WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:06.160 Good morning, everyone. Great to see you today. That was a really good response. Very loud, 00:00:06.320 --> 00:00:11.500 lots of volume. I feel like I don't even really need to preach anymore after 00:00:11.500 --> 00:00:15.780 Oti and Lorna is sharing just now. We're talking about the church being family today, 00:00:16.420 --> 00:00:22.780 and I think they pretty much covered most of it, right? But no, we'll still do the sermon. 00:00:22.780 --> 00:00:31.940 Um, for those of you who have seen me between Friday night around 6.45 and five minutes before 00:00:31.940 --> 00:00:38.780 service started today, you would have noticed something weird about me. Either you saw me 00:00:38.780 --> 00:00:46.020 bleeding profusely out of my finger, or you saw me with a huge bandage on my finger. And that was 00:00:46.020 --> 00:00:53.540 because right as we were about to start CG together on Friday night, I caught my finger on something and 00:00:53.540 --> 00:00:58.660 sliced it open and had to go get stitches in the hospital. And I figure everyone who's seen me 00:00:58.660 --> 00:01:03.340 during that time probably deserves a little explanation. I'm doing okay. I got three stitches. 00:01:04.159 --> 00:01:08.579 Um, and it's more just annoying than anything, you know, like I was supposed to help out with some 00:01:08.579 --> 00:01:15.000 stuff at CG together and couldn't because I was bleeding all over the place. And, you know, having 00:01:15.000 --> 00:01:23.579 to keep my hand dry is annoying, but it's fine. It's healing up. It's, yeah, the big bandage is off. 00:01:23.640 --> 00:01:29.640 We've got a small bandage now. And, you know, as we, as we come to talk about family today, I actually 00:01:29.640 --> 00:01:36.480 can't think of a better time for an injury like that to have happened to me because I got to experience 00:01:36.480 --> 00:01:43.859 the reality of the church being a family on Friday night. I had people rush in and start helping me 00:01:43.859 --> 00:01:49.560 clean up the wound as soon as it happened. I had people step in and cover for me in the roles that 00:01:49.560 --> 00:01:55.099 I was supposed to do as CG together. I had people messaging and asking, do you need me to come wait 00:01:55.099 --> 00:02:00.799 in the emergency room with you? And I was like, no, I'm fine. And I had one friend who just ignored me 00:02:00.799 --> 00:02:06.400 and came anyway and made the waiting so much better. And so I just want to say thank you to everyone who 00:02:06.400 --> 00:02:12.879 asked about how I was doing and took care of me during that time. I really experienced the church as a 00:02:12.879 --> 00:02:19.079 family through that experience and doing much better now. So that's the nice, fluffy, friendly 00:02:19.079 --> 00:02:24.560 welcome. And it's not going to stay that way the rest of our time together this morning. 00:02:25.259 --> 00:02:31.859 I've also had bronchitis this week. So if my voice goes weird, that's why. The past couple weeks, 00:02:32.000 --> 00:02:37.819 we've been looking at what it means for us to be God's people. Who are we as Christians? A couple 00:02:37.819 --> 00:02:44.299 weeks ago, we started out by looking at what it means for us to be disciples. And we said that 00:02:44.299 --> 00:02:53.139 Christ's call to us is a call to come and die. That it means giving up our way that we want the world 00:02:53.139 --> 00:02:59.719 to work and instead pursuing God's way of the world working. And we saw that being a Christian is 00:02:59.719 --> 00:03:07.960 something that's supposed to rule over our lives in their entirety. Last week, we talked about being 00:03:07.960 --> 00:03:14.919 saints. And we said a saint isn't just some super Christian, but actually all Christians are saints. 00:03:15.240 --> 00:03:21.199 Saint just means that we're a people set apart as a special possession for God. And when we become 00:03:21.199 --> 00:03:27.800 Christians, we are set apart as a special possession for God. And we saw that being a Christian, it's not 00:03:27.800 --> 00:03:34.100 just about following a set of rules, but it's about pursuing this relationship with God. And the Bible 00:03:34.100 --> 00:03:40.300 uses a lot more images to describe who we are as Christians. In the next few weeks, we're going to be 00:03:40.300 --> 00:03:47.720 looking through some of those. But today, we're going to look at what it means for us to be a family. And we're 00:03:47.720 --> 00:03:54.840 going to see that there was a former hostility between us and God and us and one another. But Christ has 00:03:54.840 --> 00:04:01.740 brought reconciliation, and that requires a response from us. So we have a former hostility, a current 00:04:01.740 --> 00:04:09.080 reconciliation, and a required response. And before we start talking about that, let's just pray. Father, we thank 00:04:09.080 --> 00:04:16.240 you. We thank you for the fact that we as your people are a family. We pray that you would draw us together and 00:04:16.240 --> 00:04:22.579 help our love for you and for one another grow through this time together today. We pray that you would speak to us, that you 00:04:22.579 --> 00:04:28.219 would speak powerfully, that you would transform us as we come under the teaching of your word. And in Jesus' name, 00:04:28.579 --> 00:04:36.300 amen. So first off, we said we have former hostility. If you look at the first couple verses of this passage, 00:04:36.479 --> 00:04:42.360 there's a lot of hostility going on here. Paul's writing to a group of Gentiles, which basically means 00:04:42.360 --> 00:04:49.779 non-Jews. And he says that their former state, they were, in verse 12, separated from Christ, 00:04:49.779 --> 00:04:55.459 alienated from the commonwealth of Israel, that's God's people, and strangers to the covenants of 00:04:55.459 --> 00:05:01.419 promise. They were apart from God, apart from God's people, and apart from the pathway that could bring 00:05:01.419 --> 00:05:07.739 them to God. And because of that, they were without God and without hope in the world. It's a pretty bleak 00:05:07.739 --> 00:05:15.599 outlook for them. However, the Jews, who are God's people, weren't actually much better off, according to 00:05:15.600 --> 00:05:21.379 Paul. He writes it, he writes this passage in a way that makes it sound like they're better off, but if 00:05:21.379 --> 00:05:25.560 you look more closely at what he's saying, he's actually saying they thought they were better off, 00:05:25.700 --> 00:05:32.700 but they weren't. He says that in verse 11, the Jews were called the circumcision. In other places, 00:05:32.700 --> 00:05:38.740 he refers to Christians as the true circumcision. Circumcision, if you don't know, was a ceremony that 00:05:38.740 --> 00:05:44.780 the Jews did that set them apart from other people, where every boy on the eighth day of his life would 00:05:44.779 --> 00:05:51.619 have his foreskin chopped off, and that would set them apart so they knew this is a Jewish boy. And 00:05:51.619 --> 00:05:56.539 what Paul is saying is that when we become Christians, God does something to our hearts that 00:05:56.539 --> 00:06:03.519 transforms us in a similar way, that we become his people. And that's why he says the church is the 00:06:03.519 --> 00:06:09.379 true circumcision. But here, referring to the Jews, he says they're called the circumcision. That's different 00:06:09.379 --> 00:06:14.419 than being the true circumcision. So he says they think they're better off, but they're really not. 00:06:14.779 --> 00:06:21.500 And then he says it's made in the flesh by hands. Again and again in the Bible, you see, 00:06:21.619 --> 00:06:27.819 we can't do anything through our efforts to earn or merit a relationship with God. So the fact that 00:06:27.819 --> 00:06:34.259 they are relying on their own accomplishments shows that they are just as far from God as the Gentiles. 00:06:34.359 --> 00:06:39.519 So the Gentiles are separated from God. The Jews are separated from God. And then the Jews and the 00:06:39.519 --> 00:06:45.439 Gentiles are separated from each other as well. Again, we saw this in verse 12. The Gentiles were 00:06:45.439 --> 00:06:51.859 alienated from the commonwealth of Israel. They, the Jews, basically saw themselves as better than the 00:06:51.859 --> 00:06:57.439 Gentiles because they had God's law. They were obedient to God's law, and they looked down on anyone else 00:06:57.439 --> 00:07:04.419 who wasn't as obedient to God's law as they were. And so we have just brokenness. We have 00:07:04.420 --> 00:07:12.140 alienation and hostility. And in our world today, we have plenty of brokenness and alienation and 00:07:12.140 --> 00:07:18.379 hostility. Now, it's not mostly along the lines of Jews versus Gentiles like it was in this passage, 00:07:18.600 --> 00:07:25.400 but it's still there. And C.S. Lewis, the author of The Chronicles of Narnia, says that at the root of 00:07:25.399 --> 00:07:34.919 this hostility is pride. Here's what pride does. Pride turns life into a competition. So rather than 00:07:34.919 --> 00:07:41.219 looking at everyone else and seeing them as people who share the image of God with me and deserve my 00:07:41.219 --> 00:07:48.639 love, I instead see them as competitors that I need to beat. And so when you're prideful, you're not 00:07:48.639 --> 00:07:55.159 content with having lots of money or being really intelligent or having a very beautiful spouse. 00:07:55.399 --> 00:08:02.659 You have to define yourself against everyone else. And so you only become content if you have more 00:08:02.659 --> 00:08:10.060 money and more intelligence and a more beautiful spouse than everyone else. And I saw a post online 00:08:10.060 --> 00:08:16.259 this week that it's wonderful. It just shows this principle so clearly. I'm going to read it to you 00:08:16.259 --> 00:08:21.919 so you can hear it and see if you notice what I noticed in this post. This guy said, 00:08:21.920 --> 00:08:28.800 I need to understand whether this is normal in Manhattan. I thought I made a very good income. 00:08:29.379 --> 00:08:33.460 It's been around a million U.S. dollars a year for the past couple of years, 00:08:33.680 --> 00:08:38.879 and I have about three million dollars invested. Now, does anyone think that's a lot of money? 00:08:40.259 --> 00:08:44.200 A couple of us. A couple of us think that's a lot of money. I think a couple more probably do, 00:08:44.200 --> 00:08:52.080 but didn't want to raise their hands. So he has all this money, yet I feel like I'm living in the 00:08:52.080 --> 00:08:59.940 middle class. Every parent at my kid's school is running around buying six million dollar condos 00:08:59.940 --> 00:09:05.320 like it's the standard, literally. We rent a nice place, which saves money, but my wife is frustrated 00:09:05.320 --> 00:09:11.740 because she can't make it her own space. What's going on here? I just need to know if I'm delusional 00:09:11.740 --> 00:09:17.040 or what does it take to live comfortably in New York City? I thought I was doing pretty well, 00:09:17.400 --> 00:09:23.320 but I realize I can't afford a five million dollar condo like apparently all these other people around 00:09:23.320 --> 00:09:33.540 me can. It's wonderful. And here's why. This guy is making a lot of money, and he's complaining about 00:09:33.539 --> 00:09:38.980 not having enough. That's pride. He's not content with what he has. He has to define himself 00:09:38.980 --> 00:09:45.259 against everyone else around him. And you know, as someone who makes a tiny fraction of what this guy 00:09:45.259 --> 00:09:50.799 makes, it's easy for me to look at him and be like, yes, you're right, you are delusional. But 00:09:50.799 --> 00:09:56.019 here's what I love about this post. If I was in that guy's shoes, I would feel the exact same way. 00:09:56.799 --> 00:10:01.860 I'd probably be too embarrassed to actually say it, but I'd be thinking all these things too. Like, 00:10:01.860 --> 00:10:05.759 I thought I was making a lot of money. How come everyone else seems to still have more than me? 00:10:07.139 --> 00:10:13.539 That's what pride does to us. It forces us to compare ourselves to everyone around us. I mean, 00:10:13.580 --> 00:10:19.600 think about it. This guy makes more money in one year than most people in his city will make in the 00:10:19.600 --> 00:10:28.519 next 15 to 20 years combined. And he's still complaining that he doesn't have enough. By any 00:10:28.519 --> 00:10:36.319 objective standard, he's set for life. He could literally give away 80 to 90% of his salary and 00:10:36.319 --> 00:10:44.340 still have more left over than most people in his city make. And instead of focusing on how blessed he 00:10:44.340 --> 00:10:54.120 is, he complains about the $6 million condo that he can't afford. He's saying it's not okay to have 00:10:54.120 --> 00:11:01.360 more than enough if more than enough is less than the person next door. Michael Lewis, the author of 00:11:01.360 --> 00:11:05.679 Moneyball, The Big Short, The Blind Side, he actually started his career on Wall Street. 00:11:06.399 --> 00:11:12.159 And he wrote a book about his time on Wall Street. And in that book, he said, in reference to banking, 00:11:12.360 --> 00:11:17.700 you don't get rich in this business. You only attain new levels of relative poverty. 00:11:17.700 --> 00:11:23.759 And what he meant is, if you get a $100,000 bonus at the end of the year, and the guy next to you gets 00:11:23.759 --> 00:11:28.440 a million dollar bonus, $100,000 doesn't really feel like that much anymore. And if you get the 00:11:28.440 --> 00:11:32.759 million dollar bonus and your boss gets the $10 million bonus, a million dollars doesn't feel 00:11:32.759 --> 00:11:37.240 like that much. And I'm not saying this is any type of slam on bankers or anything. I just think it 00:11:37.240 --> 00:11:45.020 beautifully illustrates the point that we define ourselves against one another. I think banking is a 00:11:45.019 --> 00:11:50.819 very important industry. If you work in banking, I have nothing against you. But I think Michael 00:11:50.819 --> 00:11:57.460 Lewis's comment beautifully illustrates this point, that pride makes us define ourselves against one 00:11:57.460 --> 00:12:03.220 another. We no longer see people as made in the image of God and deserving our love. We see them as 00:12:03.220 --> 00:12:11.299 a standard that I have to beat to have worth and value in life. And it leads us to have this separation 00:12:11.299 --> 00:12:20.039 between us and one another. And here's the thing, all of us suffer from pride. All of us, at some way, 00:12:20.099 --> 00:12:27.279 on some level, define ourselves against one another. If you think that's not true of you, just think, 00:12:27.819 --> 00:12:33.539 when do you get upset because something good happened to someone else? 00:12:33.539 --> 00:12:39.620 Maybe there's a coworker and they get a promotion. It's not even a promotion that you were like 00:12:39.620 --> 00:12:44.360 eligible for. You're like, oh, they've been at the company less time than me and now they have a higher 00:12:44.360 --> 00:12:54.339 rank than me. That's not right. That's pride. Or who are the people that you have a hard time seeing as 00:12:54.340 --> 00:13:03.220 truly equals in life? I realize this about myself, that for a huge part of my life, I've been very 00:13:03.220 --> 00:13:08.680 happy to go serve in different ministries that reach out to less privileged people than myself. 00:13:08.820 --> 00:13:13.000 And I will go there and I will serve with a smile on my face and I will care for them like nothing 00:13:13.000 --> 00:13:20.200 else. But I actually don't see them as equals. And here's how I can tell. Because if I was having 00:13:20.200 --> 00:13:25.640 trouble, I wouldn't reach out to them and ask for help. There's this part of me that for so much of 00:13:25.640 --> 00:13:31.400 my life, it said I'm above being helped by the people that I'm helping. And so even though I was 00:13:31.400 --> 00:13:36.220 willing to go and interact with them and have a smile on my face, there's this part of me that says 00:13:36.220 --> 00:13:42.720 I'm doing this because I'm better than you. And that's this attitude that's going on in this passage 00:13:42.720 --> 00:13:50.160 between the Jews and the Gentiles. This failure to see people as truly equal with us and truly 00:13:50.159 --> 00:13:54.839 sharing the image of God with us. And all of us struggle with this. It can come in different ways. 00:13:54.899 --> 00:14:00.699 It can be based on ethnic differences. We see this with things like the Black Lives Matter movement in 00:14:00.699 --> 00:14:05.799 the States. It can be religious differences. I mean, you look at the Rohingyas in Myanmar right now, 00:14:05.860 --> 00:14:10.439 and they're suffering from that. It can be political differences. You know, in Hong Kong, we have 00:14:10.439 --> 00:14:16.419 the pro-independence camp and the pro-Beijing camp. And if me mentioning either of those parties made your 00:14:16.419 --> 00:14:20.439 blood pressure rise a little bit, that might be a sign that you have pride against them. 00:14:21.579 --> 00:14:28.159 But I think, this is a guess, I could be wildly wrong. I think in our context, the biggest area 00:14:28.159 --> 00:14:34.059 where this happens is the socioeconomic level. My guess would be for most of us in this room, 00:14:34.539 --> 00:14:41.000 and again, I could be wrong, my guess would be for most of us, it's far easier to connect with and 00:14:41.000 --> 00:14:45.860 see as equal someone with a different skin color from a different country who has a similar level of 00:14:45.860 --> 00:14:51.139 education and makes a similar amount of money with us than it is for us to connect and see 00:14:51.139 --> 00:14:56.100 ourselves as truly equal with someone who has the same skin color as us, comes from the same country, 00:14:56.240 --> 00:15:00.320 but makes a very different amount of money and has a very different level of education. 00:15:02.340 --> 00:15:09.379 Again, I could be wrong about that, but I think that is, you know, I look around our city and I see 00:15:09.379 --> 00:15:15.899 people from all different backgrounds coming together, but they have that in common so often. 00:15:16.659 --> 00:15:22.679 The background of similar education, similar jobs, similar income. And I think that's one of the 00:15:22.679 --> 00:15:30.120 biggest areas in our society that these lines get drawn along. And what Paul is saying in this passage 00:15:30.120 --> 00:15:36.000 is that this attitude of pride, when we put our identity in ourselves being better than others, 00:15:36.000 --> 00:15:42.080 it shows the fact that there's separation not only between us and each other, but between us and God 00:15:42.080 --> 00:15:48.840 as well. Because each of us is relying on our own efforts to make us better than everyone else. And as 00:15:48.840 --> 00:15:54.639 long as we're focused on our own efforts and our own achievements, we're not going to truly have a 00:15:54.639 --> 00:15:59.740 relationship with God. We're not going to have the deep type of relationship with each other that God 00:15:59.740 --> 00:16:06.700 wants us to have. And Paul, he starts out the passage by telling them to remember this. Remember 00:16:06.700 --> 00:16:13.680 your former state. Because when you see that, you can see how great and amazing the work of Christ at 00:16:13.680 --> 00:16:21.460 transforming us truly is. Which brings us to the current reconciliation. And here's what Paul says, 00:16:21.460 --> 00:16:29.180 Christ tears down the dividing wall. In Ephesians 2, 1 through 10, which we don't have time to look at 00:16:29.180 --> 00:16:36.720 today, he talks about how Christ tears down the wall between us and God. And here in verses 11 through 22, 00:16:37.000 --> 00:16:42.379 he's talking about how Christ tears down the wall between us and one another. 00:16:42.379 --> 00:16:53.899 In verse 14, it says that he has made us both one and he has torn down or broken down in his flesh, 00:16:54.240 --> 00:17:00.939 the dividing wall of hostility. The gospel, he is saying, tears down the things that we build up 00:17:00.939 --> 00:17:09.319 that keep us apart from one another. And here's why that happens. Because when I'm consumed with pride, 00:17:09.319 --> 00:17:18.079 I want to be better than everyone else. And so what I do is I stand up here on the stage of my life 00:17:18.079 --> 00:17:25.539 and I look down on everyone else. And all of us do this. We create a stage so we can be higher than 00:17:25.539 --> 00:17:30.960 everyone else. We set a standard that's completely arbitrary and subjective of what it takes to get up 00:17:30.960 --> 00:17:36.000 on the stage that allows us to stand there and no one else to meet that standard. And then we look 00:17:36.000 --> 00:17:43.339 down on everyone else. And as long as our focus is looking down on everyone else, we can keep creating 00:17:43.339 --> 00:17:49.960 this totally subjective, totally arbitrary standard that allows us to look down on the rest of the world. 00:17:51.420 --> 00:18:00.500 But here's what the gospel does. When I look up and I see how amazing God is, there's no more room for me 00:18:00.500 --> 00:18:07.380 on this stage. I have to be down on an equal level with everyone before God. Because with God, 00:18:08.000 --> 00:18:15.759 there is nothing, nothing that I can do that sets me any higher than anyone else. When I look at God, 00:18:16.759 --> 00:18:22.240 I see a God who I deserve to be crushed by instantly. 00:18:22.240 --> 00:18:29.799 And the fact that he looked down at me and rather than crushing me, sent his son to rescue me. 00:18:31.319 --> 00:18:35.960 And then when I had this heart that hated his son and wanted nothing to do with him, 00:18:36.200 --> 00:18:42.380 he sent his spirit to open my eyes and show me how beautiful and amazing he is. There's nothing 00:18:42.380 --> 00:18:50.620 about me or my greatness in that process. And when I'm looking up and I see God and I see who he really 00:18:50.619 --> 00:18:55.919 is and I see the beauty of the gospel and what he has done to rescue me, I no longer have any grounds 00:18:55.919 --> 00:19:03.219 for being on the stage and looking down at everyone else. I'm at the very least an equal, if not lower, 00:19:03.759 --> 00:19:08.059 than everyone else. Because I can see how totally messed up my own heart is. I can't see that depth 00:19:08.059 --> 00:19:17.379 of brokenness in each of you. When I see the gospel, I have no grounds for seeing myself as better 00:19:17.380 --> 00:19:23.460 than anyone else. That's how Christ breaks down the walls. The walls that I build up that allow me 00:19:23.460 --> 00:19:30.540 to stay here rather than be on a level platform with everyone are torn down by the gospel. When I see 00:19:30.540 --> 00:19:35.200 that it's not about me and what I do, but it's all God. 00:19:38.860 --> 00:19:41.980 And so for the Jews in this passage, that wall was the law. 00:19:41.980 --> 00:19:48.440 They had God's law, which was a good gift to them, and they did their best to keep God's law. 00:19:50.059 --> 00:19:54.559 But they took that good gift that God had given them and they made it ultimate in their lives. 00:19:55.220 --> 00:19:59.480 They basically said, we keep the law, you don't. So we're going to stand on the stage, 00:19:59.779 --> 00:20:03.200 and what it takes to get on this stage is keeping the law. If you want to keep the law, 00:20:03.519 --> 00:20:07.759 you can be on the stage with us, maybe. We might throw in a couple extra things you need to do to get 00:20:07.759 --> 00:20:13.859 up here also. But the law, which God gave them as a good gift so that they could know him, 00:20:14.119 --> 00:20:19.279 all of a sudden became the barrier that kept them apart from everyone else. That's why it says in 00:20:19.279 --> 00:20:24.819 this passage that Christ tore down the law. He abolished the law because this good gift that 00:20:24.819 --> 00:20:29.900 God had given them had become a bad thing that allowed them to set themselves apart from everyone 00:20:29.900 --> 00:20:35.220 else. And that's how it works in our lives too. We take good things, and rather than seeing them as 00:20:35.220 --> 00:20:40.819 good things, we use them to set ourselves apart from the rest of the world. Maybe it's a good 00:20:40.819 --> 00:20:47.960 work ethic. You know, if you have a good work ethic, that's awesome. But if you look down on anyone else 00:20:47.960 --> 00:20:53.339 who doesn't work as hard as you and see them as less worthy as a human being because they don't work 00:20:53.339 --> 00:20:59.559 as hard, your good thing has become a bad thing. It could be prioritizing your family. If you 00:20:59.559 --> 00:21:06.819 prioritize your family, that's very important. That's great. But if you look at someone who 00:21:06.819 --> 00:21:13.259 doesn't prioritize their family as much as you and see them as less of a human being because of that, 00:21:14.159 --> 00:21:18.619 your good thing has become a bad thing. And here's the nature of the way that we judge ourselves and 00:21:18.619 --> 00:21:22.059 the way that we set these standards. Like I said, it's completely arbitrary and subjective. 00:21:22.940 --> 00:21:26.419 So if you're the guy who's working really hard, you're going to look at the guy who 00:21:26.420 --> 00:21:32.920 prioritizes his family and be like, he's a loser. He doesn't work as hard as me. And if you're the 00:21:32.920 --> 00:21:37.700 guy who prioritizes his family, you're going to look at the guy who works really hard and be like, 00:21:38.420 --> 00:21:44.539 what a punk. He doesn't prioritize his family. Everyone sets their own standard that allows 00:21:44.539 --> 00:21:50.100 them to stay on the stage while everyone else has to stay off of it. And we do this with so many good 00:21:50.100 --> 00:21:54.320 things in our lives. It could be our education. It can be our jobs. It can be our morality. That's what it 00:21:54.319 --> 00:22:00.099 was for the Jews in this passage. But whenever we take these good things in our lives and we use them 00:22:00.099 --> 00:22:06.139 as a basis for judging someone's merit and whether they deserve our love and whether they deserve to be 00:22:06.139 --> 00:22:12.639 treated as just a fellow human being, we've taken this good thing that God has given us 00:22:12.640 --> 00:22:23.060 and we've used it in a terrible, terrible way. And Jesus comes to tear down those walls. 00:22:24.960 --> 00:22:31.840 And in doing that, he, it says in verse 18, that through him, we both have access in one spirit 00:22:31.840 --> 00:22:39.360 to the father. That when we come to Christ, he makes God our father. And here's the thing about a father. 00:22:39.359 --> 00:22:43.039 Father, if you and I have the same father, what does that make us? 00:22:45.759 --> 00:22:51.159 Brothers and sisters. When Christ comes and he tears down these walls and he gives us access to 00:22:51.159 --> 00:22:57.859 God, that makes us family. That makes us brothers and sisters. We have a new reality. We're no longer 00:22:57.859 --> 00:23:03.619 divided from each other by these walls that we set up. The walls have been torn down and we now have 00:23:03.619 --> 00:23:08.959 a common family because we share a father. We are brothers and sisters in Christ. 00:23:08.960 --> 00:23:13.140 And that requires a response from us. 00:23:15.620 --> 00:23:21.480 You know, this, this new reality, it's true. We are brothers and sisters. It's not a question of 00:23:21.480 --> 00:23:25.340 whether we'll become brothers and sisters by trying hard enough. The question is, 00:23:25.519 --> 00:23:29.160 now that we are brothers and sisters, are we actually going to live like it? 00:23:30.279 --> 00:23:36.120 Or are we going to continue living in our old ways? This guy, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, he was a German 00:23:36.119 --> 00:23:41.739 theologian in the early 1900s. He got killed in the Holocaust. He wrote a lot of awesome stuff about 00:23:41.739 --> 00:23:49.519 Christian community. And he said, Christian brotherhood is not an ideal which we must realize. 00:23:50.459 --> 00:23:58.479 It is rather a reality created by God in Christ in which we may participate. The reality is already 00:23:58.479 --> 00:24:04.539 there in what Jesus has accomplished. The question that remains is whether we're going to live as if that 00:24:04.539 --> 00:24:09.079 reality is true. So how should our lives be different because of this new reality? 00:24:10.599 --> 00:24:15.159 First off, it's a call to actively reject individualism. 00:24:16.940 --> 00:24:20.119 To actively reject individualism. 00:24:21.379 --> 00:24:26.079 We live in a culture that says everything in my life should be about me. 00:24:27.079 --> 00:24:30.759 You have no right to tell me what to do or say something to me that I don't want to hear. 00:24:30.759 --> 00:24:37.579 And if you do say it, I can leave. I don't need to be tied down to things that are inconvenient or 00:24:37.579 --> 00:24:42.539 uncomfortable. If we get in a situation where things are uncomfortable or inconvenient, we just 00:24:42.539 --> 00:24:47.599 get out of there. If I'm at a church for the good preaching and the preacher leaves and there's going 00:24:47.599 --> 00:24:52.200 to be a period of potentially mediocre preaching while they find a new good preacher, I'll just go to 00:24:52.200 --> 00:24:56.779 the church down the street where they already have a good established preacher. If I'm in a CG and they're 00:24:56.779 --> 00:25:01.940 calling out sin in my life that I don't want to deal with, just stop going to CG or change churches. 00:25:03.759 --> 00:25:08.379 I'm in control. Life is about me. And that's the way that culture tells us to live. 00:25:09.099 --> 00:25:15.200 There's a guy, Jonathan Lehman, and he wrote a book and he summarized the view of ourselves that 00:25:15.200 --> 00:25:21.799 culture has. And this is what he said. He said, for the average person today, every attachment is 00:25:21.799 --> 00:25:28.259 negotiable. We're all free agents and every relationship and life station is a contract 00:25:28.259 --> 00:25:37.059 that can be renegotiated or canceled. I'm principally obligated to myself and maximizing my life, liberty, 00:25:37.059 --> 00:25:43.119 and pursuit of happiness. Among my various relationships, I may choose to identify with 00:25:43.119 --> 00:25:48.779 another party, but only so long as doing so clearly gives me a personal advantage. 00:25:48.779 --> 00:25:52.220 I retain veto power over everything. 00:25:54.799 --> 00:26:00.240 And here's the thing. If the ultimate good in the world is our own individual autonomy, 00:26:00.660 --> 00:26:05.899 this is the right attitude to have. We keep veto power over everything so we can pursue 00:26:05.899 --> 00:26:11.379 what is most convenient for us. But if we're called to something bigger, 00:26:11.380 --> 00:26:17.020 if we're called to live not just as individuals but as a family, 00:26:17.840 --> 00:26:21.580 then this cannot be the way that we approach our church community. 00:26:24.220 --> 00:26:27.460 You know, last week, Chris was talking about the church as saints. 00:26:28.200 --> 00:26:34.140 And he talked about how our glorious God created us in his image. And part of being in the image of God 00:26:34.140 --> 00:26:40.200 is that we were created to be glorious. And every time that God calls us to obey him, 00:26:40.200 --> 00:26:45.080 it's because he wants us to be glorious. And when we choose to obey him, we're choosing to become 00:26:45.080 --> 00:26:50.660 more glorious. And when we disobey and choose our way rather than God's, we're rejecting that and 00:26:50.660 --> 00:26:58.080 choosing to be less glorious than we were made to be. And this may come as a surprise to you because of 00:26:58.080 --> 00:27:03.160 the individualistic nature of our culture. But that sermon and this sermon actually go hand in hand. 00:27:03.160 --> 00:27:08.400 You know, I think if we think about becoming disciples as our goal, 00:27:09.040 --> 00:27:13.540 and we talk about the different aspects of what it means to be a disciple, 00:27:14.040 --> 00:27:19.860 we can see over here we have saints. That's one attribute of a disciple. And down here we have 00:27:19.860 --> 00:27:23.200 family. And the next couple weeks we're going to talk about servants and ambassadors too. 00:27:23.200 --> 00:27:30.360 But if you think about this as a wheel, if I'm spending lots of time reading my Bible, 00:27:31.160 --> 00:27:35.519 and I'm spending lots of time trying to deal with sin in my life and to pursue God individually, 00:27:35.660 --> 00:27:41.980 and I'm growing so much over on this side, but I'm not growing down here, I'm going to have a really, 00:27:42.120 --> 00:27:48.440 really lopsided wheel. You know, if you think of it as like a car, you're putting air in your tire. 00:27:48.440 --> 00:27:52.360 And as you put air in the tire, this side of the tire just gets really, really big, 00:27:52.500 --> 00:27:59.320 and this side of the tire stays the same. You're not thinking, oh, this is great. My tire is getting 00:27:59.320 --> 00:28:05.600 more air in it. You're thinking, uh-oh, something's wrong. And if you try to drive on that tire, 00:28:06.059 --> 00:28:12.539 at best, you're going to have a bumpy ride. At worst, your tire is going to blow out and you're 00:28:12.539 --> 00:28:17.019 going to crash your car because the tire had something terribly wrong with it. And either way, 00:28:17.019 --> 00:28:20.879 you're probably going to do hundreds, if not thousands of dollars in screwing up your car's 00:28:20.879 --> 00:28:27.559 alignment as you drive on that wheel. And it's not just that we have this cool graphic that fits in, 00:28:27.619 --> 00:28:33.539 that makes them go together, but actually the very nature of what it means to be a saint and to be a 00:28:33.539 --> 00:28:40.259 member of God's family goes hand in hand. If you look at, so in verse 18, he says that we're family. 00:28:40.639 --> 00:28:45.240 We have access to the Father together. Verse 19, we're members of the household of God. Again, 00:28:45.240 --> 00:28:51.380 a family image. And then in verse 21, he says we're being joined together and we're growing into a 00:28:51.380 --> 00:28:56.140 holy temple in the Lord. And we can't see this in our English translation, but in the original language, 00:28:56.200 --> 00:29:03.380 this word for holy right here is the same word used for saints. So God brings us together into a family 00:29:03.380 --> 00:29:15.540 so that we can grow as saints. You need one for the other to happen. And it makes sense if you think 00:29:15.540 --> 00:29:27.500 about what it means for us to be saints. See, part of the problem of my sin is that I'm blind to the fact 00:29:27.500 --> 00:29:34.380 that I'm a sinner. And I mean, there are parts of it that I can recognize, but there are huge parts of 00:29:34.380 --> 00:29:41.319 my life and my heart that are totally broken by sin and I'm completely blind to them. 00:29:43.059 --> 00:29:47.240 And as long as I'm pursuing God on my own, I'm going to stay blind to those and I'm not going to 00:29:47.240 --> 00:29:52.880 be able to deal with those areas of my heart. And I'm not going to be able to bring those areas of my 00:29:52.880 --> 00:30:01.080 heart under what Christ wants me to be. But when I engage in community and I have family around me, 00:30:01.360 --> 00:30:05.560 family who's going to, you know, if you think about family, the thing about family is with friends, 00:30:05.620 --> 00:30:09.580 someone does something that annoys you, you can just get out of there. With family, 00:30:10.240 --> 00:30:12.820 you have to stick with everyone even when you know their crap. 00:30:14.440 --> 00:30:19.460 Right? And if someone does something that bothers you, you have to deal with it. You can't just ignore it. 00:30:19.460 --> 00:30:23.799 Or it's, you can't ignore it, but it's going to be just really awkward for a long time. Right? 00:30:24.519 --> 00:30:32.539 And so when I'm living in family with the church, I'm going to do things that annoy people and hurt 00:30:32.539 --> 00:30:36.900 people. And when that happens, I'm going to realize parts of my heart that are broken. 00:30:37.779 --> 00:30:42.480 This happened a couple of years ago. I was a very sarcastic person. Didn't think it was a big deal. 00:30:43.220 --> 00:30:47.940 Until I made a sarcastic comment to someone that I really cared about one day and hurt this person 00:30:47.940 --> 00:30:55.500 a lot with my comment. And rather than just running off and ignoring me because I had hurt them, 00:30:55.680 --> 00:31:00.400 this person came to me and talked to me about it and said, you know, I think there's something going 00:31:00.400 --> 00:31:06.759 on, Eric. I think you think your sarcasm is this innocent thing, but it's not. I think there's some 00:31:06.759 --> 00:31:11.900 hurt going on inside you and you're using your sarcasm to cover it up. And they were right. 00:31:11.900 --> 00:31:17.240 I was using my sarcasm as a defense mechanism because I didn't want to say something you did 00:31:17.240 --> 00:31:21.460 hurt me. It was much easier to just do something that would hurt them back. 00:31:23.860 --> 00:31:30.759 And through that experience, through that encounter, I was able to grow because I was living in community 00:31:30.759 --> 00:31:37.360 as a family and had people who were willing to point out the sin in my life. But family also helps us to 00:31:37.359 --> 00:31:44.319 grow as saints because not just we do things that hurt other people and annoy them, but other people 00:31:44.319 --> 00:31:52.079 do things that annoy us. And we get frustrated and annoyed, but actually that's a gift from God. Have 00:31:52.079 --> 00:31:56.979 you ever thought about that? In chapter four of Ephesians, Paul says to bear with one another. 00:31:57.699 --> 00:32:02.399 And as Chris always points out, Paul says we need to bear with one another because people in the 00:32:02.400 --> 00:32:11.540 church are unbearable. When I am praying with God in the morning, it's so easy to think that I am the 00:32:11.540 --> 00:32:17.380 most forgiving and loving person in the world. And then I go talk to someone and they say something 00:32:17.380 --> 00:32:25.360 that's just so annoying. And all of a sudden I realize I'm not as loving and forgiving as I thought 00:32:25.359 --> 00:32:34.919 I was. And here's the thing. In that moment when they say something that's really annoying, 00:32:35.159 --> 00:32:40.539 and I realize I'm not as loving and forgiving as I thought I was, the way I want to respond is in 00:32:40.539 --> 00:32:50.000 anger. Because they hurt me, they annoyed me, they offended me. But here's how seeing the church as a 00:32:50.000 --> 00:32:55.539 family and seeing family as a tool to help us grow closer to God changes our perspective. When they do 00:32:55.539 --> 00:33:01.480 something that hurts me, rather than being annoyed, frustrated, angry, I can be thankful. Because I 00:33:01.480 --> 00:33:07.380 recognize that God's using this to draw me to himself and to point out areas of my heart where I still 00:33:07.380 --> 00:33:13.440 need growth, where I still need to become more like Jesus. And this type of growth is something that only 00:33:13.440 --> 00:33:24.220 happens when we're engaging in family at a deep level that's willing to be uncomfortable and awkward 00:33:24.220 --> 00:33:30.360 around each other and show each other all our junk. Because that's how God is going to transform our 00:33:30.360 --> 00:33:37.580 lives. And even further, this engagement and acceptance that we have for one another within the 00:33:37.580 --> 00:33:43.120 church, it should go beyond the typical extent to which acceptance goes in the world. 00:33:43.440 --> 00:33:50.519 If you think about it, in the world, people are really happy having a group of people around 00:33:50.519 --> 00:33:56.980 them that they love. But what our tendency is, is to get all of our friends up on the stage with us, 00:33:57.320 --> 00:34:03.759 and then we as a group create a wall that separates us from everyone else and lets us look down on them. 00:34:04.259 --> 00:34:09.960 So it could be a hobby like, oh, me and my friends all love model trains. And if you don't love model 00:34:09.960 --> 00:34:18.460 trains, you're just not good enough to be up here on the stage with us. Or it could be, again, like I 00:34:18.460 --> 00:34:24.460 said, things like work ethic, prioritizing family. You know, if you have an office full of hard workers, 00:34:24.679 --> 00:34:28.619 it's very easy for your office to be like, we're up here on the stage, our company is better than 00:34:28.619 --> 00:34:34.579 anyone else. If you're not working for our company, working however many hours a week, you're just not as 00:34:34.579 --> 00:34:40.000 good. And we remain faithful to the people who are like us and share that trait that sets us apart. 00:34:42.219 --> 00:34:47.519 But there's a whole world of people that we set out as below us and separate from us. 00:34:48.619 --> 00:34:52.699 And just like what Jesus did with the Jews and the Gentiles in this passage, 00:34:52.699 --> 00:35:00.019 Jesus tears down the walls that keep us from one another. If we are Christians, there is no 00:35:00.019 --> 00:35:09.559 grounds. There's no grounds for us seeing ourselves as better than anyone else on the basis of our 00:35:09.559 --> 00:35:15.719 accomplishments or what we've done. There's a guy named Miroslav Volf. He wrote a book called 00:35:15.719 --> 00:35:22.679 Exclusion and Embrace, and he outlines four ways that we exclude others. The first, he calls it decimation. 00:35:23.159 --> 00:35:28.239 It's like genocide. Hopefully that's not happening in the church. But if you want examples of that, 00:35:28.299 --> 00:35:34.439 that's like the Holocaust or what's happening with the Rohingyas in Myanmar right now. But the other 00:35:34.439 --> 00:35:41.500 three, I think we can see fairly easily in the church. The second is assimilation, which says, 00:35:41.500 --> 00:35:46.960 I will accept you if you become just like me. This is what's happening in this passage with the Jews. 00:35:47.079 --> 00:35:51.079 They have the law, and they basically say to the Gentiles, if you will get circumcised, 00:35:51.079 --> 00:35:56.500 if you will keep the law, you can come stand on the stage with us. But until you do that, 00:35:56.619 --> 00:36:02.179 you're below us. And this is what happens in the church when we have a CG full of married people, 00:36:02.380 --> 00:36:08.219 and a random single person joins the group. Now, we as the married people in the group, 00:36:08.420 --> 00:36:11.659 we're excited to have a new person in the group who's different than us, 00:36:11.699 --> 00:36:16.179 and we'll get to know their name, and we'll invite them to hang out with us. But when it comes time for 00:36:16.179 --> 00:36:21.859 serious discussion, we're always talking about marriage problems. And it's not something we're 00:36:21.859 --> 00:36:27.279 doing consciously, but we're subconsciously sending this message that if you want to be fully included 00:36:27.279 --> 00:36:32.879 in this group, you've got to change your relationship status. And that's not to say that 00:36:32.879 --> 00:36:38.699 this group should all of a sudden stop talking about marriage issues, but how often do we take a step back 00:36:38.699 --> 00:36:44.299 and just say, how can we lovingly, intentionally engage this person without saying to them, you have to 00:36:44.300 --> 00:36:52.300 change and be like us in order to earn our acceptance. The third way we exclude people, 00:36:53.039 --> 00:36:59.519 he says, is subjugation, which is what happened in segregation in America. It's where we say, 00:36:59.820 --> 00:37:05.039 you know, you can be here, but you can't have these jobs. You can't live in these places. You can't go to 00:37:05.039 --> 00:37:13.460 these schools. And I think this is what happens in a church when a new mom with two kids and a helper 00:37:13.460 --> 00:37:18.420 walks into the service. And we walk over and we're so excited and we say, hey, it's great to have you 00:37:18.420 --> 00:37:22.880 here. My name's Eric. And we shake the mom's hand and we learn her name and we shake the kids' hands 00:37:22.880 --> 00:37:28.019 and we learn their name. And then we just give a little smile and nod to the helper. You know, you can 00:37:28.019 --> 00:37:35.659 be here. You're an employee, not part of the family. So we're not going to really give you the full 00:37:35.659 --> 00:37:41.480 rights and privileges of being here with us. And when we invite the family to lunch with us after 00:37:41.480 --> 00:37:46.980 church, you can join us for lunch, but you're at the kids' table because that's your job. 00:37:48.719 --> 00:37:58.659 You can be here, but you can't really be equal with us. And again, there's no place for that type of 00:37:58.659 --> 00:38:04.839 attitude among God's people when Christ has torn down the walls. The final way he says we exclude 00:38:04.839 --> 00:38:11.259 people is simply ignoring them. We pretend like they don't exist. We overlook them. We don't engage 00:38:11.259 --> 00:38:16.639 them at all. And honestly, I think that's probably the most common way that we exclude people as 00:38:16.639 --> 00:38:22.099 good, respectable Christians. If I don't talk to you, I'm not going to say anything mean to you. 00:38:22.339 --> 00:38:26.299 If I don't talk to you, you're not going to annoy me and get some bad reaction out of me. 00:38:26.300 --> 00:38:33.900 So I'm just going to avoid you. And what Paul is saying in this passage is that as people who 00:38:33.900 --> 00:38:37.340 have been purchased by the blood of Christ, there is no room for any of that in the church. 00:38:39.680 --> 00:38:46.480 There's no room for forcing people to assimilate or be subjugated or ignoring them as the body of 00:38:46.480 --> 00:38:55.340 Christ. Because Christ died to tear down these walls. He made us a family. And as the family of Christ, 00:38:55.340 --> 00:39:02.720 if you are a Christian, you have more in common with a Christian living in some small remote village 00:39:02.720 --> 00:39:08.780 who has never been to school and can't read and can't do math out in some remote village of some 00:39:08.780 --> 00:39:16.460 obscure country than you do with the non-Christian who sits next to you at work. Because what you share 00:39:16.460 --> 00:39:21.700 with that Christian in that small remote village is that Christ has purchased you and made you 00:39:21.699 --> 00:39:26.879 brothers and sisters and you're going to spend eternity together. And Paul's saying, look, 00:39:27.079 --> 00:39:32.179 this is reality. We're spending eternity together as God's children. Let's live like it now. 00:39:33.879 --> 00:39:40.339 And it's not easy, but there's a pastor, John Piper. He gives six steps that I think if we can 00:39:40.339 --> 00:39:44.899 incorporate these into the way that we interact with each other will make a huge difference in us 00:39:44.900 --> 00:39:50.700 taking a step in the right direction of including and having a community that goes beyond just people 00:39:50.700 --> 00:39:56.800 like us to a community that's different than us. So the six steps, the first, avoid gossiping. 00:39:57.860 --> 00:40:02.500 You know, when someone's different, it's so easy to just complain about their differences to everyone 00:40:02.500 --> 00:40:10.059 and nothing tears about a community quicker than gossiping. Step two, identify evidences of grace in 00:40:10.059 --> 00:40:15.340 each other and speak them to each other and about each other. Instead of looking for what's wrong with 00:40:15.340 --> 00:40:20.980 someone, look for what God's doing in their life. And when you see it, tell them, you know, Chris, I see 00:40:20.980 --> 00:40:27.400 you becoming so much more patient these days. Or Ed, I see you really caring for your family. These types 00:40:27.400 --> 00:40:31.719 of things. And then don't just say them to that person. But then when you're having a conversation with 00:40:31.719 --> 00:40:38.759 Michelle, be like, you know, God's doing some amazing things in Chris. Not in a way that like betrays 00:40:38.760 --> 00:40:44.240 confidence or anything, but in a way that celebrates the fact that God is working in our family and that 00:40:44.240 --> 00:40:51.640 he's bringing all of us closer to him. Step three, if we feel the need to communicate criticism, speak 00:40:51.640 --> 00:40:56.960 it directly to the person. If I have a problem with Chris, don't talk to Graham and Oti and Joyce and 00:40:56.960 --> 00:41:05.100 everyone else about it and avoid Chris. Just say it to Chris. Step four, look for and assume the best 00:41:05.099 --> 00:41:10.980 motive in the other's viewpoint, especially when we disagree. This can be tough because when we 00:41:10.980 --> 00:41:16.099 disagree, I'm right, you're wrong. Obviously, that's why we're disagreeing. And you're wrong 00:41:16.099 --> 00:41:22.719 because you have bad motives. But that's usually not the case. That's usually just an interpretation 00:41:22.719 --> 00:41:28.400 of the case that I give. And so when we look for and assume the best motives, we're going to be able 00:41:28.400 --> 00:41:34.659 to engage with each other much more lovingly. Five, think often of the magnificent things we have in 00:41:34.659 --> 00:41:41.559 common. You know, if I spend my days daydreaming about how wonderful and amazing it is that God 00:41:41.559 --> 00:41:51.799 has rescued not only me, but also Sherman and Steven and Carlo, then when I'm having a conversation with 00:41:51.799 --> 00:41:57.359 one of those guys and, you know, something goes wrong in the conversation, my mind's going to 00:41:57.359 --> 00:42:03.960 automatically snap back to, wow, we have so much in common. We have Christ in common. This little thing 00:42:03.960 --> 00:42:08.760 that separates us is so trivial in comparison to the fact that we have Christ in common and we are 00:42:08.760 --> 00:42:14.940 family. And that is magnificent. And when that's at the center of my mind, I'm not going to exclude 00:42:14.940 --> 00:42:18.139 people. I'm not going to look down on people. I'm not going to think I'm better than people. 00:42:19.559 --> 00:42:24.860 And finally, be more amazed that we're forgiven than that we're right. I love being right. 00:42:26.480 --> 00:42:29.380 It's one of the walls that I build up. I can stand on the stage because I'm right. 00:42:29.380 --> 00:42:34.880 But when I'm more amazed that Christ has forgiven me than I am about being right, 00:42:35.599 --> 00:42:40.760 I'm going to take the time to forgive others, to love others, to accept others. 00:42:42.480 --> 00:42:46.160 And guys, if we just kept going through this passage and the ways that it should impact our 00:42:46.160 --> 00:42:50.300 community, we could be here for weeks. And I've already run way over the time that I have right now. 00:42:50.300 --> 00:42:58.760 But Christ has torn down the walls. Christ has made us a family. I want you to do something 00:42:58.760 --> 00:43:08.080 really quick in closing. I want you to say out loud, Christ died for me so that I can be part of his 00:43:08.079 --> 00:43:21.440 family. Now, look to the person to your left. I know you're looking at the back of their head, 00:43:21.480 --> 00:43:28.659 but you can still see them. I want you to say, Christ died for him or her so they can be my brother 00:43:28.659 --> 00:43:41.239 or sister. Now you're going to look to your right. Christ died for him or her so he or she can be my 00:43:41.239 --> 00:43:53.480 brother or sister. And now the person in front of you. Christ died for him or her so he or she can be 00:43:53.480 --> 00:44:03.699 my brother or sister. And now just to get the full circle, the person behind you. Christ died for him 00:44:03.699 --> 00:44:15.740 or her so he or she can be my brother or sister. Guys, do we believe that's true? 00:44:15.739 --> 00:44:20.699 Will we live like that's true this week? 00:44:23.619 --> 00:44:29.599 That's the call that Christ has for us. We're a family. Let's live like it. Let's pray. 00:44:30.859 --> 00:44:35.399 Father, we thank you for your love. We thank you that you are an awesome God who sent your son to 00:44:35.399 --> 00:44:40.139 rescue us when we were far away from you. And we thank you that by doing that, you have made us a 00:44:40.139 --> 00:44:47.079 family with one another. We thank you for the glorious things that we have in common, for the fact 00:44:47.079 --> 00:44:53.879 that Christ unites us, that Christ brings us together and makes us brothers and sisters in you. 00:44:54.460 --> 00:44:59.039 We pray that you forgive us for the times that we forget these truths and rebuild the walls that you 00:44:59.039 --> 00:45:05.879 died to tear down. God, we love you. Teach us to love one another. 00:45:05.880 --> 00:45:13.660 Teach us to interact with one another based on the love that you have for us. 00:45:14.940 --> 00:45:16.460 Jesus' name. Amen.