Grace for the Walking Dead

[0:00] Father, this is your word, and in many ways, your word to us this morning is a great offense to us. And so, Father, we ask that the Holy Spirit would move deeply in our hearts to pause us in our offense or dismissing of your word.

[0:17] And, Father, we ask that the Holy Spirit would bring your word very deep into our hearts, the center of whom we are, that we might, Father, understand and be gripped by the gospel, this almost unimaginable good news that you offer to people like us.

[0:40] And all this we ask in the name of Jesus, your Son and our Savior. Amen. Please be seated. Amen. So, in morning prayer, we get to begin the sermon with the sound of children singing, which is sort of an interesting thing.

[0:56] I don't know how many of you paid attention to Matt when he was reading the text at the beginning of the service, but if you were listening, it's a very, very offensive text.

[1:08] It's a text of the Bible that says you're all dead, you're by nature children of wrath, by nature you follow hostile spiritual forces, and you follow a spirit of rebellion, and it's a very, very hard text, a text that people often turn away from.

[1:27] And I don't like offending people. I'm very Canadian, so I don't like offending people. But one of the things we do here in this church is we preach through the Bible. We preach through whole books of the Bible, and we don't try to hide things or avoid things or pretend that certain things aren't here.

[1:42] And so, what we're going to do is we're going to walk towards this problem, and what you have to understand is that this is, in a sense, a red pill and a blue pill moment for each of us. Many of you instantly get the analogy.

[1:56] There's a famous movie from some 20 years ago or whatever called The Matrix, and in it, early on in the movie, there's this moment where a man named Morpheus speaks to a man named Neo, and he holds out his hands, and he said there's a red pill and a blue pill.

[2:10] The choice is yours. If you take the blue pill, you just continue to live your life the way it is right now, and you just live thinking the things that are thought and going the way that things go.

[2:22] But if you take the red pill, if you take the red pill, you'll know the truth, and your life will be completely changed. And as those of us know, this isn't a spoiler or anything like that in the movie for those who haven't actually seen it, the red pill reveals a very, very harsh and uncomfortable truth that everybody in the world is living a delusion.

[2:42] They're, in fact, in real life, they're hooked up to a machine, and basically a world of machines is sucking the energy out of them to fuel the machines, and to stop human beings from disconnecting themselves to the machines.

[2:58] They basically work in the brains of human beings to create an illusory world where they're all happy and going about and free. And Neo, in the movie, chooses the red pill, not the blue pill.

[3:10] He chooses the pill that's going to be uncomfortable, but it's true. And that's what the Bible is doing for us here today. The last two weeks, as we've been looking through chapter 1, it's told us spectacular promises and truths about what it means to be in Christ.

[3:28] And now the text is going to take a step back and says, I want you to understand what's going on, what's really going on, what the choice is, what the before story is before these wonderful promises.

[3:40] And that's what we're going to look at right now. So here's how we begin. If you have your Bibles, you can follow along. And I'll also have the text up there on the screen.

[3:51] In a couple of cases, you'll notice that the translation, I'm basically using the ESV a couple of times. There's going to be a slight difference in some of the wording, and that's just you can thank a man whose last name is Baugh, B-A-U-G-H, who's a Greek scholar.

[4:07] And sometimes I've changed it to be a little bit less grammatical, but to actually bring home the underlying language better. And here's how the text begins.

[4:18] And you were dead in the transgressions and sins in which you once walked. Remember, this is a red pill moment.

[4:28] And you were dead in the transgressions and sins in which you once walked. Think if you're using the ESV, it says trespasses.

[4:42] The word transgressions means that there's a sense of the rightness of the world, and there's the sense of moral laws and rightness of the world, and that at different times in your life, you specifically go against what you know is the right thing to do.

[4:58] You fail to do the good that you should, or you do something that you know is wrong. And that's this idea behind transgression. It's consciously going against things which you know are right.

[5:13] And sins is a more personal word, in a sense, getting right in God's face or saying something to God about how you're going to turn your back on him. You don't like him. You don't want him present.

[5:24] It's a very God-centered word. But here's the thing. The word dead actually means dead. In fact, here's my point connected with it.

[5:36] By nature, you are dead. That's what the Bible is saying. By nature, you are dead. Now, the things which are going on in these first three verses of the text, it deeply offends, especially contemporary Canadians, where we believe that fundamentally we're good, and we don't like to think about death or talk about death or think about death's finality.

[6:02] We like to amuse ourselves and think about anything other than death. But this text, when it says dead, it really means if you go to a funeral home and you see the bodies in the caskets, that's us.

[6:18] And that's a bit of a shocking thing to say about human beings. Now, actually, interestingly enough, it's actually empirically true.

[6:28] If you think about it for a second, it's actually empirically true. From the moment that you're conceived in your mother's womb, when you become a zygote, if I'm pronouncing that word correctly, from that moment, and you become, in a sense, you, in a real sense, you become you at that moment.

[6:46] Your DNA is all there. The basic things as to whether you'll have certain illnesses, whether, like, I have my mother's father's hairline, for instance. You know, I have, if you know, I have, like, I have a true nose.

[7:02] I mean, it's a real nose. My mother's maiden name was True, T-R-E-W. I have a true nose. I have the same type of nose as my mother's dad. All those things are sort of programmed into you right from the moment you become a zygote.

[7:15] You know what else is also true from the moment you become a zygote? You'll die. You'll die. Like, isn't that true? That's empirically true.

[7:28] You know, death isn't something that you're going to live forever, live forever, live forever. Dang, you made a mistake. You know, it's not like you live forever, live forever, live forever, you know, you eat the wrong food, now you're going to die.

[7:40] No. From the moment you're a zygote, the moment you become you, you're also going to die. It's actually empirically true. There's, you might notice that there's three dozen roses at the front of the church, and they're here today as a symbol or as a sort of an illustration.

[8:02] After the service, I invite every adult in the room who wants one to take a rose. You bring it home, it's just our gift to you this morning. But here's the thing.

[8:14] This, in a sense, is a symbol and a metaphor and image of what every human being here is in the room. This rose is beautiful, isn't it? I mean, many of us, some of us are as beautiful as the rose.

[8:26] All of us wish we could be as beautiful as the rose. But this rose is a cut flower. It's a cut flower. And the biblical message is that we were designed to be connected to God forever.

[8:43] But we've separated ourselves from God. We've, in a sense, cut ourselves off from the ground, from the source of nutrients, from ongoing life.

[8:55] And every human being that's born is born a cut rose. And, um, it must be true because I looked it up on the internet.

[9:11] Um, but once that rose is cut, you can't do anything. Like, it's, it's doomed. You can't reconnect it to a plant so that it'll live because it's a cut plant.

[9:23] And that's what the Bible is saying here. We are a cut flower. It gets worse. Look at the next text.

[9:37] It's the, uh, second part of verse 2. Chapter 2. So we began with chapter 2, verse 1. And you were dead in the transgressions and sins in which you once walked. Now the rest of the verse 2 goes like this.

[9:48] Following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience. And, um, it's saying something else.

[10:02] It's saying now, it's getting even deeper into our problem. By nature, you love acts of rebellion against the living God. See, that's, that's what the text is trying to say.

[10:14] Um, the first analogy is that we're all walking a life and the natural, the, the, the, the sense, the natural way we're bent is to, in a sense, be on the same side as any human being or any spiritual being that also rebels against God and desires to be a God themselves and chart their own path and their own way forward.

[10:37] And so, this image of the ruler of the spirit of the air is this, this image of, of demons, of hostile spiritual forces. And then the other one isn't a spirit thing.

[10:48] It's, it's saying that, in fact, if we think about it, human life is organized, not always in rebellion against God, but there's always a bit of a flavor of it against the presence of the living God. And that that's, in a sense, what animates social life and social institutions.

[11:04] That there's always just something in there which likes to be in rebellion against God. And that's the side that we naturally side with as human beings. Once again, this is actually offensive to us because we believe that we're basically good.

[11:21] But once again, it's actually empirically true if you think about it for a second. It's empirically true. I've used this analogy before. Some of you might remember it.

[11:31] But when you watch a movie or you read a story and in the movie or in the story it looks as if there's a perfect society, a perfect place, a utopia. What do we all instantly know?

[11:44] At root, there's something evil. That's what we all know. It's just obvious. Nobody goes and says, oh, look at that. This is a betrayal of a perfect society, a perfect world.

[11:55] No. We know there's something going on. We know there's some powerful force manipulating people. We know that somehow or another they might be food. We know that something else is going on. We instinctively both long for utopias and often many people are suckers for them.

[12:10] But at the same time when we see it very plainly put forward, we know, we know, we know, we know, we know that there's something not right going on there. See, it's a very interesting thing that in this text, on one hand, when we think about it and reflect upon it, it offends us.

[12:26] On the other hand, if we actually think about it a bit more, we realize that what offends us is that which is actually empirically known to be true. And it gets worse. Look at verse 3, chapter 2, verse 3.

[12:42] So it just said how we follow basically the devil and we follow up and we naturally are aligned with the spirit that is work in society. In verse 3, among whom we all once lived in the passions, or another way to put it would be lusts, of our flesh.

[12:58] That doesn't mean our body. it means that there's a part of us that likes to rebel against God, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind and we're by nature children of wrath like the rest of the human race.

[13:15] By nature, children of wrath like the rest of the human race. You know, once again, this is something which is empirically true.

[13:28] if we think about it. Can you just imagine for a second if one of your friends or one of your nephews or your own child had a baby and as they're holding the baby and looking at it and if they were to say to you, do you know, do you think this will be the first child that never does anything wrong in their entire life?

[13:50] I think this is the child. I think this child, just like my previous one, will never, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, do anything wrong and if you watch that person say that, you'd think they were joking.

[14:01] If it became obvious that they were serious, you'd go, that's what you do, isn't it? Oh, good grief. How stupid is this person?

[14:13] How, isn't that what we all do? Like empirically, that's what we do. Nobody believes that even though we also at the same time believe that we're all basically fundamentally good. Like why is it that that goes on within us?

[14:26] Why are we offended by the word of God? You see, by nature, do I have the right thing? Here's my, here's my third point. By nature, with middle finger raised at him, you stay the course away from the living God.

[14:44] I tried to pick a very graphic image. This description covers the religious and the irreligious. It covers the spiritual and those who want to have nothing to do with spirituality.

[14:55] It covers me and you. It covers Bill Gates and it covers the most broken street person that you could ever meet. And why does the text say wrath but I don't use wrath in my text?

[15:10] Well, if you think about it for a second, imagine that you did come across somebody that, they're really, a really great person. Let's say you, you grew up with somebody and, okay, your mom wasn't very good.

[15:22] I don't know, your mom was terrible and this person's mom was fantastic. Like, just fantastic. You know, she made cookies, she made your lunch, she was a good listener, she was always kind, she always gave you good advice, she was all, she was just great.

[15:37] In fact, you and all your friends would say, I wish that mom, I wish your mom was my mom. Like, you have such a great mom. But then, if you have this person who, you know, humanly speaking, is just a spectacular mom, but all of the time, your friend, we'll call him Bob, every time Bob is at his mom's, where his mom wants to come and talk to Bob, Bob yells, Bob turns his back on her, he hangs up on her, he never answers her texts.

[16:06] When she starts to speak to him or give him a gift, he rolls his eyes, he just, it just visually shows he doesn't want to have anything to do with her, that doesn't like her, that he hates her, that he just wants to live his own life and have her nowhere.

[16:19] And everybody else, all of Bob's friends is saying, your mom is great. Like, she just, she just wants to, she's just great. Like, what's going on? Why are you always giving her the finger? The finger. And then finally, the mom says, gets mad at Bob, and then Bob goes around everywhere.

[16:35] Why on earth is my mom mad at me? That's why I don't like my mom. She's always getting mad at me. And what will you say to Bob? You'll say, but Bob, like, your mom's unbelievably patient with you.

[16:47] You're basically giving her the finger all the time. And she turns the other cheek. Why are you surprised that she's mad at you? That's what's going on in the text.

[16:58] God is unfailingly good. He's unfailingly kind. He's unfailingly loving. Unfailingly merciful. And we don't want him in our lives unless we're stuck.

[17:09] And then we'd like him to be like a genie that we rub the bottle, we make our wish, he fixes the problem, then he goes back in the bottle and lets me live my own life on my terms.

[17:19] And whether that is saying the rosary and going to church, whether it's doing yoga, you know, whether it's just singing praise courses or something like that just because it's something spiritual that we happen to like, whether it's drinking Jack Daniels, whatever it is, it can have a religious form and irreligious form.

[17:36] It can have a secular form and a spiritual form. But bottom line is what we don't want is we want what we want when we want it in the way that we want it. And we don't want God getting in there, the true and living God messing things up.

[17:49] Thank you very much. Finger extended back to him. That is what we are by nature.

[18:02] It is what we are by nature. This is the red pill. Religion or spirituality that says you just follow these rules and then God will be your God and he'll accept you.

[18:18] How does that work? Well, it works exactly the same as going into the funeral home and speaking to all the bodies in the caskets and say just start improving your diet and you will live longer.

[18:28] How does that work? It doesn't work at all. This is very, very, very, very tough and bad news. It's very counter-cultural bad news.

[18:39] But I would suggest it's the red pill. It's the red pill. But it reveals to us that we need a true and greater Morpheus.

[18:50] We need a true and greater Neo. It reveals to us that you are not the hero that you have been waiting for. You are not the hero the world has been waiting for. There is nothing in this world that is the hero that you have been waiting for.

[19:04] This is me. This is us. But this very, very stark bad news is a way to introduce spectacular good news.

[19:17] Look at how the very next verse begins. Notice how it begins with the word but. It's going to tell us that there is a true and greater hero.

[19:29] That there is, in fact, a longing and a dream made flesh. Let's read it. But God, this is where my translation is just going to be a little bit different to bring out the original force of the original language.

[19:43] But God, being rich in mercy because of the great love with which he loved us. This is verse 4. But God, being rich in mercy because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our transgressions, co-made us alive with Christ.

[20:02] By grace, you have been saved. And co-raised us with him. And co-seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus.

[20:16] Look at verse 4 again. Verse 4 goes, but God, being rich in mercy because of the great love with which he loved us. Here's the beginning of the good news.

[20:27] God is rich in mercy and he's rich in love. Our hope doesn't flow from anything within ourselves or anything within our world.

[20:40] Our hope has to come from God being rich in mercy and rich in love. Our hope comes in a sense from outside of the world but present in the world.

[20:53] There might be some of you here this morning who are feeling deeply unloved. What this Bible text is telling you, this isn't just me having a Maya Angelou moment.

[21:05] What the text is telling you is there has never been a time in your life that you have been unloved. Never. And if you're sitting here right now feeling unloved, you are not unloved. There is a God who does exist who right now loves you and has always loved you.

[21:21] And whatever good news is going to emerge is going to originate out of God who really does exist, the living God, the true and living God. It is going to come not out of the fact that you were able to wink or accomplish something or learn how to say the rosary or learn how to be good or learn how to do yoga or learn how to do or, you know, do all the Islamic prayers or just be very successful in life.

[21:46] Whatever hope you have is not going to emerge out of anything you do or anything you can accomplish. It's going to emerge out of God himself being unfailingly loving and unfailingly merciful.

[21:58] That is where hope is going to emerge out of. But you might say, but how can he help a cut flower? How can he help a cut rose?

[22:09] Look at what he says in verse 5 and 6. Look at what he says there again. Remember, he loves us. He loves us not when we've accomplished things, but he loves us, verse 5, even when we were dead in our transgressions.

[22:26] And what does he do? He co-made us alive with Christ. By grace, you have been saved. And co-raised us with him.

[22:38] And co-seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus. Co-made, co-raised, co-seated.

[22:50] Here's what the text is trying to bring out. The living God, united you to Jesus, and in him, you have been co-made alive, co-raised, and co-seated in the highest heaven.

[23:09] You see, what happens is Jesus is described as Emmanuel, as God with us. God, the Son of God, sets aside his glory and his splendor and his divine prerogatives in appearance as God.

[23:22] And remaining God comes and is born amongst us and lives amongst us. We have a hard time thinking about that. Just think a little bit more about being a zygote.

[23:35] Remember I told you that if you see me, you're seeing my grandfather's nose. You're seeing a true nose. See my hairline? That's my grandfather's hairline. You know, I have asthma.

[23:46] That's my mom's asthma. You know, my eyesight didn't get that from my mom, got that from my dad. You know, you can go on. Then there's other things that people wonder where it comes from.

[23:57] That's what happens when you just, you know, bang all those things together, the DNA of two people into a blender. But here's the point. If you went and saw a baby picture of me at one, you might say, look at that, that's George.

[24:12] I can look at that. I can see his nose is cuter then, but that's George. I can tell from his eyes just the way he looks, right? But you look at a zygote, if there was able to go back in time and there was able to be a camera that could take a picture of you as a zygote, you don't look like that at all.

[24:27] Zygots don't have noses. But everything that makes you you is right there in that second, that moment when you become a zygote, when you become you.

[24:39] Doesn't look like you. Doesn't have your power. Doesn't have your intellect. Doesn't have your charm. Doesn't have your wit. But it's you with nothing left. It's you. And if we understand that as a human level, then we understand that God does something the very same thing with his son.

[24:54] That God, the son of God, sets aside his divine prerogatives, his appearance as God, but remaining still by nature, God takes into himself our human nature and lives and walks amongst us.

[25:06] And he lives a life where he is not in rebellion against God. He is not in separation from God. He is in complete harmony and obedience to God in love of God and in love of us.

[25:17] He came and dwelt among us out of love. He dwelt among us. And in time and in history, he is betrayed. He is condemned and he dies upon the cross and there is a charge put about him as he dies on the cross.

[25:30] And his death upon the cross happens in history just as he spends three days in the grave and then on the third day, the grave is empty. The body is gone. He is risen.

[25:42] He has defeated death and he appears to prove that he is physically alive and has defeated death in a wide range of resurrection appearances over 40 days in many different locations to very, very many different people privately in groups, different locations.

[25:58] He is alive. But that death upon the cross happened in history. But because he is not just the man, Jesus Christ, but also God, the Son of God made flesh, his death upon the cross is not just something that happens in time, but something that happens outside of time in eternity.

[26:21] Outside of time, which means it can be present and available at any time to any person. And what this text is saying so powerfully is this. God, by the Holy Spirit, moves and works in you.

[26:36] We'll see this in a moment, by which you come to realize that God the Father is calling to you in your state of rebellion and calling to you in your state of death and saying, come to me.

[26:47] I long to have you as mine. And as you, with the help of the Holy Spirit, say, yes, Jesus, be my Savior and Lord. What actually happens is that, is as if God, the Son of God, Jesus, who has died upon the cross to take your place, He has identified so completely and utterly with you and He is your substitute, He is your act of exchange and He comes and He unites with you, with you.

[27:18] And so, by this profound act of identification, substitution, and exchange that both happened in history but because He is God, the Son of God is also outside of history, that even though I live 1900, 22,000 some years after He died and rose from the dead but because it's outside of time when I put my faith and trust in Jesus, God, Jesus, embraces me and unites with me so that on the cross He died with me and I died with Him.

[27:53] And on Easter Sunday He is still so united with me and is so united with you that He rose from the dead and you rose from the dead. and just as He has ascended into heaven and is seated at the right hand of God, so are you because you are united with Him.

[28:16] Profound act, miracle that only God can do and He did it for you and for me.

[28:27] It's all grace. All grace.

[28:40] This image of the seated in a sense that's already true but in another sense it's not true. I live in the already not yet because obviously I'm not sitting there right now. But I wonder just 15 years ago I tried to do the math 15 years ago there was a man that Louise and I knew and he wanted to do a fundraiser at the National Arts Center and this is 15 years ago we had a $500 a seat $500 a plate meal.

[29:07] $500 15 years ago I don't know what that is like what's that like that $2,000 like going to a $2,000 a plate meal today. Let me just tell you Louise and I don't normally go to meals like that.

[29:18] In fact we would never go to a meal like that. We wouldn't spend the money we don't have the money but this fellow we'll call him Bob he said I'd like you to come to this and we were actually a bit nervous because I don't know like how exactly like we just think we don't hang out with a crowd like that like how do you hold the wine glass how do you do this how do you do that we don't really have the clothes for it we got some clothes not nearly at their level or anything like that we go to this but here's the thing we go there we know nobody we don't know people who go to $2,000 a plate meals unless one of you folks go to them and I just don't realize you go to meals like that then I guess I do know somebody and it would have been a bit of a shock you know almost as big of a shock as the first time I ever went to jail the very first time I ever went to jail to visit somebody to my shock and another person's was another person from my church he was really shocked when I walked in the door and I was pretty shocked to see him and I would be almost as shocked if I walked into a $2,000 plate meal and one of you were there I'd go wow but here's the thing here's the thing about the co-seated right

[30:22] Bob paid for the plates Bob paid for Louise and me he gave us the tickets and what's more he also said don't worry about where you're sitting you're sitting at the head table with me we didn't have to find our seat and we went into that reception what did we know we'd be sitting with actually I'll say his name he's with the Lord we were sitting with Tom as his guests at the head table united with Christ that is you that is what awaits you when you die and it's no longer the already not yet it is the already you feel unloved you feel no hope you feel rejected listen to what God says listen to what the text of scripture continues to teach look at verses 7 through 9 remember he said he seated us with Christ in the heavenly places verse 7 so that in the coming ages why does God do this why does God unite us with Jesus in the power of the Holy Spirit why does he do this miracle within us that we cannot do by our own power so that in the coming ages any age that might come he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us toward us in Christ

[32:04] Jesus look at that verse again so that in the coming ages any age that you will face he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace and kindness towards us in Christ Jesus and it continues he just wants to drive the point home for by grace you have been saved through faith and this is not your own doing it is the gift of God not a result of works so that no one may boast look how he brings it home he reminds us again how has this happened has it happened because George is white has it happened because he's well educated has it happened because he's a Canadian does it happen because he's a priest no by grace I have been saved by grace you are saved saved means we were lost by grace you have been saved how does this happen only by faith only by accepting only by accepting what God has completely and utterly done for you with nothing else it isn't you have to be good until you can have faith it isn't you have to go to church before you have faith it isn't you have to become successful it isn't you have to become married it doesn't have to have children it doesn't have to have your sexuality dealt with or anything like that it has nothing to do with what you have to do or what you can accomplish because you are a cut rose and so am I so was I you are saved by God's action received by faith and to make it clear it's not your own doing is it become because I've worked hard and it's like my wages no it is the gift of God to remind us again not a result of works why so no one no one no one may boast look at me look how successful I am look at me

[34:05] I can say the liturgy really well I can sing praises well I know bible verses I have things memorized no boasting none it is a foolish delusion to boast before the Lord it is wisdom to learn to humbly boast in the Lord there is an obvious problem of proud Christians of which I am one one of the things for us to take from this when we get bent out of shape because of our pride it is all grace it is all a gift so it is a foolish delusion to boast about anything that I have done when the Lord is present it is wisdom to learn to humbly boast in him it is all his doing it is none of mine we will just finish the text in verse 10 oh by the way just one other thing here just almost finished you see one of the things here which is so important this is just like a bit of a time thing for a Christian we need to get our identity from this text and not from nature

[35:36] I'm not a white Christian there's no black Christians there's no white Christians there's no gay Christians there's no heterosexual Christians if you're a Christian your identity comes from Christ not from your nature you're not a conservative Christian you're not a liberal Christian if you're a Christian your identity my identity has to come not from nature but from this new reality that God has won for me and given me in Christ just bringing it to a close did I put verse 10 up there no I haven't let's put it up here just to bring it to a close how shall we then live this is really interesting how shall we then live if this is all true does this mean that we've been raised and co-seated with Christ so we rule so that we think we're better than others so that we become the elite would the true

[36:37] Christian would the true best society be one where only Christians are elected so that we can have power because we are the elite no no look at verse 10 for we are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus for good works which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in not that we rule but that as the gospel grabs us as it becomes the way that we understand our identity as it becomes the place on which we stand the air with which we breathe the food with which we eat the covering over our head the center of our identity of who we are it starts to push us and ground us to show compassion to be generous to forgive to seek to serve to seek the common good to not care if we rule as we seek the common good to be faithful in our marriages to treat people with dignity and respect and integrity as the gospel grips us as it grounds us as we breathe it as we eat it as it surrounds us as it covers us as we live in it as we see that the story of our lives is the story of the gospel as that grounds us then we learn to face adversity in a different way we learn to show compassion we learn to seek the good of our city and the good of our workplace and the good of the world we learn to be generous we learn to be generous we learn to be generous just want to wrap it all up with a challenge here's the first one if you are here and you have not yet given your life to Jesus the Bible is not proposing an hypothesis the living God is making a proposal to you this morning he's making a proposal to you and here's what he's proposing to you it's a proposal will you let me come to you with grace and mercy unite you with Christ and make you alive the Bible here isn't something that we can win debates with Dawkins or we can win debates with a Hindu or a Muslim it's not about that if the Bible and the gospel doesn't grip us so we have compassion and love for real people if it just becomes debating points we haven't actually heard it

[39:17] God himself this morning if you have not given your life to Christ God himself is saying to you will you let me come to you with grace and mercy will you let me unite you with Christ will you let me make you alive for those of us who are in Christ the Bible is not proposing an hypothesis Jesus is asking you and he's asking me have you forgotten that you are united to me that you have been made alive raised and seated with me it's the proposition that Jesus is saying to each one of us this morning have you forgotten have you forgotten that you are united with me have you forgotten that you've been made alive with me have you forgotten that you've been raised with me have you forgotten that you're co-seated with me in the high heavens is this truth becoming your identity in the way you see the world in the way you understand who you are is this helping you understand your failures and your successes your trials and your successes and your tribulations have you forgotten this please stand if you are here and you do not have not given your life to Christ that proposal was very serious that's what that's what God's word is saying to you not George

[40:51] God's word is saying to you and I encourage you to take the moment to ignore the rest of my words and just call out to Jesus and say yes I would like to accept that proposal I'd like to have Jesus united with me I would like that I say yes take the time to do it like just do it now but for the rest of us and then after you've said that prayer you join with this Father thank you that that your word isn't just so we can be clever in arguments or witty in conversation but that Father you make this proposal to us that you that Jesus himself is asking us if we remember who we are in him and what he has done for us and so Father you know how easy it is for us to forget you know how easy it is for us to get sidetracked and still you love us and we thank you Father for this time when your words directly speak to us and Father we ask that you help us to remember and that you help us to live out of this true and real identity that has been one in history and is true for all eternity for every age that we might face that we might live out of this identity in Christ knowing we are united with him made alive co-made alive with him co-raised with him and will one day see face to face what is now only true in longing and hoping that we will be seated with him that that is the final word about us and help us Father to live generous compassionate forgiving lives ground in that truth and all God's people said

[42:32] Amen