of itself. 00:14:34.639 --> 00:14:35.679 There's a whole discussion. 00:14:36.320 --> 00:14:37.600 The universe is growing. 00:14:37.759 --> 00:14:39.360 The one thing that's constant is light. 00:14:39.440 --> 00:14:41.759 It's the thing that we measure everything by. 00:14:41.919 --> 00:14:44.000 It's always there, it's always constant. 00:14:44.159 --> 00:14:49.919 And this word light in this verse is talking about intelligence, understanding. 00:14:50.799 --> 00:14:56.559 Here's the good news God's love, known in Jesus Christ, will absolutely make you smarter. 00:14:56.960 --> 00:15:01.120 Like not at not at calculus or physics or stock market, that'd be nice. 00:15:01.519 --> 00:15:07.279 Um you'll begin to understand yourself and why you do what you do. 00:15:07.840 --> 00:15:16.000 You'll be able to humbly actually with courage face it, confess it, repent of it. 00:15:16.399 --> 00:15:21.360 Because you already know you're accepted by God, by what Jesus did, not by who you are or what you do. 00:15:21.519 --> 00:15:23.120 So you can you can go into that stuff. 00:15:23.200 --> 00:15:28.399 You you can you you'll understand yourself more, you'll understand other people more, you'll be able to have compassion on other people. 00:15:29.759 --> 00:15:33.200 The light will reveal this self-reliance. 00:15:36.399 --> 00:15:43.600 Several years ago, I began to realize that I did not really believe the gospel. 00:15:44.000 --> 00:15:48.399 I believe like, I don't know, if we do some percentages, maybe half of it or something. 00:15:48.799 --> 00:15:52.080 Because what I believe is that I believe that Jesus forgave me of my sin. 00:15:52.799 --> 00:15:54.480 That's half the story. 00:15:56.000 --> 00:16:03.039 Jesus forgives you of your sin and he makes you righteous fully, exchange life, his for yours. 00:16:04.639 --> 00:16:10.080 So I what I didn't have is that I I was forgetting of my sin, but I didn't have security on a day-to-day basis. 00:16:10.399 --> 00:16:12.879 I worried about other people's perceptions of me even more. 00:16:12.960 --> 00:16:33.120 I worried about like how spiritual I came off as and how I presented myself and I compared myself to others and how spiritual they were and what they did and how I could maybe I need to do a little bit better and kind of kept score on all this, kept score on other people, how spiritual they were, how spiritual I am, how I'm doing, all of this rather than focusing on what's already been done for me. 00:16:33.840 --> 00:16:36.799 So I had little compassion for people. 00:16:37.039 --> 00:16:45.519 I was frustrated with people, really, when they behaved as people and not as like Jesus, I was frustrated with people. 00:16:49.039 --> 00:16:51.600 And this is the result of living out of merit. 00:16:52.080 --> 00:16:54.639 This sort of anxiety and fear and comparison. 00:16:57.039 --> 00:16:59.039 I understood Jesus was my sin bearer. 00:16:59.120 --> 00:17:02.480 I didn't understand that he was actually my righteousness producer. 00:17:04.400 --> 00:17:07.839 Verse 5 says that the darkness has not understood it. 00:17:11.039 --> 00:17:12.559 The unconditional love of God. 00:17:12.799 --> 00:17:19.519 This is talking about the darkness, has no power to grasp the light, has no power to overcome it. 00:17:19.839 --> 00:17:25.519 Darkness does not know what to do with a love that is not earned. 00:17:27.599 --> 00:17:30.079 Because all of darkness is about earning. 00:17:30.640 --> 00:17:33.279 And light is about receiving. 00:17:34.240 --> 00:17:36.400 This is what frees the human heart. 00:17:36.720 --> 00:17:50.079 Christianity, freedom, is about resting in what has already been given to you versus you trying to manifest something in this world to feel valued or loved or accepted. 00:17:51.119 --> 00:17:52.799 Verses 6 through 9. 00:17:53.200 --> 00:17:56.079 There was a man sent from God whose name was John. 00:17:56.319 --> 00:17:58.000 We're going to talk about John in the coming weeks. 00:17:58.160 --> 00:18:05.200 He came as a witness to testify concerning that light, so that through him all might believe. 00:18:05.519 --> 00:18:09.839 He himself was not the light, he came only as a witness to the light. 00:18:10.000 --> 00:18:13.359 The true light that gives light to everyone was coming into the world. 00:18:13.519 --> 00:18:18.960 So the two questions for this morning we began with how did all this get here? 00:18:19.599 --> 00:18:23.200 The second one, if there's a God, how does he make himself known? 00:18:23.440 --> 00:18:25.119 It's the same answer. 00:18:25.359 --> 00:18:26.559 It's the Logos. 00:18:27.039 --> 00:18:28.000 It's Jesus. 00:18:28.160 --> 00:18:30.240 And in Jesus we find a rest. 00:18:30.400 --> 00:18:31.119 Let's pray together. 00:18:31.359 --> 00:18:38.319 God, we come and we confess that we love to manifest our own value. 00:18:38.559 --> 00:18:41.759 We run to other stuff to feel loved or valued or accepted. 00:18:41.839 --> 00:18:45.759 And what we know by experience is it's toil. 00:18:46.240 --> 00:18:47.920 It's so conditional. 00:18:49.039 --> 00:18:54.559 And God, we see this story about you making yourself known. 00:18:57.119 --> 00:19:00.400 That you would shine into this darkness of self-reliance. 00:19:01.839 --> 00:19:16.640 God, we we we just open ourselves up, our hearts and our minds up, and let your light shine into us that we might have greater freedom by letting go and by resting in you more. 00:19:19.039 --> 00:19:21.359 We pray that you would increase our faith. 00:19:22.400 --> 00:19:24.160 We pray this in Jesus' name. 00:19:26.400 --> 00:19:27.039 Amen.