The Gospel of Grace - Week 5

[00:00:00] How is everyone? [00:00:03] Let's pray. [00:00:07] Dear heavenly Father, I long for this church to grow closer to you. [00:00:14] I long for every man, woman, person watching online, father, that they will find their strength, their true freedom in Jesus Christ. [00:00:26] And I just want to meet you where I'm at right now. [00:00:30] I am inadequate to speak the words that you've given to me. [00:00:35] So I pray that your spirit will rest in this place. [00:00:40] I pray that your spirit will rest in the heart and the soul of each person. Listening, watching, hearing, father. [00:00:49] And that they will know you, that they will long to seek you, and we will grow up fully mature. [00:00:59] In your son's name, I pray. Amen. [00:01:02] I want to do just say a huge thank you. [00:01:07] Last week my dad was up here and he let you know that we're going to be partnering with a church in North Carolina and we're going to be helping them with some hurricane relief stuff because they were so badly affected. And my friend Jody James, who's helping us coordinate it. Thank you so much, Jody. [00:01:25] He sent me a text from the woman who took the first shipment. The goal is 18,000 hygiene kits. So she said, I want to thank Christchurch. We bought a Walmart target in the dollar tree. So thank you guys so incredibly much. But she goes on to. She says, I can't even talk right now. I can't stop crying. She said, I can barely breathe. [00:01:50] We're driving home and I'm forever changed. What I experienced here and what I have seen is something I'll never be able to explain. My heart is broken and they need us. [00:02:01] So thank you, church. When we give, you are making a difference in the lives of others. And I just want you to hear, because sometimes we don't always get to see, but I want you to hear the heart of the woman that is taking these 18,000 kids. And we have made a commitment that this isn't a one and done thing, that we are going to partner with them. She said, you know, this week it's hygiene kids, but I don't know what it'll be next week. It might be diapers. And so we said, we're in it for. [00:02:29] We're in it with you. So thank you, church. Give yourselves a round of applause. [00:02:36] Okay, so I have a rowdy crew. Most of you know my family. We're rowdy, we're wild, we're good looking, we love Jesus. [00:02:47] And Friday night we had all my kids at home. And so it was a house of chaos because that was boyfriends and girlfriends, that was cousins, that was friends. Jacob cranked the pool to 88 because we still haven't closed it so the kids could go swimming. And I turned on a classic. I turned on the sandlot. Anyone? Come on. That's a good movie. Yes. Have you seen it? Ok, let me give you a quick rundown of the sandlot. The sandlot is about a mom, a stepdad, and a little boy who moved to a new town. But it's kind of a bummer because it's summer and the little boy has no friends. Well, mom and dad work, and this little boy is really wanting to learn how to play baseball. But the problem is he has no athletic ability in his body. And so he's going to his stepdad and he's saying, hey, could you help me learn how to play baseball? And the dad's like, yeah, yeah, sure, sure. We'll get to it. But the problem is the dad is always too busy. So with a little nudging for Mama, dad finally goes out and starts to play catch with the kid. But the kid can't catch. He can't throw. And this is part of the scene where he, instead of throwing it back to his stepdad, he just runs and places it into the mitt because he doesn't know how to throw. And you can kind of see the dad's face there of like, what on earth is going on? He was annoyed. You could see it in the scene. [00:04:19] You felt bad for the little kid. I think one of my sons said something like, I would kill that little kid. [00:04:26] Won't say who it was, Jeremiah, but. [00:04:31] And the look of the dad was just one of disgust. [00:04:35] And finally the little boy catches it after, like, two catches. But the ball lands in the mitt. The mitt hits his eye. He gets a gnarly black eye. And that's the end of catch. [00:04:48] But it's not the end of the journey for the little boy. Dad goes in, you don't really see him much anymore. And the little boy ends up on the sandlot where all the adventure ensues. You get Benny the Jet Rodriguez. [00:05:05] I was gonna say he was my first crush, but that's not true. That's not true. You get Wendy Peppercorn, you get the ball signed by Babe Ruth, and then you got the adventure of the big dog. The whole movie culminates by the little boy who is not athletic, becoming athletic. And then in the end scene, it's kind of this moment where you're supposed to be like. [00:05:26] But it's so frustrating because in the end, this little boy is back playing catch with his stepdad. But this time the little boy is good. This time, he's got it all figured out. And the dad, there's music swelling in the background, and the dad's playing catch with him, so proud, as if he had anything to do with it, which he did. Nothing. And the tragedy is that this boy missed out on his dad, and the dad missed out on this little boy. [00:06:00] And I was thinking about this, and I feel like for most of us, there's a reality of God in our life, but somehow we have to figure it out on our own. [00:06:16] So there's a reality. You're here this morning. You're watching online this morning. There's a reality of wanting to know God better, closer with him. [00:06:26] But in our day to day lives, it's up to us as parents. It's up to us as leaders in our workplaces. It's up to us to figure it out. [00:06:40] And what happens is we carry this weight and pressure and stress that we were never really created to carry, and we're doing it alone. [00:06:55] I heard this saying. [00:06:57] It said something like, God blesses those who help themselves. Have you ever heard that saying before? Maybe some of you said it. God blesses those who help themselves. Okay? But today, I want to show you it is the exact opposite. [00:07:14] You hear me? Your father helps those who can't help themselves. [00:07:20] And every single one of us has needs in our life. Every single one of us has weight and pressure and stress. And so I want to go back into our series of Galatians. It's the gospel of grace. If you've missed the first four chapters, I highly recommend you going back, because my dad has crushed it. I mean, I have been listening to those sermons, some on repeat, because they're so theologically richest. [00:07:46] And now you get me. [00:07:49] So, chapter five. Here's. Let's set up a context a little bit, because I think sometimes when you read the Bible, there's stuff in there, and you're like, I don't. I don't. Circumcision. It's not. This is. I don't. What is. You know what I'm saying? Like, what the heck? And so, the context of this book is, Paul was sent out by God. He met Christ in an incredibly powerful way. It changed his life forever. And so he wanted to go to places that had never heard or experienced or known about Jesus Christ and tell them. And so he starts this missionary journey. And in Galatia, this church has started where they are. [00:08:29] They're believing, they're hearing this gospel of grace, that you aren't justified by works, but you are justified by faith in Jesus Christ. [00:08:40] And they believe, and they start this church, but things start to fall apart when Paul leaves. [00:08:46] Things start to fall apart because some other people have come back and been like, no, no, no. Let's get it clear. If you really want to follow God, you're going to have to figure some things out, okay? You're going to have to follow a, b, and c. [00:09:00] And if you don't follow this a, b, and c, which was pieces of the mosaic law, then you are not justified. You are not right with God. So now these new believers are like, well, what do I do? Which way is it? And so these people are telling them, listen, you have to be circumcised if you really want to follow God. And Paul gets wind of this, and he's like, what is going on? And so the letter of Galatians is in response to this church trying to figure it out, but they're getting deceived, and it's becoming more of, I have to do the right things to get into heaven. I have to figure things out. [00:09:39] Instead of by the grace of God. You have been called, and you have been called into freedom. [00:09:48] In Galatians, chapter five, verse one, it starts like, for freedom, Christ has set you free. [00:09:56] Stand firm, therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery. [00:10:02] Okay? Paul's like, listen, you have been called to freedom, and you're going to yoke yourself back to this law, back to a law that was only meant to ever really show you how much you needed God in the first place, how much you needed a savior in Jesus Christ. And now you're trying to get rid of this gospel of grace, and you're yoking yourself back under to this slavery. [00:10:28] It is not by works that we are made right with God. You see, I can't just follow a list and be like, now I'm good with God. And if I don't, now I'm bad with God. That's not how it works. [00:10:41] The spirit of God is within us. We are followers of Jesus Christ. And it is not by our works that we're made right, but it's by our faith in him. [00:10:52] And so then I was asking myself, okay, listen, we live in western civilization, right? Like, freedom is a value. Amen. Like, we are the home of the free, right? Land of the brave, home of the free. Freedom has become such a value for this civilization, like, who we are, our culture. [00:11:13] And I was asking myself, okay, if freedom is something we value. If freedom for freedom, Christ set us free, then where does the human soul find its true freedom? [00:11:31] I think there's a myth that you do you right, you do you your truth. [00:11:42] And what happens is Paul goes on to say, listen, don't be enslaved. But what happens is, if there is a myth that I do me, I have desires that leave me enslaved. Can we be real? Like every one of us has a human sinful desire in nature that we have to fight against. [00:12:00] Every single one of us have things that we will make our lord? And so you think I'm going to figure this out? I've got it. You do you. [00:12:13] But the problem is you become enslaved, then to your own desire. [00:12:19] And then what happens? I'm a slave to shame. [00:12:23] If it's power, if power is what you seek, it becomes your lord. [00:12:31] But the problem is you'll never have enough and you'll be enslaved to seeking power for the rest of your life. [00:12:38] If it's beauty or body, the problem is you'll never get there. [00:12:43] You might feel good, but then someone else comes along, so it's never enough. And you're always left feeling less than or ugly or whatever it might be. [00:12:52] If it's your sinful desire that you can have this freedom in, the problem is it's inconsistent. [00:13:00] One day I desire to be awesome, the next I'm so mad, I just want to scream. [00:13:06] And so now we have an inconsistent life where we can't have healthy relationships. [00:13:13] And so Paul is saying, listen, there is a freedom in Christ. [00:13:19] Don't go back to the yoke. All of us are going to put something in a place of worship. [00:13:28] So what sets the human soul free? [00:13:34] What is the atmosphere in which we feel most alive? [00:13:39] I was looking and reading into this, and I heard Timothy Keller say, like, just think about a fish for a second, because it's easy to think about, is a fish most free anywhere? [00:13:51] No, a fish is not free on land, right? Like, he's not going to live his most free life. In fact, it's going to be death. [00:14:00] The fish is most free in water. [00:14:04] And he talked about, like, a glider, and he said, is the glider most free when you're sitting on it submerged in water? Well, no, it's not its purpose, it's not what it's created for. There's no freedom. The glider is free in air. [00:14:18] So where is the human soul? It's most free. [00:14:24] In the next couple verses we're going to look at, I want to spend the rest of our time here in Galatians 518. It says, but if you are led by the spirit, you are not under the law. [00:14:42] And I want to talk about this for a second, because we're going to be talking a lot of things. Listen, does that mean we shouldn't obey what God wants for us? No, of course not. But the law is doing things to earn God's love. The thing is, I am going to do my works. Righteousness. So Paul is saying, if you are led by the spirit, you're not under the law. [00:15:06] If we live by the spirit, let us also keep in step with the spirit. Babe, can you grab this whiteboard for me? Would you mind? [00:15:18] So now I have new questions. [00:15:22] If I am my freest, if the human soul is its freest in this atmosphere. In this atmosphere? What's the atmosphere? Well, Paul's saying it's when we walk in step with the spirit. Now, a lot of you might have been coming to church for a while. Some of you might have not. But I think there is also a myth that church is just like this list of rules that if you follow, you're good. If you don't. And so now church almost becomes a burden, like being a Christ. Follow becomes a burden of just one more rule thing that I have to do. And so I don't want that. I want freedom, but it's the exact opposite. [00:16:03] And Paul says, if we are to be led by the spirit, then we need to walk in the spirit. [00:16:10] The human soul finds its freedom, finds its peace, finds its strength, always in connection to goddess. [00:16:21] But I want to go a little bit deeper because I think you hear about God the Father. I think we talk about Jesus a lot. And my dad is so good at bringing all three together. But I want to stay specific right now on the Holy Spirit. [00:16:34] And so I had to ask myself, okay, what is or not what? Who? [00:16:39] Who is the Holy Spirit? [00:16:43] You sticking with me? [00:16:52] Who is he? [00:16:54] If you go back to the very beginning of the Bible in the book of Genesis, you see that the Holy Spirit has been here the entire time that the Holy Spirit was hovering across creation. When it wasn't quite formed, it was just expanses. You see the Holy Spirit there, and a couple verses later, you see that the Holy Spirit, it says, we were made. They were made in our image. And so you have to ask yourself, well, who's our? I thought there was just one God. [00:17:28] And some of you have heard about the Trinity, where it's God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit. [00:17:35] And this is something that I honestly, I wish I knew more to talk to you about because it's so, so infinite. And my finite brain has a hard time wrapping my mind around it. Because there is one God, but there are three persons of God and we know him by what they do. [00:17:55] So who is the Holy Spirit? How do we know what he does? [00:18:00] The first thing we know is that when you are followers of Christ, the Holy Spirit is within you. He's working for you. [00:18:09] And I don't have time to read all the verses. So what I want you to do is in John 1415 and 16, you can get a really good picture of what I'm talking about today. And I have to keep it limited. So it's so much bigger than this. But this is what I have time to talk about today. Okay, so the Holy Spirit. In those chapters of John, we see that God the Father sends a helper in the name of Jesus. So the first thing we know the Holy Spirit is, is he is a helper. [00:18:42] Another word is comforter. [00:18:48] The Holy Spirit is within us to help us, to comfort us. [00:18:55] It is not us trying to figure it out on our own. It's not us going to work on Monday morning and feeling all the pressure of life. It is the Holy Spirit within in us at all times. [00:19:06] And he is our helper. [00:19:08] I came in this week and I was praying and I like to sit in this spot where beautiful Cindy is. I pray in there a lot. And the church was empty. And I started just like seeking God. I was worshiping and your faces just started popping up in my mind, like it was just so many faces. [00:19:32] And so I started praying for every face that popped up. Like I just started praying for you. [00:19:39] I started pleading with God for you because I know that we have a need so high in our lives. [00:19:47] I was thinking about the moms who are having little kids and how hard it can feel to try to manage everything. [00:19:55] I was thinking of you that are battling disease and have to do all the treatments. And I was just thinking about your families. [00:20:03] I was thinking about those of you who are trying really hard things and just trying to get it right. [00:20:10] I was thinking about you who are really, really struggling in your marriage and just trying to figure it out. [00:20:19] And the faces just kept coming and just kept coming. And my prayer was that you would know that you are not alone, that you have a helper, that the Holy Spirit is within you to help you and to comfort you. The weight of this world is not on our shoulders. [00:20:38] God is in control. [00:20:40] I have to play my part. But here's what I want to say the first step in your part is connecting to the spirit. [00:20:48] The first step is, okay, who is the Holy Spirit? He is my helper. He is my comforter. [00:20:57] There is another piece in those John passages that it says that the Holy Spirit is our guide, that he's the spirit of truth, and so he teaches us all truth. [00:21:19] How many times have you been in a situation where you've just been, like, super overwhelmed, don't know what to do next? Having meetings, trying to figure out maybe it's family members you're worried about, your kids. I know so many of us have been worried about our kids, and you don't know what to do next. [00:21:37] And so you press on day after day after day in this anxiety and then this stress. [00:21:46] John tells us that you have a guide and he is accessible 100% of the time. [00:21:57] He is within you. [00:21:59] He does not leave or forsake you. [00:22:03] Your guide, the teacher of all truth is the Holy Spirit within. [00:22:09] So when I don't know what to do next or work seems overwhelming, my first place is not to go have a meeting and figure it out. My first place is to take a breath and to connect with the spirit. [00:22:25] The Bible teaches us that apart from God, we can do nothing. [00:22:30] It doesn't just mean Sundays, doesn't mean just holidays. Apart from God, we can do nothing. [00:22:37] And what I do is I stop and I ask God for help. [00:22:44] I say, you are the Lord of my life, and I do not know what to do next. [00:22:50] I'm stuck. [00:22:53] Can you help me walk? In truth, you're feeling anxiety or anxious. And those overwhelming feelings come, you stop. [00:23:05] You take a breath. [00:23:07] The spirit of God is within you. [00:23:12] And you pray and you say, lord, you are the Lord of my life. [00:23:16] I am feeling anxious. Will your peace help me? Will you guide me into healthier thinking? [00:23:27] This summer, a lot of, you know, we did a midweek service. We call it CC midweek. And it was every Wednesday. We had a lot of our college kids home, and they helped lead it. And so I. [00:23:42] Our children's program is amazing. Amen. [00:23:46] We have the best teachers. I just. I have a special place in my heart because I led it for ten years. And so the kids program is always like, it's just on my heart. And so we were having a college leader lead it, who did awesome. [00:23:59] But we were struggling because we were kind of doing it. Like, we're like, we'll just put these people down. We'll send them the schedule. And it just. Nothing was working out. Every week. It just felt like a little bit of a stomachache. Like, this isn't working. And so I was like, hey, babe, let's sit down. Let's pray. Let's see God. And I remember in private, I went to God and I was just like, you are in control. [00:24:23] You love these kids so much more than we do. Can you start working in the hearts of the people that you want to teach them, that are here, that will love them? And we prayed in this way, praying for God to guide us, to guide the hearts that we didn't even know yet. And I promise you, after that prayer, we had full kids ministry. Like we most Wednesdays, we had too many people show up. [00:24:49] And it was like, it was this freeing of this weight that was on me. [00:24:58] It was this freeing of like, oh, my gosh, I got fix it. I got to figure it out. And it was a breath of, no, I've got a guide. [00:25:06] I've got a guide. And he will lead the way. I got to hurry up the next one. In Zechariah, you hear this verse and it says, not by might nor by power, but by the spirit, says the Lord God Almighty. The spirit of God empowers us. You'll see it all throughout the Bible, where he comes upon you in this special way, where he empowers you to be able to do things that are hard, things that are bigger than you. And so if you're in a season where you are trying hard stuff or you're learning new things or you're needing some empowerment, that is the Holy Spirit, you go to him for empowerment. I'm going to move on because we got to keep going. Okay. So if this is who the Holy Spirit is, if the Holy Spirit is God, if he is present within me, if he is my helper, my comforter, if he is my guide and he teaches and shows us all truth, if he empowers me, then how do we walk and step with him? [00:26:15] Because that's what Paul is calling us to do. He's saying, if we live by the spirit, let us walk by the spirit. [00:26:24] I've got this definition that I want to pop up on the screen if we're able to. [00:26:30] And it says that to walk in step with the Holy Spirit is to live moment by moment in dependency upon him and sensitive to his voice the Holy Spirit produces within us. [00:26:53] But for him to produce, I have to live every situation with him. [00:27:02] And I've been doing this a long time in my forties, and I still need reminded of this, that God is not just the God of the heavy. He's not just the God of the good, but he is God of everything in between. [00:27:23] And moment by moment, you remember what Lex said, to trust in the Lord with your whole heart, that you don't have to figure it out first, but instead you walk and step with the spirit. Instead, you are trusting him to guide you. [00:27:41] And you're leaning not on your own understanding, but you're trusting him. [00:27:48] So what is living moment by moment? [00:27:53] Paul shows us that when we are connected to the spirit, it is him who produces fruit inside of us. Have you guys ever heard the fruit of the spirit? Okay, it's in this chapter. And in this chapter he says, but the fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self control. [00:28:18] When we are connected to God, it's him who produces. [00:28:25] It's not us. [00:28:27] And I think sometimes we look at this list of the fruit of the spirit and we're like, how can I do this better? [00:28:34] It becomes like a to do list for us. And this is not a list that Paul is showing you to try harder in. He's saying, when you are connected to the spirit, this is what your life naturally produces. [00:28:48] And I love the idea that it's fruit. I love that they use vines and trees in the scripture because the idea is, this doesn't happen overnight. My natural sinful desires, they don't just go away. When I've decided to follow Christ, it's going to be a lifetime battle. But what happens and what I believe, what the world needs most right now is Christians and followers of Christ who start to mature, who let go of the grip and trying harder and white knuckling it in life, but they let go of the grip and they walk with God moment by moment, allowing him to mature you allowing this love to seep into your life. And when the Holy Spirit produces love inside of you, then you are able to produce love in this world, world around you. [00:29:36] When the Holy Spirit is at work within you and you're walking in step with him, you're living moment by moment with him. [00:29:46] Your patience grows, and you are able to bring something so much more beautiful to the table because God is working within you. [00:29:56] It is not by your own might, not by your own power, but it is by the spirit of. [00:30:03] And so when we are walking with Christ, we've got to be sensitive to his voice. If he's my guide, if he's my helper, if he's empowering me, and I'm asking him, then I have to be sensitive to hear him, I heard a crazy story. It was from a pastor, and he said he was on a flight. He had just done a bunch of speaking engagements. He was on a flight home, and he put his headphones on because, you know, that's the cue to, like, leave me alone. Don't talk to me. And the woman sitting next to him, she was like, you're my pastor. [00:30:41] And so he's like, I gotta take that phone out. [00:30:45] And she goes on to explain this story of how her husband and her are in a terrible, terrible way. [00:30:54] I can't quite remember all the details, but it was so bad that it was. It was like a forgiveness thing where she just could not forgive him. [00:31:03] And so he talked with her this whole plane ride. And then, like, a few days later, he was dropping a kid off at sports, and he felt like this inclination, like this nudge. [00:31:18] He said it felt like it was from the Holy Spirit, but it told me to go to Walmart. [00:31:23] And he's like, I didn't want to go to Walmart. In fact, Walmart's my least favorite store. I hate it, and I didn't want to go. [00:31:30] So he says he drove to Walmart. And so he's like, walking around the aisles, like, didn't need anything, just trying to see if God's up to something. [00:31:39] And he said he bumps into a man who says, you're my pastor, and proceeds to tell him the same story he heard on the plane ride. It was the woman's husband. [00:31:55] When you are in step with the spirit, that's crazy and wild and awesome. And I hope that happens in my life sometime. But you are sensitive to his nudging. [00:32:06] You're sensitive to what he's saying to you. Like, I'll wake up some mornings and I'll be like, what? I got a list of things to do. And someone's name will just come to my mind. [00:32:17] And I feel like it's a nudge to pray. It's a nudge to encourage. So I'll oftentimes pray for them and send them a text and let them know, I just prayed for you. I hope you have a great day. [00:32:26] And so it's a moment by moment in everything we do, we are seeking God. It's not just in the spiritual and the holy, but it becomes all of us. [00:32:35] I want my workplace to be holy. I want my life to be holy. I want to know God better. [00:32:44] And then we become sensitive to what he wants to do through us. [00:32:50] Last thing, there's one more thing that the Holy Spirit does. [00:32:56] He works inside of us to help us remember all that Christ did. [00:33:06] And Paul has this passage here. It's Galatians 24. [00:33:10] And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. [00:33:18] I read that over and over and over again, and I said, I wish that was true for me. [00:33:28] I love him. I want to follow him with my whole heart. But I haven't crucified my sinful nature. [00:33:39] But I was reading it, my strength. [00:33:44] I was reading this sentence on my shoulders. [00:33:51] I think the Holy Spirit is showing Paul this reminder of who Jesus Christ is. Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with passions and desires. [00:34:04] When Jesus Christ went on that crossed, he took all of it. [00:34:10] He took our past, our present, and unfortunately, our future, too. [00:34:17] Jesus Christ crucified on that cross, and my sins were there with him. [00:34:26] And I think sometimes we have to figure out, how do we have an eternal perspective when life can feel so chaotic, when moments can feel so impossible? [00:34:48] How do I truly live free? [00:34:55] I'm reading a book by a woman named Meghan Marshmane, and she is a teaching pastor at Willow Creek. She's getting her doctorate in spiritual formation, and she wrote this book, and it's called Relax. I told my sister in law the title. She's like, just hearing it gives me a stomachache. [00:35:14] But the subtitle is walking with the one who doesn't worry about a thing. [00:35:20] And she wrote this book. She started it just two months after her husband died. [00:35:26] He was 36. [00:35:29] They had two small boys. [00:35:32] And she's writing a book called Relax. [00:35:36] And in it, she talks about how she's always had this fascination with the throne room of God. [00:35:46] In revelations, in Isaiah, we get this picture, and it's these prophets who've been able to see something that they can't really put into words. So they're trying their very best to explain what they're seeing. [00:36:03] And in revelations four, it says that in the throne room of God, it was like thunder and lightning. [00:36:13] In the throne room of God, there was this path that was as clear as crystal. [00:36:21] And sitting on the throne, he only knew how to describe it as, like, jewels and rubies and Jasper. And he said it looked as if there was this emerald rainbow surrounding God. [00:36:37] And around the room were 24 elders, and they were dressed in all white, and they were on their knees throwing crowns and saying, holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty. [00:36:52] It was worship everywhere. [00:36:56] And she said she would think about it. [00:36:59] In the Bible, it talks about this day of judgment it talks about us standing before God one day. And so she was captivated over and over. She would think about it. She has pictures of it, she said, but when her husband Randy died, it was like her spiritual life and the spiritual reality collided with the man she loved the most. [00:37:24] And she said she imagines him in that throne room. [00:37:28] She said, it's so much easier to see him than me because I love him so much. [00:37:34] And she said she imagines him standing there, fully known, not one thought hidden from God, not one thought that even probably he hid from himself. It was all out there. [00:37:50] And she said, in that moment, I imagine he never ever has felt more love than he felt right then and right there. [00:38:03] She imagined him going before this great throne room, going before God, and God asking two questions. This is her imagination, not Bible. [00:38:14] She said, she imagines him saying, do you love me? [00:38:20] And then the second question is, do you love them? [00:38:23] Did you love the people that I put in your life? Well. [00:38:28] And she said she always wondered how she was going to answer it. And it was like, it's the question that has just played in her head over and over again. But when it was her husband, fully known and fully loved in the presence of our Lord God Almighty, she said, he stood there and he held a resume, but the resume was not his own. [00:38:51] The resume was of Jesus Christ. [00:38:54] Because, church, what I want you to know is that when you are connected and walking in step, it is not your worth, it is his. [00:39:02] It is not your figuring it out. It is the spirit leading you. It is not your works righteousness, but it is his righteousness. [00:39:14] And so, as we leave today, I want you. This is the desire of my heart. All this to get here. [00:39:23] The Holy Spirit is within you. [00:39:27] The Lord God Almighty is within you. [00:39:31] It is not a life we do alone. It is a life we do connected to him. It's not a life where we have to go get it, all right, and work harder. Work harder. It's a life that we connect deeper. [00:39:45] And one of the ways we connect deeper is through worship. [00:39:50] Worshiping him. [00:39:52] I don't know all the answers, but God, you do. [00:39:56] Guide me, God, I don't know what's going to happen with my kids, but I am trusting that you love them more than I do. Show me your way. [00:40:08] And slowly, slowly, slowly, we become more of the person that he is creating us to be. [00:40:18] Let's pray. [00:40:21] Dear heavenly Father, I love you. [00:40:25] I pray that any truth in there just sticks to the heart and the mind of each person. Listening, Father, that your presence that they can feel you, father. Because that is what the spirit does. He manifests your presence. [00:40:39] Can you fill this place with your presence? Can you fill our hearts with your presence and help guide, teach and empower us? [00:40:51] Help us to connect deeper and deeper with you? In your son's name, we pray. Amen.