The Sacrifice of Christ

[00:00:01] O Lord God, you are our only God. We recognize no other. [00:00:10] You revealed to us that the earth is yours and the fullness thereof. [00:00:17] That you are the Creator of the heaven and the earth and the sea and all that is in them. [00:00:23] And because you are the Almighty One, we humble ourselves before you and give you the worship that you so rightly deserve. [00:00:34] Dear Father, I'm going to attempt to remind your people of the magnificent sacrifice that Jesus Christ made for all of us. [00:00:47] But it is not a work that can be done in the flesh. [00:00:51] It requires the ministry of your Holy Spirit. [00:00:56] And so I pray that your Holy Spirit would be among us this morning and we would see Christ crucified for us in a new and fresh way. [00:01:07] In Christ's name, Amen. [00:01:10] We haven't looked at a painting together for a while, so we're going to start with a painting. [00:01:16] This is a painting of the prophet Isaiah by a French master. [00:01:24] My French is not very good, so I'm going to take the best run at it I can. [00:01:29] Miller, I should have called you and got help on this. [00:01:33] So his name is something similar to Maisonne. [00:01:41] And if you've ever been to the Cleveland Art Museum, one of his paintings is in the Cleveland Art Museum. [00:01:49] This is his painting of the prophet Isaiah. [00:01:56] And the people who are intelligent about paintings say this is a brilliant example of light drawing your focus. [00:02:14] Do you see how dark it is around the sides? [00:02:17] And do you see how the light draws the focus of your eye to his face? [00:02:26] So this is an artistic way of drawing our attention to Isaiah's face in the painting. [00:02:34] But what I want to do today is I want to draw your attention to the most remarkable thing that Isaiah wrote. [00:02:46] Isaiah was a prophet and he ministered from 740 B.C. to 700 B.C. [00:02:57] if you read the book of Isaiah, it's almost entirely poetry. [00:03:03] It's prophetic poetry. [00:03:05] It and if universities were not so anti Christian, his poetry ought to be in every university poetry class. He is an absolutely brilliant poet. [00:03:21] Most of his prophecy was during the reign of King Hezekiah in Jerusalem there were two superpowers in the world. One was Ethiopia, because the, the, the Ethiopians had invaded Egypt and conquered Egypt. And the Egyptian pharaoh was an Ethiopian. [00:03:51] And the other superpower was Assyria and their capital was in Nineveh. [00:03:58] And these two superpowers were moving from the south north and from the north south. And guess what was between the two of them? Israel and Jerusalem. [00:04:10] And in 722 the Assyrians captured the northern kingdom of Jerusalem and carried them away into captivity and repopulated the area with people from other places. [00:04:24] And then the Assyrian army came to Jerusalem. [00:04:28] And in 701 they surrounded Jerusalem. And the Assyrian king Sennacherib made all kinds of boasts. But God delivered Jerusalem because a plague broke out in his camp. [00:04:45] He went home and his two sons murdered him. And Jerusalem was not threatened by the Assyrians anymore. [00:04:57] The great scholar Abraham Joshua Heschel, he wrote a book on the prophets. [00:05:05] And I would like to read to you just a few sentences from his book. [00:05:13] He said the prophets fundamental objective was to reconcile man and God. [00:05:20] Why do the two need reconciliation? [00:05:24] Perhaps it is due to man's false sense of sovereignty, to his abuse of freedom, to his aggressive, sprawling pride. [00:05:36] Resenting God's involvement in history, prophecy ceased. [00:05:43] But the prophets endured and can only be ignored at the risk of our own despair. [00:05:51] Listen to what he's saying. [00:05:54] For his own purpose, God chose people and gave them a message. And that message is relevant to humanity throughout all history. [00:06:08] And in my opinion, the greatest prophet in the Old Testament was Isaiah. [00:06:16] Let me read you a portion of a poem. [00:06:20] I introduced this to you last week, but I want to explain it to you this week. [00:06:27] I know poetry's fallen out of favor in America, and you think of poetry, you think of some weird person sitting in the flower garden. [00:06:42] But give it an opportunity, would you? Don't prejudge it. [00:06:49] And in your mind, try to see the poetic images that Isaiah is trying to create. [00:06:59] Poetry creates images, and these images carry emotional information. [00:07:06] That's the reason when you buy your wife a birthday card, it has a poem in it. And it doesn't have a biological explanation of why kissing is so wonderful. [00:07:21] All right, let's give this a try together. Think poetically with me. [00:07:26] He was despised and rejected by men. [00:07:32] A man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. [00:07:37] And as one from whom men hide their faces, he was despised and we esteemed him not. [00:07:47] Do you get that poetic image? [00:07:50] Can you sense the indignity of all that? [00:07:56] And then the poet said, why was he in this condition? [00:08:02] Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows. [00:08:07] Yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten of God and afflicted. [00:08:14] But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities. [00:08:22] Upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace. [00:08:27] And with his wounds we are healed. [00:08:33] And then the poetic image changes. [00:08:36] In spite of all that, all we, like sheep, have gone astray. [00:08:42] We've turned everyone to his own way. And the Lord laid On him the iniquity of us all. [00:08:53] He was oppressed and he was afflicted, and yet he opened not his mouth. [00:09:00] How unlike us that is. [00:09:03] How quickly we complain. How quickly we voice our resentment. How quickly we are to make a threat. [00:09:13] But when he was oppressed and afflicted, he opened not his mouth like a lamb that was led to the slaughter, and like a sheep that was before her shearers in silence. [00:09:26] So he opened not his mouth in spite of all this. [00:09:32] Yet it was the will of the Lord to crush him. [00:09:36] He has put him to grief. [00:09:39] When he makes his soul an offering for guilt. [00:09:43] He shall see his offspring and he shall prolong his days. [00:09:49] The will of the Lord shall prosper in his hands. [00:09:54] Out of the anguish of his soul he shall see and be satisfied by his knowledge. Shall the righteous one, my servant, make many to be accounted righteous, and he shall bear their iniquities. [00:10:12] I want us to see five important ideas in this poem, and they're all about the nature of Christ making a sacrifice for humanity. [00:10:28] The first idea is Christ paid the price of social rejection. [00:10:36] Have you ever been socially rejected? [00:10:40] Have you ever been the odd one out? [00:10:44] Have you ever been the object of ridicule? [00:10:50] Have you ever had that terrible feeling of people around you making it very clear you don't belong? [00:10:59] If you have, then maybe you can understand how. How Christ felt when he was despised and rejected by men. [00:11:10] When he was a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief, and as one from whom men hide their faces. He was despised and we esteemed him not. [00:11:23] Christ accepted the sorrow and grief of being socially despised. [00:11:30] Ah. [00:11:31] I'd like to give you one example of that. [00:11:34] At the beginning of John's Jesus ministry, John's Gospel, chapter one, he met Andrew and John, and then he met Philip. And Philip said to his friend Nathaniel, we've found Messiah. [00:11:54] He's Jesus from Nazareth. [00:11:57] And listen what Nathaniel said. [00:12:03] Can anything good come from Nazareth? [00:12:08] That's like you thinking of the worst neighborhood. You know, the neighborhood you least want to hang out in. [00:12:16] And somebody said, there's somebody wonderful in that neighborhood. And you go, yeah, I doubt that Jesus was. [00:12:27] Before Nathaniel even met him, he had prejudiced, invented a condescending comment about him. [00:12:43] Christ knew the indignity of people pretending they didn't know him. [00:12:50] Has somebody ever pretended they didn't know you? [00:12:53] You knew them and you knew they knew you, but they pretended they didn't know you. [00:12:59] Don't do that. [00:13:01] It makes you unpleasant. [00:13:07] If you forgot them, just be nice. Say, help me to Remember, I'm getting a little older. [00:13:17] When did this happen? [00:13:18] We started with Nathaniel at the beginning of Christ's ministry, at the end of Christ's ministry, when Peter had been with Jesus for three years, when he saw him heal the sick, when he saw him raise the dead, when he saw him feed the hungry, when he saw him teach the most remarkable lessons the world has ever heard. [00:13:40] After seeing all of that, he stood in the courtyard of Caiaphas, and three times he pretended like he didn't know him. [00:13:55] And I believe if you read Luke's Gospel, the courtyard was open and Jesus could look down from where he was being tried and. And he could hear Peter deny him. And at one point, he made eye contact with him. [00:14:13] Jesus felt the indignity of one person he would call his very best friend, pretending like he didn't know him. [00:14:27] Jesus endured the disrespect of people who should have respected him. [00:14:33] We esteemed him not. [00:14:36] When Jesus went to Jerusalem for the first passover of his ministry, he did many exciting and wonderful things, and people started talking about him everywhere. [00:14:49] So when he went back to his hometown, Nazareth, on that Sabbath, Jesus went into the synagogue and they asked him to do the Bible reading that day. [00:15:04] Evidently, Jesus could read the Hebrew text in a way that just held people's attention, and they just loved to hear him do the reading. [00:15:14] And that day, they handed him the Isaiah scroll and he unrolled it to a point that said, the spirit of the Lord is upon me because he has anointed me to proclaim good news. [00:15:32] He rolled the scroll up and passed it back to the attendant. [00:15:37] And he said, today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing. [00:15:44] This is the hometown crowd. He's done more to make their city unknown than anybody else who ever lived. [00:15:55] He's like the local kid who makes it good in the NBA. [00:16:01] And he comes back and he reads the Scripture to them in a fascinating way. And he said, you should know that what Isaiah was prophesying 700 years ago is being fulfilled today. [00:16:16] And the ones who should have respected him, disrespected him, somebody said, what are you talking about? [00:16:28] We know who you are. [00:16:30] We know your dad was the builder. [00:16:33] We know your mom. [00:16:36] We know your four brothers, and we know your sisters. [00:16:42] And so whatever game you think you're playing, we're not playing along. [00:16:48] And they shut the service down that day. They ended the service right then. [00:16:53] And they attempted. [00:16:55] The city of Nazareth. I've been there. Is built on a mountainside. It kind of goes around the mountain in tears. They were attempting to throw him off the mountain. [00:17:05] The people who should have respected him the most totally disrespected him. [00:17:13] Church Christ made an incredible. An incredible sacrifice, social sacrifice so that you could be acceptable to God. [00:17:27] Could I say he left us an example that we should never sacrifice our faith for social status. [00:17:39] We should never sacrifice our faith so that we look good in the eyes of some people who in the long term can't really be pleased anyway. [00:17:51] The second lesson we learn in this poem. [00:17:54] Christ paid the price of emotional grief and sorrow. [00:18:00] Surely he bore our sorrows, but our griefs and and carried our sorrows. [00:18:08] How did we respond to that? [00:18:10] We esteemed him stricken, smitten of God and afflicted. [00:18:18] I've known many people in the 43 years I pastored this church who had the misconception that because they were going through a time of grief in their life that God hadn't done something for them. They should. He should have done or they would not have that grief. [00:18:38] If only God would have done this, I wouldn't have this grief in my life. If only God would have done this, I would have had less sorrow. Listen. [00:18:50] No. No. Christian grieves alone in all your grief. [00:18:56] The presence of God is a prayer away in your deepest moments of grief. [00:19:06] When your heart is breaking and you don't know how you can endure one more hour. [00:19:14] The same Lord Jesus who was a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. He meets you in that moment of grief and he says to you, I'm here. [00:19:29] We do not have a chief priest who is unable to sympathize with us in our weakness. [00:19:38] We have a sympathetic high priest and he meets us in our sorrows. And we don't carry our griefs alone. He carries our griefs with us. [00:19:50] If you have not known Christ as your grief bearer, it's because you haven't opened your heart and allowed him to wrap the arms of his ever loving care around your eternal soul. [00:20:07] It's not just our griefs. It's our sorrows that capture the heart of Jesus Christ. [00:20:18] How do I know Jesus meets us in our grief? [00:20:22] Mary and Martha's brother Lazarus died and Jesus came four days after the funeral. [00:20:29] And when they were talking to him, the sisters. [00:20:33] John records very clearly that Jesus met them in their grief and he wept. [00:20:40] He didn't look at them with stony coldness. [00:20:44] He didn't look at them detached and separated. He entered into their grief and he wept with them. [00:20:52] How do I know that your sorrow captures the heart of Jesus Christ? [00:20:56] Jesus and His Disciples were one day going from one town to another and they had to pass the little village of Nain. [00:21:04] And just as they were passing the village of Nain, a funeral came out. [00:21:10] There were people in front of the buyer and there were people behind the buyer. And there was the mother walking right behind the buyer. She was a widow. [00:21:19] Her son was her social safety net. [00:21:23] She was all he was all she had left. [00:21:26] And now she had lost him. [00:21:29] Jesus didn't know this lady. He didn't know the man who had died. But the woman's sorrow captured his attention and he just couldn't leave it alone. [00:21:41] And so he interrupted his own schedule and he went over to the buyer and he put his hand on it and said, stop. [00:21:50] And as Sarah preached to us several months ago, out of the treasures of the riches of his glory, he said to that young man, arise. [00:22:01] And that young man sat up and Jesus gave her back, gave him back to his mother church. [00:22:09] Christ is attention is drawn by your sorrows. [00:22:15] Your sorrows do not repel him. [00:22:19] There are people in here who will tell you people have a low tolerance for sorrow. [00:22:26] They will endure your sorrow temporarily. [00:22:30] They will sympathize with you temporarily. [00:22:33] But long term sorrow is usually a person of a burden that a lot of people get tired of being around. [00:22:44] Can I tell you, the wonderful Lord Jesus Christ has never grown weary of anyone's sorrows. [00:22:54] When I was a boy, they used to sing a song. [00:23:02] Tears are a language God understands. [00:23:06] God weeps along with man he takes us by the hand. [00:23:13] Tears are a language that God understands. [00:23:19] In spite of Christ joining in our griefs and in our sorrows. [00:23:24] In Christ's day, religious leaders looked at him and said, this guy is misrepresenting God and he deserves to be abused. [00:23:40] Can you imagine that? [00:23:42] The Son of God, the creator of the universe, the most sympathetic soul that humanity ever knew. [00:23:52] People looked at him and said, there's nothing to him. [00:23:58] He should be smitten of God. He should be afflicted. [00:24:04] When Jesus Christ was before Pilate, and Pilate said, I find no fault in this man. [00:24:10] What's wrong with you people? I've examined him three times. Herod examined him. [00:24:15] This guy hasn't done anything wrong. [00:24:18] Listen. What? The crowd shouted. [00:24:21] We have a law, and by our law he deserves to die. [00:24:29] Who has a law that says the Lord of life deserves to die? [00:24:40] Church Christ bore incredible emotional grief. [00:24:47] And he did it as a sacrifice to make you acceptable to God. [00:24:55] The third thing in this, in this poem, Christ paid the penalty for our iniquity he didn't just. [00:25:04] He didn't just feel indignity. He didn't just enter into our sorrow. [00:25:10] He did a transaction with God about the wrong things that we've done all our lives. [00:25:18] If there is a person in this room who doesn't know you've done wrong, then you have deceived yourself. [00:25:25] If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves. And the truth is not in us. [00:25:31] Look around. This room is full of sinners. [00:25:34] The person on your left is a sinner. The person on your right is a sinner. [00:25:40] The guy who's standing up here shooting his mouth off, he's a sinner. [00:25:46] We have all sinned. [00:25:49] And sin is not something that can just arbitrarily be crossed off. [00:25:56] It is a transgression. It is a debt. [00:26:00] There is a penalty that have to be paid. [00:26:03] You say, but God is love. Yes, God is love, but he's also justice. [00:26:09] I don't want to live in a world where there's only love and no justice. [00:26:14] Truly, you understand that there has to be justice for the world to function the way it should. [00:26:21] God is a God of justice. And my sin creates a problem that has to be solved. [00:26:30] And so the poem says, God has a plan for my transgressions. [00:26:38] He was pierced for our transgressions. [00:26:42] He was crushed for our iniquities. [00:26:47] Upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace. [00:26:52] And with his wounds we are healed. [00:26:55] And in spite of that, all we, like sheep, have gone astray. [00:27:02] We've turned everyone to his own way. And the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all. [00:27:09] I want you to understand that Christ was crucified for our transgressions and our iniquities. [00:27:19] When Christ laid his hands on that wooden cross and those Roman soldiers drove in the nails, they that was for my sin. [00:27:29] That was for the evil that I have done. [00:27:32] That is for the ugly things I have sought. [00:27:35] That is for the things I should have said that I didn't say and the things that I shouldn't have said that I did say. When his hands and feet were pierced, God was executing judgment for my sin on Jesus Christ. [00:27:54] He was sinless. He did not deserve any punishment. [00:28:00] But he was pierced through for our transgressions. [00:28:05] When the soldier stood in front of him and drove the spear in his side and water and blood flowed out, that was for my sin. [00:28:16] That was for your sin. [00:28:18] That was God's way of making the debt of sin completely paid. [00:28:28] His Christ's punishment on the Cross buys our peace. [00:28:36] There is a word here that, that we should look at. [00:28:43] With his wounds, we are healed. [00:28:46] If you have a King James version that translates with his stripes, we are healed. [00:28:52] The actual word there is because his flesh was torn by the Roman whip. [00:29:01] Ah. [00:29:02] God forgives our sins. [00:29:05] Ah. Church we cannot imagine the sacrifice Christ made to pay for the sins of the whole world. [00:29:15] It is beyond human imagination to comprehend what Jesus actually did on the cross. But we can comprehend why he did it. He did it out of pure love for your eternal soul. [00:29:30] He said, your soul is so valuable to me. No sacrifice is too great. [00:29:37] Do I have to be insulted in front of and socially rejected? If I do, it's worth it. [00:29:44] Do I have to be emotionally traumatized? If I do, it's worth it. [00:29:52] Do I have to experience the piercing of the cross? Do I have to experience the humiliating and torturous whip of Roman soldiers? If I have to experience, it's all worth it. Christ looks at you and says, there is no sacrifice that I won't make to make you acceptable with God. Church and that's on the books. [00:30:18] That is a certified, already historic fact. [00:30:23] Ah, and I wish, I wish this could be different. [00:30:32] But the poet Isaiah was such a brilliant thinker and such a wonderful poet. He says after Christ experiences all of that. Listen, you should know that when he was going through all that, he knew you would be an inconsistent follower. [00:30:53] He knew that even though he made that sacrifice for you, he knew you would be an inconsistent follower. Because all weak, like sheep, go astray. [00:31:04] We turn each one to our own way. [00:31:07] Do you get that? [00:31:09] I wish I could say after I became a Christian I never sinned again. [00:31:14] But actually I became a Christian when I was a young boy and I sinned more after I became a Christian than before I became a Christian. [00:31:22] Some of you are lucky. You got saved later in your life. And you, you, you can say I was a better person. [00:31:28] I can't say that most of my sins were after I trusted Christ as my Savior in my own life to my own shame. [00:31:39] I know how wonderful Christ has been to me, how good he's been to me, the sacrifice he made to me. And still I find myself from time to time going astray. [00:31:53] Church. [00:31:56] Not only did he make the sacrifice, he made it knowing that we would be totally inconsistent in our lives. As following Him. [00:32:07] He paid the price for our iniquity. [00:32:11] Look. Look at what he said. The Lord laid on him the iniquity of us all. [00:32:19] The fourth lesson. [00:32:21] He was oppressed and he was Afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth. Like a lamb is led to the slaughter, like a sheep before its shearers is silent. So he opened not his mouth. [00:32:34] If anyone ever had the right to complain about being mistreated, Christ did. [00:32:40] If anybody ever had the right to say, this isn't fair, Christ, Christ did. [00:32:45] If anybody ever had the right to say, I'm going to get even with you someday, Christ did. [00:32:51] Instead. [00:32:53] He was oppressed and afflicted and he did not open his mouth. [00:32:59] Do you remember when Jesus was before Pilate and they were bringing all kinds of accusations against him? [00:33:07] Pilate was shocked that he didn't answer them a single word. [00:33:12] Exactly as Isaiah had prophesied. [00:33:17] The fifth lesson. [00:33:19] Christ made his soul an offering to God so that we could be counted righteous. [00:33:26] Yet it was the will of God to crush him and put him to grief. When he makes his soul an offering for grief, for guilt, he shall see his offspring and prolong his days. The will of the Lord will prosper in his hands. [00:33:41] Out of the anguish of his soul he shall see and be satisfied by his knowledge. Shall the righteous one, my servant, make many to be accounted righteous. And he shall bear their iniquity. The sufferings of Jesus soul were greater than the sufferings of his body. [00:34:02] When we go to. When we. When we went to see Mel Gibson's movie on the Passion of the Christ, it focused primarily on the physical suffering of Christ. And it was so horrible, had to walk out. I couldn't take another minute. [00:34:20] But what Christ suffered physically is infinitesimal to what he suffered in his soul. [00:34:29] Because his soul was the offering for sin. [00:34:35] Because God is infinite. Because he's incomprehensible, because he's wise beyond our understanding. [00:34:44] We will never understand what Christ meant when he cried out in anguish, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me, Church? [00:34:57] That is anguish of soul. [00:35:00] That is the tearing of the soul of Christ. [00:35:04] That is Christ broken in the deepest way a human soul can be broken. [00:35:11] And it was all as an offering for our sin. [00:35:17] The death of Christ was not a terrible injustice. I'm tired of reading these heretics. The death of Christ was not a terrible injustice. And in fact it was a great act of justice. Look what. Look what Isaiah said it was. [00:35:37] It was the will of the Lord to do this, and yet it was the will of the Lord to crush him. [00:35:46] Christ was not killed accidentally. Christ was not killed in a political move. [00:35:53] Christ was not maneuvered to the cross by manipulative chief priest. Christ went strategically to the cross it was the eternal plan of God for him to go to the cross. [00:36:06] And he went voluntarily and he went knowingly. And he did it all as a personal sacrifice so that you could live with him forever in heaven. [00:36:20] It was the definite plan of capital L O R D, which is the equivalent of Yahweh. The God who is who he is, the ever present eternal God said, in my plan, we're going to rescue humanity, but we're going to have to make an impossible sacrifice to do it. [00:36:44] Jesus Christ was our substitute before the awesome justice of God. [00:36:50] The justice that you could not bear, he bore for you. [00:36:56] Because Christ paid the price for our souls. We are the offspring of God. [00:37:02] God looks past the offering of Jesus Christ and He sees us and he says, you are my children. [00:37:11] What kind of love has God bestowed upon us that we are called the children of God? [00:37:18] I'll tell you what kind of love it is. It's the love of the life and death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. [00:37:25] The Almighty is satisfied with Christ's offering. Out of the anguish of his soul he shall see and be satisfied. [00:37:36] Let me remind you something about God that is easy to forget. [00:37:41] John Owen wrote this. [00:37:43] God alone wants nothing, stands in need of nothing. [00:37:48] Nothing can be added to him, seeing he gives unto all life and breath in all things. Acts 17:25. [00:37:58] The whole creation in all its excellence cannot contribute one mite to the satisfaction or blessedness of God. [00:38:07] He has it all in infinite perfection from himself and unto his own nature. Listen what Owen said. [00:38:19] There was never anything that you and I could do that would add anything to God. [00:38:29] You can't give God anything. [00:38:32] Anything you gave him, he already made. [00:38:35] And anything you give him, he can make it twice as good. [00:38:39] You can't give God anything. [00:38:42] If it was up to us to give God something to make us acceptable to him, we would have all been doomed. [00:38:51] But because Jesus Christ is the second person of the Trinity and He is an infinite being, he is God's equal in every way. [00:39:00] He's able to offer something to God that is satisfying. And God accepts the satisfying offering of Jesus Christ for us. [00:39:12] Because God is satisfied with Christ's offering, He logically calculates us as righteous. [00:39:21] By his knowledge shall the righteous one, my servant, make many to be accounted righteous. You see what the poet is saying? [00:39:30] He's saying God logically counts you righteous because of what Jesus Christ did. [00:39:39] Some even been taught to be terrified that someday we have to give an account to God Church in the eyes of God you have the righteousness of Jesus Christ. [00:39:51] It's imputed to you. [00:39:53] He doesn't remember your sin anymore. He's removed it as far as the east is from the West. And that is a total gift to you that will never cost you a dime. [00:40:04] You don't give anything to God to buy your way to heaven. If you give anything to God, you do it out of pure, pure worship and appreciation. [00:40:15] Christ not only made an offering for my past iniquities, he made a sacrifice for my future iniquities. He shall bear their iniquities. It's all taken care of. [00:40:28] Now. You have seen what God is willing to sacrifice for you. [00:40:34] And I'm asking you one more time. This will be the last time. Next Sunday I'm teaching on friendship. I'm asking you one more time to think. What are you willing to sacrifice for God? [00:40:46] I don't want you to compare yourself to somebody who is not as good as you are. [00:40:52] I don't want you to compare yourself to the most selfish person you know. [00:40:57] I don't want you to compare yourself to some vain person. A Jesus Christ is our example. [00:41:03] I want. [00:41:05] I've explained to you what Christ is willing to sacrifice for you. [00:41:10] Now I would like each one of us in the privacy of our heart, not in front of other people, not to make a display, but. But to live out our Christian faith. I would like each one of us to say, because Christ made his soul an offering for me, am I willing to make my soul an offering for him because Christ did what he did for me? Am I willing to organize my life to be a fully devoted follower of Jesus Christ? [00:41:45] Am I willing for Christ to set the agenda of my life? Am I willing for Christ to direct my way? [00:41:53] Am I willing for Christ to be my financial partner? Am I willing for Christ to tell me how I should treat other people? [00:42:00] Am I willing for Christ to say, I want you to love your enemies and do good to those that mistreat you? [00:42:08] Or do I have a different kind of Christianity that basically says, hey Jesus, thank you for all the good stuff, but I've got some stuff I'd like to do that's really not under your purview? [00:42:23] Ah, I'm grateful that we get to have moments like this. [00:42:28] I'm grateful that our church has moments where God calls us to say, let's all think one more time about who Christ is to us and, and what he means to us. And what of our lives we're willing to offer to him freely so that his agenda in the world gets done in our lifetime. [00:42:50] Our dear Heavenly Father, I do believe in you. [00:42:56] I believe that when Christ died on the cross, I died right there with him. [00:43:03] My old nature died right there with him. [00:43:07] It was my sin, it was my ugliness, it was my vanity that nailed Christ to the cross. And I want you to know I'm so grateful for the sacrifice. [00:43:18] I am so grateful. [00:43:20] And now I. [00:43:22] I ask that your spirit would move in our hearts as only he can. [00:43:27] Everyone in this room and everyone online, that you would move in our hearts. And one more time, we would say to you, dear Lord, show me your way. [00:43:39] Just show me your way. And whatever you ask me to do, I'm going to do in faith. [00:43:44] And then I pray that you would receive the praise, the honor and the glory and the majesty, both now and forever. Amen.