What Actually IS the “Good News”?

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- Hey, welcome to Crossroads. I'm Sean.

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And no matter what reasons you started watching,

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I believe that by watching today,

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you're going to be closer to God and know more about Him.

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And it's okay if you don't know anything about faith,

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spirituality, or don't even believe in God right now.

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But if you're watching, I'm going to assume that

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you are open to something different that might

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just change your life for the better.

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Or if not, no worries.

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You can just head back to watching funny cat videos.

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Now, today we're exploring the book of Romans.

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It was written by the Apostle Paul

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and it was a letter to the Romans

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for how to live a life centered around Jesus.

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And it wasn't just for them, it applies to us

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on our journey to follow Jesus today.

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Now, if at any time in today's episode you have questions,

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you can reach out to us at crossroads.net.

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Seriously, ask us anything.

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Now, one thing people might ask is

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why do we have music in our services?

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Well, the quick answer is because music is in the Bible.

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There are Psalms in the Old Testament

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and in the New Testament they sang hymns and songs.

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Now, maybe they didn't have electric guitars and drum sets,

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but you get the idea.

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These traditions have been passed down

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by followers of Jesus for thousands of years,

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and they are ways for us to connect with God today.

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So turn up the volume, go full screen and let's get started.

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- Hey, my name is Justin, if we've never met.

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I love getting to lead us in singing.

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I just want to pray for us right now.

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So, God, that song is a song of trust.

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It's a song of releasing my control,

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the thought that I have control or that I'm a fixer

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and the one who can fix broken things.

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That's a myth. It's a myth that I've discovered in my life.

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And because You've set me free,

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then I say I can trust You with everything.

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Because you've set me free, led me on a life of peace,

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one that's released myself than I can say

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I trust you with the day to day.

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Every day You walk with me.

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And for that I give You the loudest voice I could.

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I give you everything in that way to express myself,

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to say thank You for that, Lord.

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Thank You for walking with us every single day.

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I pray all this because I've found You to be real

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and seen you in Jesus. Amen. Amen.

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Look around you. This place is full this morning.

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So good.

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Hey, whether it's your first time here

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or it's your like 300th time here,

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why don't you turn to somebody next to you and say,

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"Hey, I'm glad to be here with you today?"

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I love that you're here today and I love this space.

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I think this space is unique where so many people come in

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and at least you're in the door

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is a step towards God.

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Wherever you're at on that spectrum or that journey,

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you're step in here is a step towards God,

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"I'm open to You."

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This space is unique, but one of the most unique spaces

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we have as a church is this place called Base Camp.

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And I can tell you every time I've been there,

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I've had this encounter with myself,

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a deep encounter with friends and laughter

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and also a deep encounter with God.

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And so this fall, there's a thing called Man Camp

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that I'll at, that Eric will be at,

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and so many others will be at, and you should too.

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If you don't know about it, then this is for you.

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[insert camp]

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- Well, good morning, everybody. How are you?

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Good to see you. My name is Kyle, if we've never met before.

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I'm one of our teaching pastors.

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Like that video said we are in this series

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of talks about the book of Romans.

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Romans is the book where we really get this deep dive

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on the gospel or the good news of God's grace.

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Now, all the Bible is good. All of it's great.

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But Romans kind of holds a special spot in the Bible

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because Paul, who wrote it, is the greatest evangelist,

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theologian, church planter in world history.

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And Romans is like his magnum opus

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where he unpacks the whole thing for us.

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So it's very, very special, which makes Romans

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have something in common with me because I am also special.

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Why? I'm part of the millennial generation, that's why.

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And you all told us from the time we were born

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that we were very special.

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But I have some beef with you.

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It's that you seem to have changed your minds.

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I hear often, you know, "What have millennials even done?

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What have you guys done?

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What have you contributed to the world?

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Other generations fought wars, invented airplanes,

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went to the moon. What have you done?"

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Well, I will tell you what we've done.

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We've contributed a lot, thank you very much.

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Some things that we've invented: participation trophies.

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You're welcome.

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Second, gender reveal parties.

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That wasn't a thing before us, just a baby shower.

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Now you get that.

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Then maybe our most important contribution are selfies.

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Some of you don't know this in world history,

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it used to only be acceptable

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to take pictures of other people,

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but now you can take pictures of your favorite person,

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You, thanks to us. Okay. That's what we did, Millennials.

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We really were told that we were special

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from the very beginning. You're special.

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You can be anything you want to be.

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The phrase that I heard more than any other phrase

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was probably reach for the stars.

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Reach for the stars.

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Now, when the Bible was written,

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no one knew how far away the stars were.

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They were just kind of considered unreachable,

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which is why they represented the heavens

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or the dwelling place of God,

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this place that we could never get to.

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Now, though, apparently we've measured.

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Do you know the sun is the nearest star

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and that sun is 93 million miles away?

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Which means if I was to reach for the sun,

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I would get a little bit closer,

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which can anybody in the front row read that?

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How much closer would I get? Vivian?

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My friend Vivian is right there.

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How much closer would I get, Vivian?

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21 inches. Wow. Okay. 21in closer.

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Now, I saw Brian Tome, our senior pastor this week,

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who, by the way, next week we'll be back

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giving a message about the gift of grace.

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Get excited for that.

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It's going to be amazing.

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When he asked me, he goes, "You know, every time

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people from Crossroads see me out in public,

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they always say, 'Wow,

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you're so much taller than we thought you were.'

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And he looked at me, he's like, "Maybe it's the stage,

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maybe it's the lights or the video or whatever.

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Is that what they say to you?"

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I was like, "No, no one's ever said that to me."

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So, Brian, if Brian were to reach for the stars,

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he might get a little bit closer.

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If I'm -- If I'm 21, maybe he gets, let's say --

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let's give him 26in closer. Okay.

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So closer, but still pretty far away.

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Now, if you wanted to get as close

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as you possibly can on Earth,

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you'd go to the highest point on earth

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and then you'd reach for the stars.

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That point is Mount Everest. It's 5.5 miles in the sky.

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As of January, I think 6338-ish people have ever

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in world history climbed the top of Mount Everest.

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You're probably wondering the same thing I did.

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I wonder what percent of all humans ever that is.

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And so I Googled that.

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Estimates are that 117 billion humans have lived on Earth.

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And so if you do the math, that means

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only the top 0.000005% of all humans ever

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have reached the top of Mount Everest.

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Gotten as close as you possibly can to the stars,

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reached up.

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Unfortunately,

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they were still 92,999,994.5 miles short, however.

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So closer, but still absolutely ridiculously

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and incredibly short.

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I bring this up because this is us in sin

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and the glory of God.

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See, all of us fall short, even the very best of us.

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Romans 3:23 says:

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Like even the very, very best of us,

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the mother Teresa's, the Gandhis, your mom.

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I don't know, whoever you think is awesome.

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The top 0.000005% of all humans ever still fall

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ridiculously, absolutely, incredibly short.

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This is the beginning of the story

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of the gospel of God's grace.

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The bad news that has to happen before the good news, it's sin.

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See, there's no exceptions, there's no escape,

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and there's nothing you can possibly do about it.

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This is where the story starts.

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Now, if you missed last week,

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I'd highly encourage you to go back and watch it.

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This message is kind of part two,

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and that one was kind of part one

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where I talked all about that.

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If you've ever struggled ever to understand what sin is,

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why is that in the Bible?

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Why does God talk about it so much?

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Why is it what it is?

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Or you've ever struggled to understand God's wrath?

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Why is that part of the story?

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Please, please, please go back and watch last week.

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The best way to do that

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is through the Crossroads Anywhere app.

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I don't know if you know this exists. It's completely free.

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And it just a couple of days ago got a massive,

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major overhaul that we're so excited about.

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You can just go into that.

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You can watch the message.

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It's on the home screen right there.

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Or you can click watch tab and watch all old messages there.

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And I'll also say, all the videos in there

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are probably the least impressive part.

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The coolest part that I like about the app

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is that you can follow along in scripture

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with your community every single day.

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We've been reading Romans for this whole entire two weeks.

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And right now this morning, we're in Romans 8.

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We will be again tomorrow.

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You can read my journals about what I thought about it,

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Brian's, your community pastor.

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I highly encourage you to get it.

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Advertisement over.

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Some of you were like, where was the skip ad button?

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I was looking for that the whole time you were talking.

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Just admit it. Didn't exist.

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But really, go back and watch that if you need to.

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Now, the good news is that the story doesn't stop in sin.

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It doesn't stop in our shortcoming but see,

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God shows up and changes everything. Everything.

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Romans 5:8, where we're going to start today says this:

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Those two words change everything, but God.

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And I don't know who you are.

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I don't know what's going on in your life.

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I don't know what situation you need a but God in in your life.

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My hope and my prayer is that today you get it.

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See, there's more of grace than you can possibly imagine.

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It's better than you can imagine.

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And it's available to every single person who wants it.

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What I find is that for most of us,

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there's this gap in understanding

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of what Grace really is,

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and that limits our experience of it.

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And there's also a block in the way that limits us

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from experiencing it each and every day as God intended.

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Most of us still go through life,

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even if we believe in grace

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still with this like low level anxiety.

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We still struggle to have hope.

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We still look to other people to define us

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and give us worth or our accomplishments.

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And by the way, if that's how you experience life,

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it's okay. That's called normal.

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It's okay. You're in a safe place.

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And I have great news for you,

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Jesus didn't come for you to have a normal life.

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He said He came to give you the abundant life

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or the full life, that's in John 10.

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And so would you join me as we start

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and just asking God for that gift?

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God, I ask that you give all of us more of Your grace,

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that if there's gaps, You would fill them.

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That if there are blocks, You would remove them,

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all of them, God, in my life

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and in everybody who's listening and watching today. Amen.

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Well, let's start to fill that gap.

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What is Grace?

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Well, grace in the Bible is a few things,

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but the biggest one to get is that

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it is a free gift that's offered.

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Today we're looking at mainly Romans chapters 5-8.

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And if you were to look through there

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and see what's the word that Paul uses

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more than any other word, you'd find the word gift.

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He uses it over and over again in Chapter 5 and Chapter 6.

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He says, "Grace is a free gift."

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Here's Romans chapter 5:18:

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It's a gift.

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Now, why would Paul emphasize the fact that it's a gift?

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And what does that mean?

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Is this a gift that everyone receives?

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Last week I talked about how there are

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these impostor gospels that we have to see

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and understand if we want to understand

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and unpack and experience the true gospel.

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One of those right now is the God is love Gospel.

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We talked about this last week.

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This is the gospel that basically wants to

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take those parts of the Bible where God is loving

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and keep those and throw out the whole rest.

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We talked about some of the good things about God is love.

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That's true. That's awesome.

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And some of the dangers

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when we get rid of all of the rest of it.

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Another one that I see popping up

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is what I call the love wins gospel.

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Lately, maybe you've seen this on Instagram

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or in a different feed or kind of picked up on this attitude.

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And the love wins gospel says

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grace is a free gift that all automatically receive.

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Like, you went to sleep last night

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and your phone got an automatic software upgrade. Right?

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That's what happens. You didn't do anything.

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It just kind of downloaded. And now you got it.

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Is that grace?

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In other words, is everyone saved?

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This is an important question.

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And let me just say from the start, I sure hope so.

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I hope that everyone is saved.

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That would be great.

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What kind of horrible person would go, "No, you know,

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I just kind of prefer the reality where

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maybe half of all humanity become eternal tiki torches

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and just burn in the lake of fire forever.

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I just thought that'd be pretty neat."

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Like, no, of course not. Of course not.

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I hope that that's true.

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I hope that you hope it's true, too.

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But I see a few problems with this idea

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that grace is this free gift we all automatically,

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whether we choose to or not, automatically receive.

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Number one is this: We can't actually know

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whether grace is a gift that all automatically receive.

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We can't know.

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Now, there's a French mathematician

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in the 17th century named Blaise Pascal,

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and he created this idea called Pascal's Wager.

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And it's an idea that we can relate to this concept, I think.

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In Pascal's Wager, he basically says,

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you have to with your life wager whether God exists or not.

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Nobody actually gets to sit out this wager,

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by the way, if you attempt to sit back,

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you're actually wagering no.

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And so he runs through the logic of making this decision

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and he says, "You know, if you wager no

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and God turns out to exist, the consequence is eternal loss.

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If, however, you wager that He does exist

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and He does prove to exist, you stand for eternal gain."

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And so just logically, he goes,

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"The smartest thing you can do is wager,

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bet your life on the fact that He does exist." He wrote this:

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See, I think the same logic applies

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to the concept that everyone is saved.

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If I live and I preach as if, yes,

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everyone automatically receives the free gift of grace

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and I turn out to be wrong,

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the consequences are eternal and horrible.

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If I decide, you know, this is a free gift.

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Everyone gets it.

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I don't need to tell my neighbor about God.

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I don't need to show them grace.

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I don't need to invite them to church.

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I don't need to live a life that pleases God in any way.

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I automatically get it if.

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I'm wrong, the consequences are eternal loss.

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Therefore, I will live my life

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as if it's not an automatic download,

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as if it's something that you actually have to accept.

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And then if I turn out to be wrong

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and everyone gets it anyway, hey, no harm, no foul.

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We're all in heaven. How great is that, right?

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This is the view I take on it.

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The second problem I have is this.

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Imagine there was a man

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who rescued some orphans from a fire.

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Now this orphanage is in the middle of the woods.

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It happened at night. No one saw it.

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And so he walks out of the woods the next day,

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orphans in tow and a reporter sees him and asks what happened?

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"There's this big fire and it was going to destroy everybody.

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And so I well, I saved the orphans." Right?

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And that story, it gets on the nightly news that night,

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local news, the next day the national news picks it up.

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Eventually, this guy gets a book deal about the story.

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The book is made into a movie.

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The movie's a bestseller.

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The guy is celebrated. We call him a hero.

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We call him a savior.

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And then at the end of his life, the guy goes,

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"You know what, guys? Something I got to tell you.

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There was actually no fire.

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I didn't save the orphans from anything."

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Would we feel something betrayed?

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Like, "Are you kidding me? There was no --

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You didn't save us from anything?"

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Well, friends, I bring this up to just point out

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that Jesus makes a very firm claim

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you cannot get around if you want to read any of His words.

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And he says, "I'm saving you from something.

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There is a real fire coming for you.

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And what that looks like is this eternal state

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of tormented being away from God."

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He uses different words to describe it.

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Matthew 8 as one example, Matthew 8:12:

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The outer darkness, in Matthew 18:8

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He describes it as an eternal fire.

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In Matthew 28:46 it's eternal condemnation.

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He again and again comes back to this thing.

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But if He's not saving us from anything,

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He's not a Savior, but he's taking our worship

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and our praise for it right now.

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We just sang a song earlier.

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I thank the Master. I thank the Savior. I thank God.

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If He's not, why are we singing?

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Why are we singing?

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So I firmly believe a part of this story

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and the way I choose to live my life is

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as if the consequences are real,

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that, see grace is a gift

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that absolutely must be received

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and just as absolutely can be rejected. No, thank you.

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Romans 6:23 says this:

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I have three kids, my wife Sarah and I have three kids.

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We have Ben, Eli and Gracie.

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This will shock you, but every year

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we celebrate their birthdays, each of them,

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because we were very generous parents. Right?

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Celebrate their birthdays. We give them presents.

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Here is something that has never happened

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when I've given my kid a birthday present.

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I've never gone, "Here you go, son. Here's the present."

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And had them go, "Oh, Dad. Oh, Dad,

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I couldn't ever accept that." Right?

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Or unwrap it, "Oh, it's too much, Father.

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It's too much for me. Too much, the glory, can't take it."

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It's never happened.

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What my kids do when I give them a gift

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is they're like wood chippers.

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They just shred everything. "What is it?

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Oh, awesome. Thanks."

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That's how a kid receives a gift.

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But us as adults, we have this idea that

00:30:51

we have to earn everything and so it stops us

00:30:53

from receiving free gifts.

00:30:55

We think, "No, no, no. It can't be free.

00:30:57

Let me -- Let me pay you back."

00:30:59

I hear this phrase all the time in churches and I hate it.

00:31:01

Let's give back to God.

00:31:03

No, don't give back to God.

00:31:06

Don't try to pay for the gift.

00:31:07

Don't try to earn it. You never can.

00:31:09

You can say thank you. You can be grateful.

00:31:11

You can try to love Him. That's awesome.

00:31:14

But the idea of giving back, of paying for it,

00:31:16

God says, "I don't need you to do that.

00:31:18

I just want you to be like a child."

00:31:20

Jesus says, "If you don't have faith like a child,

00:31:22

you cannot enter My Kingdom."

00:31:24

The picture of faith like a child is the picture

00:31:26

of the kid just ripping the gift apart.

00:31:27

Wow. Awesome. Thanks, Dad.

00:31:29

That's what He wants for you. That's what he wants for you.

00:31:32

Thank you, Father. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

00:31:35

Now, free gift doesn't mean cheap gift.

00:31:38

It doesn't mean cheap gifts at all.

00:31:40

Because the free gift of grace had the absolute highest price.

00:31:44

And another letter that Paul wrote to the Corinthians,

00:31:46

he put it this way. First Corinthians 6:20:

00:31:52

Price. What was the price?

00:31:54

The price was the life of Jesus, the Son of God.

00:31:57

The highest possible price

00:31:59

anyone could possibly pay for anything.

00:32:02

If there is a God,

00:32:03

the most valuable thing in the universe is Him.

00:32:05

And what does He pay? Himself. His own son.

00:32:09

Romans 5:6-8, I read you that verse 8 just a little bit ago.

00:32:13

The part that starts with, but God.

00:32:14

I want to back up two verses and read you

00:32:16

the whole little section here. It says:

00:32:38

His own love. It means His unique type of love,

00:32:41

His unique brand of love.

00:32:43

A kind of love that we're not used to

00:32:45

because it's not how people have loved us.

00:32:47

And so there is some getting used to this gospel of grace.

00:32:50

His own love, it's costly. Costly.

00:32:53

One of my favorite authors and teachers

00:32:56

is a pastor named Tim Keller, who just passed away this year.

00:32:59

He was a pastor out of New York and an amazing guy.

00:33:02

And he said this idea of the cost of grace

00:33:05

really clicked for him as he was examining the story

00:33:08

of Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane.

00:33:10

Now, this story happens the night

00:33:12

that he's betrayed, Thursday night.

00:33:14

He's going to be crucified Friday. Okay?

00:33:16

So this is right before He gets arrested.

00:33:17

He knows they're coming to arrest Him.

00:33:20

And so He goes to the garden and He prays.

00:33:22

And He says to His Hather, basically, "God,

00:33:24

if there's any other way to pay this cost,

00:33:27

if there's anything else that's valuable

00:33:29

that could satisfy the price of this,

00:33:31

please, can we can we go that way?

00:33:33

Can we pay some other way?

00:33:34

But if not, God, if not, Father,

00:33:37

You can have My life. I'll pay it."

00:33:41

Keller writes this:

00:34:06

Costly love.

00:34:08

It's a question worth asking about this gift

00:34:10

that such a high price was paid for

00:34:13

is what's actually inside of it.

00:34:15

What is grace?

00:34:17

I find often times that people confuse two words.

00:34:20

They use them almost interchangeably,

00:34:22

grace and mercy.

00:34:24

These are actually distinct concepts in the Bible.

00:34:27

Mercy has to do with

00:34:29

when somebody is deserving of punishment

00:34:31

and you are in the rightful seat of judgment.

00:34:34

And what you choose to do is to have mercy on them,

00:34:37

to not punish them. That's mercy.

00:34:40

It is awesome. It's absolutely a part of grace,

00:34:43

but it is nothing close to the totality of grace.

00:34:47

See, grace is actually used in the Bible

00:34:49

first in the Old Testament.

00:34:50

I don't know if you knew this,

00:34:52

Old Testament was written in Hebrew.

00:34:53

So if you ever hear us use Hebrew words on stage,

00:34:55

that's because we're going back to

00:34:57

the original language of the Old Testament.

00:34:59

And then the New Testament was primarily written in Greek.

00:35:01

So if we ever use a Greek word, that's why we're doing that.

00:35:04

And if you go back to grace,

00:35:05

the first times it shows up in the Bible,

00:35:07

it is the Hebrew word khen. Everyone say khen, khen.

00:35:12

Okay, you got to clear your throat. Do it again, khen.

00:35:16

Okay, now wipe the back of your neighbor's head in front of you.

00:35:19

This is really, really gross.

00:35:22

Khen, not Ken like Barbie, khen, khen.

00:35:27

What is khen? Khen is a view of somebody.

00:35:31

It is deciding I'm going to look on you,

00:35:35

I'm going to change my view of you

00:35:37

to be one of favor and goodness.

00:35:41

I'm going to decide that you are good.

00:35:43

And every time I look at you,

00:35:44

I'm going to see something desirable,

00:35:46

something great.

00:35:48

See, 47 times in the Old Testament of the Bible

00:35:51

this phrase is used to find grace in the eyes of,

00:35:54

to find khen in the eyes of.

00:35:56

And sometimes that word is translated favor

00:35:59

and sometimes it's translated grace.

00:36:01

Here's just a few examples so we can understand this.

00:36:04

In Genesis chapter six,

00:36:05

when God is going to destroy the world

00:36:08

because of all this horrible sin going on.

00:36:10

He looks at Noah and He sees somebody who He can trust,

00:36:14

and the scripture records He had khen in the eyes of the Lord.

00:36:18

Genesis 6:8:

00:36:19

But Noah found grace, or khen, in the eyes of the Lord.

00:36:23

Genesis 39:4, the story of Joseph and Pharaoh.

00:36:26

Joseph is a prisoner.

00:36:28

He's in prison unjustly, by the way.

00:36:31

And Pharaoh comes along.

00:36:32

He doesn't just have mercy on Joseph and say,

00:36:35

"Well, I'm going to pardon your sentence anyway.

00:36:37

Be on your way," kick him out of his house.

00:36:39

He has khen on him. He finds khen in his eyes,

00:36:43

and he elevates him out of prison

00:36:45

all the way up to being the second most powerful,

00:36:47

important person in the entire Egyptian kingdom.

00:36:51

Here's what it says in Genesis 39:4:

00:36:58

In Exodus 33 Moses has this exchange with God,

00:37:01

and it's all about this desire to find grace

00:37:03

or khen in the eyes of God. It says this:

00:37:27

Story of Ruth. Ruth was a widow. She was poor.

00:37:32

She had to take care of her mother-in-law, Naomi.

00:37:34

She didn't know what to do.

00:37:35

And so she goes to a local king's field,

00:37:37

named Boaz, and she decides,

00:37:39

I'm just going to aim for mercy, that's all.

00:37:41

If I can just have some mercy, just pity.

00:37:42

If I can have the scraps from his table,

00:37:45

that would be enough for me.

00:37:47

But Boaz sees her, and he doesn't just have mercy on her,

00:37:50

she finds khen in his eyes.

00:37:53

And he says, "You know what?

00:37:54

I'm going to marry you and make you queen."

00:37:57

Here's her response, Ruth 2:10:

00:38:05

See, the point is this, grace is about how you are seen.

00:38:09

It is God's chosen viewpoint of you.

00:38:12

And when he looks at you,

00:38:13

the story of the gospel of grace is

00:38:14

He doesn't see your mistakes.

00:38:15

He doesn't see your shortcomings.

00:38:17

He doesn't see your problems.

00:38:18

He sees you and goes, "Yes, I'm pumped about you.

00:38:21

Yes, I'm excited about you.

00:38:23

Yes, you're the son I love. Yes, you're the daughter I love.

00:38:26

Yes, I believe in you. Yes, I'm proud of you."

00:38:28

That's what He says about you each and every day.

00:38:30

Grace is His elevated view, that's the gospel.

00:38:34

That's the gospel available to you.

00:38:36

That's the good news.

00:38:38

Romans 8:1 says this: Therefore, there is now

00:38:41

no condemnation at all for those who are in Christ Jesus.

00:38:45

No condemnation.

00:38:47

He sees your beauty. He sees value in you.

00:38:51

Now, the problem I see that many believers have

00:38:54

is that we don't believe it really.

00:38:55

We think it's some kind of a trick, you know,

00:38:58

like God kind of chooses for a little bit.

00:39:00

He puts on the glasses, "Oh, you're amazing."

00:39:01

And then He gets bored and He takes them off.

00:39:03

He's like, "Whoa, whoa. Wow. Okay, hold on.

00:39:07

Oh, that's better. Oh, man. Okay."

00:39:09

You know, we think it's like this trick

00:39:11

or this optional thing.

00:39:12

We don't think it's permanent.

00:39:14

In our house we love to -- We love April Fools.

00:39:16

It's probably our third favorite holiday.

00:39:18

I mean, Christmas and Easter, right?

00:39:20

Two Christian holidays, those got to be one and two.

00:39:22

April Fools, number three. Here's why.

00:39:25

Because it's socially acceptable to terrify your children.

00:39:29

And it's so much fun. It is so much fun.

00:39:32

If you are not doing April Fools, you absolutely should.

00:39:35

Here's a couple of lay up ideas for you.

00:39:37

This is one we did a couple of years ago.

00:39:39

You can buy this shark on Amazon

00:39:42

and then you tape it to the bottom of the seat.

00:39:45

And when they wake up in the morning to go poop,

00:39:46

they're like, "Ahhh," you know, it's great.

00:39:49

I love that one.

00:39:51

Here's another one from a few years ago.

00:39:52

I got black construction paper

00:39:54

and I cut out the shape of spiders.

00:39:56

This is important. This is how you have to --

00:39:59

at night, you sneak into their room

00:40:02

and you put them inside the lamp and you tape it.

00:40:05

So in the morning, when they turn on the lamp,

00:40:07

this is what they see. And they're like, "Ahh."

00:40:10

I made my son cry with this one.

00:40:11

So use that one at at your own discretion.

00:40:15

That might be a little far.

00:40:16

This year my daughter and I,

00:40:18

who make pancakes together every Saturday morning.

00:40:20

And on April Fools we made a hot dog shaped pancakes.

00:40:24

Right. And I want to hold on this picture for just a minute,

00:40:27

because you and I make a mistake in this picture.

00:40:30

There are actually two things here.

00:40:31

We think that God's grace,

00:40:33

His view of us is like hot dog pancakes.

00:40:36

It's not real. It's kind of a trick.

00:40:38

It's not lasting. It's not permanent.

00:40:40

It's a little bit silly, it's a little bit naïve.

00:40:42

That's what we think, but it's not true.

00:40:44

God's view of us is the way that I view my daughter Grace.

00:40:48

No matter what she ever does,

00:40:50

no matter where she ever goes,

00:40:51

she will always find favor in my eyes.

00:40:54

I will always think that she's beautiful.

00:40:56

Always, always, always. No matter what.

00:40:58

This is God and you.

00:40:59

And I just wonder what would change in your life

00:41:02

if you made it a habit of actively, intentionally

00:41:05

receiving the gift every single day instead of rejecting it?

00:41:09

Might you have more peace in your life?

00:41:12

Might you have more confidence?

00:41:14

Might you be less worried about

00:41:15

what people are going to think about

00:41:16

whatever you said in the meeting or whatever? Yes.

00:41:18

Might you be willing to take risks?

00:41:20

Might you feel more safety in your life?

00:41:22

Yes, yes and yes.

00:41:23

But see, the reason that we don't experience it

00:41:25

is because of the block in our way that

00:41:27

we have to address and we have to remove.

00:41:29

There's a reason we don't.

00:41:31

I think the most terrifying question

00:41:34

a wife can possibly ask a husband

00:41:36

is how do I look in this?

00:41:39

Husband's agree, yeah? Terrifying. Why?

00:41:42

Because we never get the answer right.

00:41:45

It's impossible.

00:41:46

Everyone's all freaked out about like Putin and North Korea.

00:41:50

They're going to start World War III.

00:41:52

You know, that's how it's going to happen.

00:41:53

No, it's not.

00:41:55

I'll tell you how World War III starts.

00:41:57

There's a world leader, she has a state dinner

00:42:00

and she gets a new dress and she invites her husband in.

00:42:04

And she's like, "How does this look?"

00:42:05

And that idiot screws up the answer and we all die.

00:42:08

That's how it's going to start.

00:42:10

That's how it's going to go down.

00:42:12

Can't get the answer right.

00:42:14

You know, Sarah will ask me that.

00:42:15

And if I hesitate for a second, she's like,

00:42:17

"Okay, never mind. I'll go. I'll go change. I'll go change."

00:42:21

And if I say what's true, "I go, Babe, you look beautiful.

00:42:24

You look great." What does she say?

00:42:26

"Oh, you always say that.

00:42:28

That's what you -- You always think I look beautiful."

00:42:34

How am I being punished for this?

00:42:37

You have found khen in my eyes, woman.

00:42:45

See, we asked for this, though, because

00:42:47

our view of ourselves is really severely limited.

00:42:49

And so we look for other people to validate.

00:42:51

We look for other people to say, "What do you see in me?"

00:42:54

Hold out your hands like this. Just put them out.

00:42:57

This is your default mode of seeing yourself in life. Okay?

00:43:02

Try to see your face right now.

00:43:05

I can't. My peripheral vision stops here.

00:43:10

Is that good, by the way? No. Okay.

00:43:13

I took off my glasses. That's probably why.

00:43:15

It's probably awesome besides that.

00:43:16

This is all you can see.

00:43:18

Your view of you is severely limited.

00:43:20

You know, what you can see, though,

00:43:22

is what happens on the end of your hands,

00:43:23

the work of your hands is what you see.

00:43:26

And for most of us,

00:43:28

the reason that we reject this gift of grace,

00:43:30

God's high and holy view of us every day is

00:43:32

because we instead are saying, "You know what,

00:43:34

I'm actually the result of the work of my hands.

00:43:36

What I can see out here.

00:43:37

I don't want your view. Here's my view."

00:43:40

Now the work of your hands can be wins and losses.

00:43:43

Wins might seem like, well, that's probably a good idea.

00:43:45

You know, be proud of the things you accomplish.

00:43:48

Which that's that's okay, to a degree.

00:43:50

But the problem with wins is that

00:43:53

they have an incredibly short shelf life.

00:43:55

They're like sushi.

00:43:57

I love sushi, by the way.

00:43:59

Love sushi. Sushi is great.

00:44:00

I did see this video the other day that made me reconsider.

00:44:02

Just check this out real quick.

00:44:07

- What if Sushi is a scam.

00:44:10

They act like it's special,

00:44:13

but they really just didn't want to cook your food. [laughter]

00:44:20

- Makes you think, right? Makes you think.

00:44:26

I love sushi.

00:44:28

Raise your hand if you like three day old sushi.

00:44:32

No, of course not.

00:44:33

This is wins in our life.

00:44:35

They don't have a long shelf life.

00:44:36

They spoil faster than you want.

00:44:38

And if you're trying to find your value and worth in them,

00:44:40

you'll find it deeply dissatisfying because

00:44:42

just a few days later the thing that was amazing

00:44:44

that made you feel so great just a couple of days later,

00:44:46

it's already spoiled.

00:44:47

That's how wins work in our life,

00:44:49

whether we want them to or not.

00:44:50

And the only other option is our losses.

00:44:53

We view that the things that we miss at,

00:44:54

the habit that we can't kick,

00:44:56

the pattern of destructive thought

00:44:57

that we can't seem to get over,

00:44:59

the thing we try to do and we just can't quite make it.

00:45:01

And we decide, "This is who I am."

00:45:03

And friends, please hear me clearly,

00:45:05

when you do that on a daily basis,

00:45:07

you are rejecting the gift of grace.

00:45:10

See, yes, grace is this one time thing you accept.

00:45:13

Yes, there's probably a moment

00:45:14

where the very first time you say yes,

00:45:16

I'm going to believe who I am, who you say I am.

00:45:19

But it's not a one time thing forever.

00:45:21

It's meant to be a daily acceptance.

00:45:23

A daily, Yes, God, help me see myself the way that You see me.

00:45:27

I would love that if that's true, but we reject it.

00:45:30

We decide I'm my mistakes instead.

00:45:33

But God, thankfully, God is a gracious God.

00:45:36

That's the good news. He is gracious.

00:45:39

It's something that He is part of His character.

00:45:43

The first time God ever says He's gracious,

00:45:45

by the way, do you know what it is?

00:45:46

It's Exodus 34, which is the story in the Bible

00:45:50

where Moses has just led the Israelites out of Egypt,

00:45:54

out of slavery.

00:45:56

And the first thing the Israelites do is they thank God.

00:45:58

Just kidding. They don't do that at all.

00:46:00

They actually set up a golden calf,

00:46:03

reject God and worship the calf instead.

00:46:06

The worst thing you could possibly do.

00:46:08

And do you know what God's response is to them?

00:46:11

He says, "Here's who I am." Exodus 34:6-7:

00:46:29

He says, I'm gracious.

00:46:31

Doesn't matter what you do, doesn't matter at all.

00:46:34

I love you. I think you are awesome.

00:46:38

And friends, if you just need to hear that today

00:46:40

and nothing else, please do.

00:46:41

I don't know what mistake you made last night.

00:46:43

You might walk in here like, "Man, God doesn't --

00:46:45

God's rejecting me right now."

00:46:47

No, he's not. No, he's not.

00:46:49

Did you make a golden calf and completely reject Him?

00:46:52

Probably not, you know.

00:46:54

But even if you did, He'd go, "I'm gracious.

00:46:58

I still look on you with you on favor."

00:47:00

It never, ever, ever changes.

00:47:02

Now, if you want to accept this gift every day,

00:47:05

how might you receive the gift every single day?

00:47:09

Because it's hard to see yourself.

00:47:11

What I found in my life is that

00:47:13

because I can't see it myself,

00:47:15

I need to hear God say how He sees me.

00:47:19

One of our fights in our marriage

00:47:20

that's been going on for forever

00:47:22

is when our first date actually took place.

00:47:25

I say it's the first time I took Sarah out,

00:47:28

bought her food or beverage and paid for it. Yes?

00:47:31

Good people. Yes? Take my side, please.

00:47:35

Thank you. Thank you. I am right. No.

00:47:39

Now what I learned, even on this first date,

00:47:42

I learned something very important about Sarah.

00:47:43

It was a great conversation, very just kind of

00:47:45

vulnerable and trusting with each other.

00:47:47

And I learned that she, like many women,

00:47:49

struggle to believe that she's truly beautiful.

00:47:52

So that was like a kind of a thing

00:47:53

that she just couldn't quite get there, you know?

00:47:56

And a few, I don't know, weeks or months later,

00:47:59

as our relationship progressed, we got more serious.

00:48:02

I told her, I said, "You know,

00:48:03

I want you to mark this date because from here on out,

00:48:06

I am not going to call you Sarah.

00:48:08

You will never hear me say Sarah again.

00:48:12

I'm going to call you beautiful."

00:48:13

And still to this day, if you go to my phone

00:48:15

and you look at her picture,

00:48:16

it says beautiful when she calls me.

00:48:18

Why would I do that?

00:48:19

Because I knew that she would struggle

00:48:22

to see her how I see her.

00:48:25

And therefore, I made a commitment

00:48:27

I will tell you every day what I think about you,

00:48:29

every opportunity I have.

00:48:31

And friends, God does the same thing

00:48:33

if you'll pause and listen.

00:48:35

Every day God has words for you

00:48:37

if you'll pause and you'll listen about

00:48:39

how He sees you and how He loves you

00:48:40

and how He's for you and how He's not upset at you

00:48:42

and how how He's in your corner,

00:48:44

if you'll pause and listen.

00:48:46

It's actually a need you were built with,

00:48:49

you can't run away from.

00:48:50

In the Bible it's known as your daily bread.

00:48:53

You need your daily bread.

00:48:55

In Matthew 6 Jesus taught us how to pray,

00:48:58

and He gave this kind of prayer.

00:48:59

It's beautiful. It's known as the Lord's Prayer.

00:49:01

Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name.

00:49:03

May Your Kingdom come, may Your will be done

00:49:05

on earth as it is in heaven.

00:49:07

Give us today our, what? Our daily bread.

00:49:11

Now, you know what's interesting is that the Bible

00:49:14

actually diminishes the importance of bread

00:49:16

over and over again. Deuteronomy 8:3 says:

00:49:24

Just two chapters before teaching this prayer

00:49:26

Jesus was tempted by Satan. He was starving.

00:49:29

He was in the desert fasting for 40 days, and Satan says,

00:49:31

"Hey, turn these stones into into bread."

00:49:33

And Jesus goes, "I don't live by bread.

00:49:36

That's not the most important thing.

00:49:37

I live by every word of God."

00:49:39

And friends, you are no different.

00:49:42

You would never expect to eat one time in your life

00:49:46

and have that satisfy you forever.

00:49:48

You wouldn't expect to eat once a week

00:49:50

on a Sunday morning for an hour

00:49:52

and expect that to create physical health in you.

00:49:55

Why do you expect that for spiritual health?

00:49:57

The more important thing.

00:50:00

See, there's an invitation from your Father,

00:50:03

a beautiful, incredible invitation.

00:50:06

He says, "I've made a meal for you.

00:50:09

I've taken the bread. I've broken it.

00:50:12

The gift, My body, My Son broken for you.

00:50:15

Every day would you eat it?

00:50:17

It's not fast food. It wasn't cheap. It wasn't cheap.

00:50:20

Would you set aside time to read the Bible,

00:50:23

to pray, to interact with Me

00:50:24

so I could give you My Word?"

00:50:27

And right before He was crucified.

00:50:30

Right before He was actually arrested

00:50:31

and left to go to the Garden of Gethsemane,

00:50:33

Jesus instituted what's known as

00:50:35

the Lord's Supper or Communion.

00:50:37

And not coincidentally, the first thing He did

00:50:39

is He took a loaf of bread and He broke it.

00:50:42

And He said, "This is My body broken for you."

00:50:45

And He took a cup of wine and He said,

00:50:48

"This is My blood shed for you.

00:50:50

Whenever you get together, do this in remembrance of Me."

00:50:54

As often, as often as you eat, as often as you drink,

00:50:57

do this again and again and again and again.

00:50:59

In other words, as often as you have a meal,

00:51:01

as often as you eat breakfast,

00:51:03

if you ate breakfast today, spend time with Me today,

00:51:05

ask Me what I think about you,

00:51:06

and let that be the thing that informs your day.

00:51:10

Let that be the thing that lowers your anxiety.

00:51:13

Let that be the thing that increases your power,

00:51:15

increases your hope.

00:51:17

This is the invitation of God.

00:51:20

So we're going to end this experience today

00:51:22

having actual bread and actual wine communion.

00:51:26

If you've been here before, you've seen us

00:51:27

maybe do communion with the little cups,

00:51:30

a little tiny thing of juice

00:51:31

and the tiny little terrible cracker in the top of it.

00:51:34

We're not doing that today.

00:51:35

That's fine for some days. We're not doing that today.

00:51:37

We're going to take the time to enjoy this together.

00:51:42

Now, as you get up, I do mean time.

00:51:45

It's highly possible that wherever you are,

00:51:47

you're going to be in a line

00:51:49

and that line might last ten minutes.

00:51:51

It might last 15 minutes for you to get communion.

00:51:55

And as you're doing that, I want you to have

00:51:57

a conversation with God about His grace.

00:52:00

Because I just know there's a place in your life

00:52:03

where you have yet to fully receive His view of you.

00:52:06

You're holding on to the work of your hands.

00:52:09

And as you come forward for communion,

00:52:11

would you just ask Him, "God, what is that place?"

00:52:14

And would you ask Him for His Word

00:52:16

about what He actually thinks about you?

00:52:18

And would you swap it?

00:52:19

Say, "God, help me to receive the gift of grace,

00:52:21

change me, change me today, God."

00:52:25

And so wherever you are in just a moment

00:52:27

your campus pastor is going to come on stage

00:52:29

and give you instructions.

00:52:30

I'm going to pray for all of us first.

00:52:32

God, thank You so much for the gift of grace.

00:52:34

This gift that's free and yet came at a steep cost.

00:52:40

Thank You for paying for it.

00:52:41

I don't want there to be a day in my life

00:52:43

that goes by that I don't enjoy it,

00:52:46

that I don't say thank You for it,

00:52:48

that I don't get the absolute most nourishment

00:52:50

in life out of it possible, God.

00:52:53

Help us receive this gift now and every day after. Amen.

00:52:58

If you are watching online and you're like,

00:53:02

"I don't have bread and wine," you do somewhere near you.

00:53:06

You have something to drink and something to eat.

00:53:08

It doesn't matter what,

00:53:09

the elements aren't holy in and of themselves.

00:53:11

It's the act that makes it holy.

00:53:13

So just take something to drink, something to eat.

00:53:15

That thing you get to eat, I want you to break it.

00:53:17

That's Christ's body broken for you.

00:53:19

And I want you to take that cup and drink it.

00:53:21

That's His blood shed for you.

00:53:23

If you're in Oakley,

00:53:24

here's Greg to give you your instructions.

00:53:27

- Bread and wine communion here in this room.

00:53:29

This is how we do it.

00:53:31

We've got some stations down here at the front

00:53:33

and we have stations in the back of every level.

00:53:36

Little tip, there's more stations in the back

00:53:38

than there are in the front.

00:53:39

And you're going to have someone who has two glasses,

00:53:42

the round tall glasses, wine.

00:53:44

The shorter one is juice.

00:53:46

And they're going to say the blood of Christ shed for you.

00:53:48

And you're going to get a little piece of bread

00:53:50

and you can dip it in either one.

00:53:53

That's the body and blood of Christ shed for you.

00:53:56

And so as you get in line, just like Kyle said,

00:53:58

to be prayerfully considering what's happening.

00:54:00

Also, I'll just mention we've got

00:54:02

a gluten free option down here as well, if that's you.

00:54:07

And they're also wearing gloves and hand sanitizers.

00:54:10

Some logistics for your communion.

00:54:12

But hey, seriously, right now we're going

00:54:14

to continue to worship.

00:54:15

And when you're done taking communion,

00:54:17

that's all we have for you today.

00:54:18

So the table of the Lord is open.

00:59:40

- Hey, thanks for watching.

00:59:42

Since you stuck around, I want to give you a challenge

00:59:44

that will bring you closer to God

00:59:45

and help you get more out of the message.

00:59:47

Download the Crossroads app.

00:59:49

It's a simple way that you can change

00:59:51

the direction of your day, your week, or even your month

00:59:54

by taking a little bit of time to spend with God in the app.

00:59:57

And we can even be friends in there. Pretty cool, huh?

00:59:59

Like, I can like your stuff.

01:00:01

It's one of the few apps on your phone

01:00:02

that is designed to help you get closer to God

01:00:05

and be inspired to follow Him.

01:00:07

You can even watch the service in the app

01:00:08

and maybe some of you are doing that right now.

01:00:11

And however you tune in, don't miss next week

01:00:14

when Brian is talking about how Grace equips us.

01:00:17

We'll see you then.

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