WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:15.599 Hi, my name is George Sinclair. I'm the lead pastor of Church of the Messiah. 00:00:15.599 --> 00:00:20.480 ! It is wonderful that you would like to check out some of the sermons done by Church of the Messiah, 00:00:20.480 --> 00:00:25.679 either by myself or some of the others. Listen, just a couple of things. First of all, would you pray for us 00:00:25.679 --> 00:00:32.159 that we will open God's Word well to His glory and for the good of people like yourself? 00:00:32.159 --> 00:00:37.359 The second thing is, if you aren't connected to a church and if you are a Christian, 00:00:37.359 --> 00:00:42.159 we really, I would really like to encourage you to find a good local church where they believe the 00:00:42.159 --> 00:00:48.799 Bible, they preach the gospel, and if you have some trouble finding that, send us an email. We will do 00:00:48.799 --> 00:00:55.120 what we can to help connect you with a good local church wherever you are. And if you're a non-Christian, 00:00:55.119 --> 00:01:00.320 checking us out, we're really, really, really glad you're doing that. Don't hesitate to send us 00:01:00.320 --> 00:01:05.280 questions. It helps me actually to know, as I'm preaching, how to deal with the types of things 00:01:05.280 --> 00:01:07.759 that you're really struggling with. So God bless. 00:01:12.640 --> 00:01:17.280 Bowing your head in prayer, let's just pray. Father, we ask that you would continue to pour 00:01:17.280 --> 00:01:24.000 out your Holy Spirit upon us with gentle and deep power. Father, sometimes you say things that are 00:01:24.000 --> 00:01:29.920 weird to us in your Word, and we don't entirely know what to do with them. And sometimes, Father, 00:01:29.920 --> 00:01:36.640 that weirdness is really bothersome. And so, Father, we confess before you as Canadian Christians that 00:01:37.280 --> 00:01:42.719 some of your Word this morning is weird and bothersome, but we know it's true and good and 00:01:42.719 --> 00:01:48.879 beautiful. So we ask that your Holy Spirit would lead us and guide us into all truth. And we ask this in 00:01:48.879 --> 00:01:52.719 the precious name of Jesus. Amen. Please be seated. 00:01:56.159 --> 00:02:02.719 So, if you came expecting a Mother's Day sermon, we generally don't do that, and I'm not doing it 00:02:02.719 --> 00:02:08.639 today. I'm not giving a Mother's Day sermon. I am going to do a bit of a prayer time later on, 00:02:08.639 --> 00:02:15.359 especially around Mother's Day, and that will happen later. And I'm also going to be doing something, 00:02:15.360 --> 00:02:19.520 I'm going to be doing something which is quite the first time I've done it here in the church. 00:02:20.000 --> 00:02:24.560 I don't know how many of you were paying close attention when Jeremy read the scripture text, 00:02:25.280 --> 00:02:30.400 but what Jeremy read is what we're going to look at. It's Romans chapter 5, verses 12 to 21, 00:02:30.400 --> 00:02:35.920 if you want to get your Bibles and sort of get ready to look at it. But there's lots of problems 00:02:35.920 --> 00:02:41.920 for Canadians in this text, and it is very weird. Just to give you one thing, it says, 00:02:41.919 --> 00:02:46.479 or at least appears to say, but I say it says, that there was an actual historical atom. 00:02:47.280 --> 00:02:53.199 Now, obviously, that's a complicated truth in Canada in 2026. It's not what they teach at the 00:02:53.199 --> 00:02:59.759 University of Ottawa or McGill. It's not what the Supreme Court believes. It's very counter-cultural. 00:02:59.759 --> 00:03:03.839 So, one of the things I'm going to do today is I'm not going to actually talk about that directly. I'm 00:03:03.839 --> 00:03:10.079 going to just assume it and show you why it's actually sort of very, why it's actually really 00:03:10.080 --> 00:03:16.000 remarkable news that gives us hope in the face of death, that explains why it is that we feel 00:03:16.000 --> 00:03:22.400 compassion towards other human beings, and why it is that we have both a craving for alone time 00:03:22.400 --> 00:03:27.600 and time with others, and why are these things so important for us as human beings. And this text 00:03:27.600 --> 00:03:32.800 sheds profound and beautiful light on all of these topics. But what I'm going to do is, 12 minutes 00:03:32.800 --> 00:03:36.560 after the service is over, I'm going to sort of say during my farewell, I'll say there's coffee out 00:03:36.560 --> 00:03:41.599 there, you can all stay, and I'll say, I don't know, let's say it's 11.30, and I'll say at 11.42, 00:03:42.159 --> 00:03:47.360 I'm going to stand right here underneath this lectern, and if you want to ask me any questions, 00:03:47.360 --> 00:03:51.039 you can just come and ask me any question you want, and I'll give my best to give you an answer. 00:03:51.039 --> 00:03:56.480 So, that's what I'm going to do. And for you folks online, you can email me. I don't know if I'll be 00:03:56.480 --> 00:04:00.800 able to have a chance to email you back all my answers and stuff, but feel free, if you have questions, 00:04:00.800 --> 00:04:07.200 just email me. And by the way, this might end up being an experiment we do once a month. I've long 00:04:07.200 --> 00:04:14.320 wanted to make myself available to answer questions after the service. Questions are wonderful. A good 00:04:14.320 --> 00:04:19.920 question is very powerful. You can't grow in knowing the truth if you don't ask good questions, 00:04:20.639 --> 00:04:25.920 good honest questions. So, I'm, anyway, there you go. If nobody comes, that's fine. I'll just go back up 00:04:25.920 --> 00:04:31.439 and chat with people, but that's what we're going to do. So, what is this odd text? So, 00:04:31.439 --> 00:04:38.560 if you turn with me in your Bibles to Romans chapter 5, verses 12 and following, if you're 00:04:38.560 --> 00:04:43.759 wondering why we're looking at it, it's not because I like preaching on really weird and odd things. 00:04:43.759 --> 00:04:48.720 It's because we preach through either whole books or big chunks of the books. That's really good. It 00:04:48.720 --> 00:04:55.200 forces us to look at texts that we wouldn't normally look at, and such as a text like today, which I 00:04:55.199 --> 00:05:00.560 would guess that you could go to a church for a decade and never once have this text even referenced. 00:05:01.519 --> 00:05:06.959 So, it's there. Hopefully, this will be a great help to you. As I said, I think it's very beautiful 00:05:06.959 --> 00:05:12.000 and true. So, I'll just read the first verse. Actually, I'll read the first three verses, and 00:05:12.000 --> 00:05:18.399 then you'll see a little bit about what the issue is, and then I'll help you to try to understand it, 00:05:18.399 --> 00:05:26.239 hopefully. Pray for me if I'm having trouble. When I'm on my holidays and I'm in church and 00:05:26.239 --> 00:05:30.959 if the minister's having a hard time, I say to myself, God put me here today so I could pray for him 00:05:32.399 --> 00:05:35.279 while he's having a hard time. So, here's what the text says. 00:05:36.719 --> 00:05:41.519 Therefore, so the therefore is it. What's happened is just before that they've been talking about how it 00:05:41.519 --> 00:05:46.799 is that if you put your faith and trust in Jesus, you can be made right with God, have peace with God, 00:05:46.799 --> 00:05:52.639 be reconciled to God. So, this is like, how is it that you can believe that this isn't just a series 00:05:52.639 --> 00:05:58.159 of useful fiction, like interesting fictions, but like really true, like truly true, like 00:05:59.519 --> 00:06:06.879 actually true, not just invented stories. So, therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man 00:06:06.879 --> 00:06:16.719 and death through sin, and so death spread to all people because all sinned. You might, I don't know 00:06:16.719 --> 00:06:22.319 if it's up there under there, there's a dash now, and this is just, I'm not going to talk about all the 00:06:22.319 --> 00:06:25.680 things, right, but I just want to let you know something about how this, the text is structured. 00:06:26.399 --> 00:06:32.639 Paul actually is very ungrammatical in this section. It's just, people have said to me that 00:06:32.639 --> 00:06:37.919 I'm, I always talk in asides, and I guess I'm like Paul. So, Paul is talking with this really huge 00:06:37.919 --> 00:06:41.120 idea, and then all of a sudden he says, I'm just going to stop talking because, whoa, I should just 00:06:41.120 --> 00:06:45.039 make a little reference to this, and then when he makes this little reference to this, he goes, whoa, 00:06:45.279 --> 00:06:49.279 I should make another little reference to something, and then he says, whoa, I began over here, I guess 00:06:49.279 --> 00:06:53.759 I should go back, and then that's what he does in verse 18. So, that's sort of how the text is 00:06:53.759 --> 00:06:59.039 structured. There's this broken sentence. I'll read verse 12 again. Therefore, just as sin, 00:06:59.040 --> 00:07:04.480 that is a personal rebellion against God by doing evil and trying to be God yourself, 00:07:04.879 --> 00:07:12.160 it came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all human 00:07:12.160 --> 00:07:19.439 beings because all sinned. For sin indeed was in the world, here's his aside, before the law was given, 00:07:19.920 --> 00:07:28.400 but sin is not counted where there is no law. Yet death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over those 00:07:28.399 --> 00:07:33.519 whose sinning was not like the transgression of Adam, who was a type of the one to come. 00:07:34.159 --> 00:07:40.239 Pretty odd. So, what's going on? If you could put up the first point, this text, what this text is like, 00:07:40.399 --> 00:07:46.319 it's as if you were to look at a pond, and on the pond you'd see lilies, and if you know, if you see the 00:07:46.319 --> 00:07:52.319 lilies, you know that the lilies go down, they have a root system that goes down, it's not pond all the way 00:07:52.319 --> 00:07:57.920 down. Eventually, the lilies have roots that go under the ground underneath that are the bottom of the pond. 00:07:58.719 --> 00:08:06.000 And so, what this text is doing is it's like lilies that you notice, and it's going down into this bedrock 00:08:06.000 --> 00:08:14.159 of a series of Christian ideas and biblical ideas which are very profound, very true, very important, 00:08:14.160 --> 00:08:21.200 and answer a whole lot of things about how we live and how we're wired and what our yearnings and longings 00:08:21.200 --> 00:08:27.760 and desires are for. And so, the very first idea is that you need to understand that Paul is assuming 00:08:27.760 --> 00:08:35.519 as true that human beings were originally designed and created by the triune God. If you don't get that, 00:08:35.519 --> 00:08:42.320 nothing else is going to make any sense in this text. But that's the first big idea. Human beings were 00:08:42.320 --> 00:08:50.720 originally designed and created by the triune God. Now, this is earth-shattering. 00:08:52.000 --> 00:08:57.360 In terms of, if you were to actually take a course, like a good course, about different ways that people 00:08:57.360 --> 00:09:04.800 try to understand what human beings are, the entire pagan world, and in some ways the Quran assumes a pagan 00:09:04.799 --> 00:09:14.399 understanding of human beings, and in the pagan and Quranic understanding, human beings are made by God to be his slaves. 00:09:17.839 --> 00:09:19.519 Or his food, in some case. 00:09:20.559 --> 00:09:25.519 That's why human beings were made. That's a pleasant thought. You can imagine the type of society that would be based 00:09:25.759 --> 00:09:33.279 on having that as your fundamental belief. In the more eastern types of religions, human beings are a tragic accident. 00:09:33.279 --> 00:09:40.319 There originally was just this all, and there's different accounts as to why the all broke into individual bits of consciousness, 00:09:40.879 --> 00:09:46.639 but that's a tragic thing that has happened. And the goal is to get rid of any sense of individuality, 00:09:46.639 --> 00:09:51.439 and all of its desire and thinking to merge once again with the all. And that's what human beings are. 00:09:51.439 --> 00:09:59.839 They're a tragic accident, who are going to move by rebirth and rebirth and rebirth until they finally move to the one. 00:09:59.840 --> 00:10:07.280 And then you have the idea, which is the idea primarily of what it's taught on one level in Canada, 00:10:07.840 --> 00:10:16.240 taught through naturalistic understandings of evolution, is that human beings fundamentally are just pure and utter accidents. 00:10:16.240 --> 00:10:22.639 And if you read some of the more articulate philosophers who accept this naturalistic 00:10:23.680 --> 00:10:30.159 type of framework, materialistic type of framework, the universe doesn't give a hoot about any of us. 00:10:30.159 --> 00:10:34.879 And from the universe's point of view, there's absolutely no difference between Daniel, my friend there, 00:10:34.879 --> 00:10:40.240 the seat that he's sitting on, or the little microscopic creatures in the carpet, 00:10:40.799 --> 00:10:44.480 or the ants that are outside, or a piece of poop. There's no difference. 00:10:45.840 --> 00:10:51.440 None such whatsoever. He just happens to be one type of accident, a piece of poop is another type of 00:10:51.440 --> 00:10:58.399 accident, and the universe is massively indifferent to everyone. And in these range of understandings, 00:10:58.399 --> 00:11:03.759 of fundamental understandings of human beings, what the Bible proclaims is something absolutely 00:11:03.759 --> 00:11:10.159 radically unique. It was that human beings were originally designed and created by the triune God 00:11:10.159 --> 00:11:19.279 to live and flourish in this creation. And that's why human beings are different from poop, 00:11:19.279 --> 00:11:27.919 and are different from cockroaches. That's why human beings should have integrity, and have freedom. That is 00:11:27.919 --> 00:11:34.559 why they have worth and value. And the worth and value is based on them being human beings, not the color 00:11:34.559 --> 00:11:42.319 of their skin, not their sexual orientation, not what they do or don't do, not their political beliefs. 00:11:42.319 --> 00:11:49.679 Human beings, just by being originally created and designed by God, have worth and value and integrity 00:11:49.679 --> 00:11:57.199 that should be respected. Human beings are made in the image of God. And that's this fundamental big idea. 00:11:57.200 --> 00:12:02.000 And the next little two points are just little bits that you need to add to it. I'm not going to say 00:12:02.000 --> 00:12:06.000 everything about what the Bible says about human beings, but the next one, if you could put up the 00:12:06.000 --> 00:12:12.240 next one, that'd be very helpful. Human beings were originally designed to be in personal communion with 00:12:12.240 --> 00:12:20.560 him, that is the triune God, and with other human beings. That's how God designed us. He designed you and me, 00:12:20.559 --> 00:12:26.639 he designed our human beings to have a personal communing with the triune God. 00:12:27.599 --> 00:12:31.759 And he also created us to have an interpersonal communing. 00:12:32.879 --> 00:12:37.519 You know, he didn't design us to sort of be like a whole pile of, you know, individual little, 00:12:37.839 --> 00:12:41.679 well, you know, that's one of the problems that's happening with people, where they live a fantasy life 00:12:41.679 --> 00:12:47.519 online. And, you know, you see people who are friends, and all four of them are sitting looking at their phones, and there's no 00:12:47.519 --> 00:12:51.919 interaction. Like, that's moving in the opposite way of what God has designed human beings to be. 00:12:52.799 --> 00:12:56.399 And that explains why, you know, you think about it for a second, if that's the way God designed us 00:12:56.399 --> 00:13:01.439 to be, that explains why on one level, we want to respect each person as a person, and people 00:13:01.439 --> 00:13:05.759 understand that. But we also understand that there's, that we're made to be in some type of 00:13:05.759 --> 00:13:10.159 friendship and community. And maybe it's not the nuclear family, maybe it's not the extended family, 00:13:10.159 --> 00:13:17.120 maybe it's our friends or compatriots, but we have on one hand a desire to exercise our freedom, 00:13:17.120 --> 00:13:20.799 and we have a desire to have alone time and our own thoughts, but we also have a desire to be with 00:13:20.799 --> 00:13:26.559 other people. And it's only the biblical account that explains why it is that human beings are 00:13:26.559 --> 00:13:33.279 hardwired for this. Because God designed human beings to be in personal communion with him, 00:13:34.079 --> 00:13:39.600 which we don't entirely get, but with other human beings as well. And then here's the next point, 00:13:39.600 --> 00:13:45.920 if you could put it up. And this is really weird. And that is, to Canadians today, 00:13:47.680 --> 00:13:52.879 it's, it, and it's this, that human beings were designed to be in a covenant with him as a, 00:13:53.600 --> 00:13:58.320 as a whole. And I, I, sorry, I should edit that. I didn't have time to edit it properly. 00:13:58.720 --> 00:14:03.920 The whole should be that we're all of us, it's like, we're designed to be in a covenant of solidarity 00:14:03.919 --> 00:14:11.759 with each other, with him. In other words, it's not just that, it's not just me, but in some ways, 00:14:11.759 --> 00:14:19.919 humanity as a whole, in solidarity with each other, are designed to have a relationship with God. 00:14:20.719 --> 00:14:26.639 Now, these ideas are going to, if, if, once you begin to meditate upon these ideas, you'll realize 00:14:26.639 --> 00:14:30.159 that everything that Paul is going to say afterwards actually makes a lot of sense. 00:14:30.159 --> 00:14:35.600 Now, this final thing, it's very counterintuitive to Canadians, but here's what you have to think 00:14:35.600 --> 00:14:40.159 about. Think about a science fiction movie. And, and there's, in the science fiction movie, 00:14:40.159 --> 00:14:45.839 aliens actually exist, right? And, and that's not very hard. What I think one of the best 00:14:46.399 --> 00:14:53.199 watched movies of this year has been Hail Mary, right? All about meeting an alien life form. And 00:14:53.199 --> 00:14:57.199 that's sort of, that's, I guess I just, there's, that's a spoiler, but I think you see it in the, 00:14:57.200 --> 00:15:02.640 in the, in the credits or in the trailers. But imagine that there's, there really are aliens. 00:15:02.640 --> 00:15:07.040 And, you know, they, they eventually go on the moon and land on the moon again. And as they're 00:15:07.040 --> 00:15:12.720 going along, they come across like an alien spaceship and alien artifacts. And they would look at this, 00:15:12.720 --> 00:15:18.800 I mean, that would be front page news. It would be like news for, for ever and ever here. And people 00:15:18.800 --> 00:15:23.440 would be studying it and trying to figure out what the different things in the gadgets do and what they 00:15:23.440 --> 00:15:27.520 don't do. And, you know, there'd be lots of debate about how, you know, you don't want to break it and 00:15:27.520 --> 00:15:31.360 all of that. And then maybe they're trying to figure out what it is. But the thing is, you know that it 00:15:31.360 --> 00:15:35.920 didn't happen by chance. You know, it was designed by an alien intelligence. And then maybe one day they 00:15:35.920 --> 00:15:40.080 come across something and they realize that's an alien version of a book. And then you realize, 00:15:40.080 --> 00:15:44.800 as the linguists start to work on it, that there's a language and you can fit, they can figure it out. 00:15:44.799 --> 00:15:52.240 And you realize it's the manual of the designer of the ship about what everything in the ship is and 00:15:52.240 --> 00:15:59.519 how it works. Well, you'd want to read that. And you're going to expect the alien technology to be 00:16:00.559 --> 00:16:09.279 a bit weird. You're going to say to each other, whoa, you know, honey, that's really weird. Look at 00:16:09.279 --> 00:16:15.120 that. That this thing does this. Like, who would have ever thought that this does this? And they go, 00:16:15.679 --> 00:16:19.519 oh, honey, look at that. That's really weird. It does this, but it doesn't do that, right? That's 00:16:19.519 --> 00:16:26.799 just how we would think. We'd expect it to be weird. And here's the thing, that God has designed human 00:16:26.799 --> 00:16:32.879 beings to be not only a personal communion with him and personal communion with each other, but that 00:16:32.879 --> 00:16:41.039 is as a whole. All human beings as a whole have a type of solidarity. And as a whole, we are in a 00:16:41.039 --> 00:16:51.360 covenant with God. And by the way, this once again has profound explanatory power. Why is it that if I 00:16:51.360 --> 00:16:59.759 was to show on a big screen a picture of dogs being abused in Kazakhstan, let's say, my dogs wouldn't even 00:16:59.759 --> 00:17:03.439 look at it. Let's say we could even figure out a picture that we understand they can actually see 00:17:03.439 --> 00:17:09.039 it. They'd show no interest whatsoever. But why is it that if we see pictures of human beings being 00:17:10.240 --> 00:17:16.559 abused in Kazakhstan, it bothers us? Why is it that we would think less of another person if they said, 00:17:16.559 --> 00:17:20.319 oh, you know what, heck, they're just people in Kazakhstan. Who cares what happens to them? 00:17:20.319 --> 00:17:25.920 I don't care if they get abused and raped and pillaged. You'd go, there's something wrong with that 00:17:25.920 --> 00:17:34.480 person. You'd say, there's something missing if they don't have compassion. There's something missing. 00:17:36.160 --> 00:17:42.240 And this has profound explanatory power as to why it is that we do have that compassion for other people. 00:17:43.519 --> 00:17:48.560 So these are the big ideas. So now that you've heard them, let's actually look at the text again. So if we 00:17:48.559 --> 00:17:55.200 could go back to verse 12, listen to the text. It goes like this. Therefore, it's trying to explain. 00:17:55.759 --> 00:18:02.480 So what this text is saying is when we say that if you enter into Jesus, if you put your faith and trust 00:18:02.480 --> 00:18:10.480 into Jesus, if you take him at his word and take God as at his word, when Jesus says, come to me all who 00:18:10.480 --> 00:18:15.599 labor and are heavy laden and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me from gentle and 00:18:15.599 --> 00:18:21.839 lowly of heart for you will find rest. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light and you will find rest 00:18:21.839 --> 00:18:28.480 for your souls. Believe on him. Believe in me. When we actually take him at his word and believe 00:18:28.480 --> 00:18:33.679 what he says and who he is, and we have good reason to because he really did rise from the dead. 00:18:33.679 --> 00:18:38.559 And he really did rise from that in the context of the most profound philosophy and system of thought 00:18:38.559 --> 00:18:43.919 and poetry that's ever been written. And we take him at his word and believe into him. We enter into 00:18:43.920 --> 00:18:50.640 union with him and it really is the case then that the death he died is dealing with all the punishment 00:18:50.640 --> 00:18:55.920 we deserve for all the wrong things we do and the times we fail to do the good things. And it really 00:18:55.920 --> 00:19:00.960 does mean that we have peace with God. It really does mean that we are made right with him. It really 00:19:00.960 --> 00:19:06.320 does mean that we are reconciled to God. All of these profound things aren't just stories. They're 00:19:06.319 --> 00:19:13.039 really true. They're really true. They're ontologically true, to use a really big word. 00:19:13.039 --> 00:19:17.839 And that's what the text is trying. That's why it says, therefore. Therefore, these things aren't just 00:19:17.839 --> 00:19:23.599 stories. The fact that Jesus rose from the dead isn't a story. It really happened. His whole letter 00:19:23.599 --> 00:19:29.119 is bearing witness from the early years that Jesus really did rise from the dead. And he really did appear 00:19:29.119 --> 00:19:34.799 to people. It really happened. And now he's saying these other profound truths, they're really true. 00:19:35.759 --> 00:19:42.479 They're really, really true. So verse 12, therefore, just as sin, that is personal pride, 00:19:42.479 --> 00:19:47.519 trying to say you're better than God, put God in second place while you're on first place. 00:19:47.519 --> 00:19:50.639 And you're going to show him that you're really the boss. And you're going to do whatever you want 00:19:50.639 --> 00:19:55.199 to do. And you're going to be your own authority and your own law. And if not you, then your culture, 00:19:55.200 --> 00:20:01.840 your tribe, your ideology. And so therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, 00:20:02.960 --> 00:20:09.440 and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned. So if you could put up 00:20:09.440 --> 00:20:18.240 the next point, it's this. You are not a sinner because you sin. You sin because you are a sinner. 00:20:19.039 --> 00:20:23.519 That's one way to understand it, right? I'll say it again. You are not a sinner because you sin. You sin 00:20:23.519 --> 00:20:28.639 because you are a sinner. So what this text is, so first of all, this is a really profoundly hopeful 00:20:28.639 --> 00:20:37.440 text. You know, if what they teach in university and in the courts and the media is true, and we're 00:20:37.440 --> 00:20:43.799 all just a result of blind chance, of cause and effect, there's nothing that exists other than just 00:20:43.799 --> 00:20:48.799 mind and matter, I mean, not mind and matter, just energy and matter, then you know what? Death 00:20:48.799 --> 00:20:55.720 absolutely wins, and it sucks to be you. And you have absolutely no hope because death wins. 00:20:56.480 --> 00:21:01.200 Don't let anybody else tell you that it doesn't. It just does. It's just naturally true. Death wins. 00:21:01.759 --> 00:21:12.299 But if death, human death, was not what God originally created, then there's hope. Then you can say, 00:21:12.299 --> 00:21:20.539 surely, God, if you do exist, I call out to you. I hope and trust that you who created human beings to 00:21:20.539 --> 00:21:27.659 be a certain particular way and not to have death, I pray that you will help me in the face of my death. 00:21:29.980 --> 00:21:34.220 And what's going on here is, I remember I said the third point is that God created human beings to be 00:21:34.220 --> 00:21:39.339 in solidarity with each other, and the way he designed them, a design feature that that's how human 00:21:39.339 --> 00:21:45.740 beings were made, is that the human solidarity has a covenant head, and that covenant head was Adam. 00:21:47.740 --> 00:21:55.579 And God made that covenant head, Adam, to be like something. He's a type. It's not that Jesus is a type of 00:21:55.579 --> 00:22:04.539 Adam, but that Adam is a type of Christ. And so when that covenant head and human beings all in solidarity 00:22:04.539 --> 00:22:10.279 with him, and once again, this explains why it is so natural for human beings to understand 00:22:10.279 --> 00:22:17.259 representation, and that, you know, the head of the university speaks for the university. If you're in 00:22:17.259 --> 00:22:22.139 a lawsuit and you hire a lawyer and the lawyer acts on your behalf, we understand these things. They're 00:22:22.139 --> 00:22:26.940 deeply human. And they're not deeply human, and we go from them to think about God, but it's because 00:22:26.940 --> 00:22:32.379 that's the way reality is structured and we're hardwired that we understand and have these things in 00:22:32.380 --> 00:22:38.780 just about every single culture. And throughout all of time, we have these issues and a consistency 00:22:38.780 --> 00:22:43.740 of representation and communal, and what the representative does affects all of the community. 00:22:43.740 --> 00:22:50.380 And what this is saying is that God designed Adam to be the head of this solidarity. And when Adam said, 00:22:51.580 --> 00:22:58.060 I will be like God, which means that I will be not just equal with the true God, but over him, 00:22:58.059 --> 00:23:05.019 and I will do what I think looks good. Every human being was touched with that rebellion. 00:23:05.899 --> 00:23:11.259 That's why the Bible teaches you don't you the Bible doesn't say you're a sinner because you sin. 00:23:11.899 --> 00:23:19.980 The Bible says you sin because you are a sinner. And it's because of that human rebellion that death 00:23:19.980 --> 00:23:27.579 entered into human existence. And it touches every single human being. It's a very profound thought, 00:23:27.579 --> 00:23:34.220 very wise, and it gives you profound hope. If this is true, Lord, have mercy. 00:23:35.579 --> 00:23:43.419 Have mercy. Have mercy on me and on my loved ones. There's one you can call out to. And I am here today 00:23:43.419 --> 00:23:49.259 to introduce you to him. We are here to introduce you to him whom you can call out to. 00:23:49.259 --> 00:23:56.859 Now, Paul has an aside. Paul is saying, whoa, okay. And now this little aside, which I'll just read in a 00:23:56.859 --> 00:24:01.420 moment. If you've followed along, you're a really, really careful reader. You remember that Paul's 00:24:01.420 --> 00:24:07.099 dealt with a whole pile of things in Romans chapter 2, in Romans chapter 3, in Romans chapter 4, 00:24:07.099 --> 00:24:12.859 up until now. And he just wants to make a little bit of an aside because he knows that we human beings 00:24:12.859 --> 00:24:19.419 are deeply addicted to thinking that the way to get right with God is to be a good person. 00:24:21.179 --> 00:24:26.859 And so even if we can't be a good person, maybe what we really need to get to be a good person is to 00:24:26.859 --> 00:24:33.259 hang out with the right people, or to have the right teacher, or to have the right guru. And that's how 00:24:33.259 --> 00:24:39.099 we're deeply addicted. We're deeply addicted to try it. Because we are in rebellion against God, we will try 00:24:39.099 --> 00:24:46.139 anything, any human thing, rather than call out to him. That's how we're wired. It's why, you know, 00:24:46.139 --> 00:24:51.740 if you listen to Richard Dawkins and other, like, leading atheists, they actually don't want there to 00:24:51.740 --> 00:24:57.339 be a God. They'll try any type of thing other than actually maybe calling out to God. And so that's 00:24:57.339 --> 00:25:03.679 what's going on here in verses 13 and 14. Look what it says. For sin indeed, this is an aside, right? 00:25:04.099 --> 00:25:08.259 Okay, oh, he says like, oh, I better remember to remind people about this. For sin indeed was in the 00:25:08.259 --> 00:25:14.259 world before the law was given. That's the law by Moses. But sin is not counted where there is no 00:25:14.259 --> 00:25:20.740 law. I'll explain that in a moment. Yet death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over those whose 00:25:20.740 --> 00:25:24.720 sinning was not like the transgression of Adam, who was a type of the one who was to come. 00:25:25.200 --> 00:25:31.400 So what's going on here? If you remember in Romans chapter 2, Paul demonstrates that even if God said, 00:25:31.500 --> 00:25:36.019 I'm not going to use my own moral judgments to see that you can't live a good life. I'm just going to 00:25:36.019 --> 00:25:41.160 use your judgments. And if I just record your judgments and then show your life, you'll realize 00:25:41.160 --> 00:25:46.940 you don't even live up to your judgments. And so what Paul is saying is, for those of you who are 00:25:46.940 --> 00:25:52.779 addicted to trying to work out your own salvation and try to do anything other than that, here's the 00:25:52.779 --> 00:26:00.259 big thing that you don't understand. You're a sinner because you sin. You sin because you're a sinner. 00:26:00.259 --> 00:26:07.660 Like, so you go to, you're a sinner going to your guru. You're a sinner trying to do good. You're a 00:26:07.660 --> 00:26:12.059 sinner doing all of these things. And it's just always going to end up showing up in all of those 00:26:12.059 --> 00:26:16.400 things you do, sometimes in just very, very, very, very, very tiny ways that are very, very subtle, 00:26:16.480 --> 00:26:22.379 but very potentially profound. And sometimes in massive ways, but you can't leave yourself to fix 00:26:22.379 --> 00:26:27.279 yourself. And wherever you go, and some people might say, well, why do they use Moses? Why didn't they 00:26:27.279 --> 00:26:31.240 use others? Like, you know, why doesn't he use, because who cares about Moses? Why don't they use 00:26:31.240 --> 00:26:38.420 Gautama Buddha or Krishna or Confucius or Brene Brown or Glennon Doyle or Tony Robbins or Eckhart Tolle or 00:26:38.420 --> 00:26:44.240 Marcus Aurelius? Well, because, you know, Paul is just saying, well, pick your, pick your person. 00:26:45.339 --> 00:26:50.279 If you keep just searching for some other new moral teacher, the problem isn't find a moral teacher 00:26:50.279 --> 00:26:56.700 and techniques. The problem is that you are a sinner. And it's all connected. Just jump down, 00:26:56.700 --> 00:27:01.360 down to verse, remember, because I said it's an aside. Now, jump down to verse 20, 00:27:02.160 --> 00:27:08.660 where he makes it clear again. Now, the law came in to increase the trespass, but where sin increased, 00:27:10.000 --> 00:27:16.360 grace abounded all the more. So what's he saying? It's like this. Imagine you have a cottage, 00:27:16.779 --> 00:27:21.480 and you're going up to the cottage. You meant to get there on time, but there was a traffic jam, 00:27:21.480 --> 00:27:26.539 and then you had a flat tire. And before you know it, you get into your cottage at around 10 o'clock 00:27:26.539 --> 00:27:31.759 at night, and you're having company come the next morning at around 10, and you're opening the cottage, 00:27:32.279 --> 00:27:37.400 and then you discover that you both forgot flashlights, and you discover that you forgot to charge your 00:27:37.400 --> 00:27:43.400 phones, and there's no lights in the house whatsoever because the power is out for some odd type of reason, 00:27:43.480 --> 00:27:47.259 and you want to start getting caught. And all you can do is you remember that there's two candles over in 00:27:47.259 --> 00:27:53.039 the corner. So you get two candles, and you light them, and you try to clean the cottage up with 00:27:53.039 --> 00:27:58.140 candles. And then the next morning, and it's a night where it's completely dark and cloudy. There's no 00:27:58.140 --> 00:28:01.759 starlight, no full moon. And the next morning, and you clean up the cottage the best you can. 00:28:02.160 --> 00:28:06.619 What happens the next morning when it's a beautiful sunny day, and the cottage has lots of windows? 00:28:07.759 --> 00:28:10.279 It looks as if you hadn't even cleaned up the cottage at all. 00:28:10.279 --> 00:28:20.440 Like you didn't even see 10% of all the crap. And what Paul is saying is you get a more perfect law, 00:28:20.839 --> 00:28:27.460 it's just going to show more crap in your life. So why does God give a perfect law? Well, here's a 00:28:27.460 --> 00:28:35.319 very good reason. Imagine that next week they announce that they've designed an inoculation that 00:28:35.319 --> 00:28:42.299 you can have. And if you take this inoculation, what it will do is this, it will create antibodies 00:28:42.299 --> 00:28:50.000 in the system within your body, so that the very first cancerous type cell that develops in your 00:28:50.000 --> 00:28:57.259 body, the very, very first one, you will get a throbbing pain in all of your knuckles of your left 00:28:57.259 --> 00:29:05.279 hand. Now let me tell you, everybody who knows anybody who's died of cancer, and any reason 00:29:05.279 --> 00:29:09.319 person would say, okay, once you figure out that it's safe, you'd say, I want to get inoculated. 00:29:10.379 --> 00:29:18.240 Because what's the main key to beating cancer is early knowledge of it. And if you actually had 00:29:18.240 --> 00:29:22.039 something that would quickly show you that there's a cancer growing in you just by some pain, 00:29:22.440 --> 00:29:27.379 and that means you've got to call up your doctor, like right away, and they can begin tests to find 00:29:27.379 --> 00:29:32.559 the cancer and treat it, like you'd want to take that. And so why does God provide a perfect law, 00:29:32.559 --> 00:29:37.559 like in the Ten Commandments, and through Moses, and all of that? It's so you realize, 00:29:38.139 --> 00:29:40.740 I need help, God. 00:29:43.039 --> 00:29:46.859 Not so you can redefine your life to make yourself look like you're perfect, 00:29:47.200 --> 00:29:50.919 but to say, I need help, and call out to God. 00:29:50.920 --> 00:29:59.300 That's why he provided it. So then, this, I mean, it sounds a little bit weird now, 00:29:59.920 --> 00:30:02.759 and, but Paul says, okay, no, no, no, I've got to understand, they've got to understand, 00:30:02.860 --> 00:30:07.259 now that they understand that there's this, they're sinners because they sin, they, I, now, 00:30:07.420 --> 00:30:11.820 oh boy, I better start to explain to them why it is that, when I said that if you put your faith 00:30:11.820 --> 00:30:16.320 into Christ, like why is it that that actually works? Like why is it it's not just a fiction? 00:30:16.319 --> 00:30:23.539 Why is it that the punishments you deserve is actually dealt with on him? Why is it that 00:30:23.539 --> 00:30:30.220 his perfect life of obedience actually stands for you? Why is it that he's the perfect penitent so 00:30:30.220 --> 00:30:34.419 you can be reconciled to God? Why is it that because of what he did actually means you have 00:30:34.419 --> 00:30:44.619 people, like why is it that it works? It's because Jesus is the new covenant head that you can enter by 00:30:44.619 --> 00:30:52.159 faith. The same thing that is designed you in solidarity, God provides a new head, 00:30:52.839 --> 00:31:00.439 a new means that you enter, not by biology, not by simple transmission through, you know, 00:31:00.559 --> 00:31:07.619 of husband and wife coming together, it's by putting your faith and trust in him. There is a new kingdom, 00:31:07.619 --> 00:31:15.000 a new covenant that enters into this world that gives you, well, let's see what it gives you. Look 00:31:15.000 --> 00:31:21.399 what goes on to say, verse 15. He's going to describe this new covenant in these terms. What 00:31:21.399 --> 00:31:28.059 describes the new covenant? The new covenant, verse 15, is a free gift, and it's not at all like the 00:31:28.059 --> 00:31:36.700 trespass. For if many died through the one man's trespass, much more have the grace of God and the 00:31:36.700 --> 00:31:43.119 free gift by the grace of that one man, Jesus Christ, abounded for many. And in the original language, 00:31:43.259 --> 00:31:51.039 it's super abounded, like super, super, super duper abounded. And it's saying, well, okay, in Adam, 00:31:51.039 --> 00:31:58.059 this happened, this one guy did it, sin touched everybody, and what is it that he says? That people 00:31:58.059 --> 00:32:03.079 died as a result of it. But what happens with this new covenant, this new covenant brought by Jesus, 00:32:03.500 --> 00:32:10.480 his one act of redemption, it's a free gift, and it brings grace. And then he goes, oh, here's another 00:32:10.480 --> 00:32:16.799 thing he says, verse 16. And the free gift, that's how you understand what it is to be in Jesus, 00:32:16.799 --> 00:32:26.159 is not like the result of that one man's, Adam's sin. For the judgment following Adam's sin brought 00:32:26.159 --> 00:32:33.339 condemnation. In other words, you did something wrong, and now God doesn't ignore the wrong and 00:32:33.339 --> 00:32:38.159 the injustice and the evil that you have done and the lies and the selfishness and pride. He doesn't 00:32:38.159 --> 00:32:44.240 ignore it. In a sense, you have a sentence longer than your, or you have a list of offenses longer 00:32:44.240 --> 00:32:49.799 than your arm. Each one is judged. Each one you're found guilty. Each one will receive a punishment. 00:32:49.940 --> 00:32:57.859 That's what condemnation means. But in Christ, the free gift following many trespasses brought, 00:32:58.240 --> 00:33:04.759 being declared right with God. In other words, God says, George's, if all the charges against George, 00:33:04.880 --> 00:33:09.000 good grief. If I was to, you know, he said, if I was to list all the charges against George, 00:33:09.420 --> 00:33:13.859 and you were to string them together, and they're just normal font, it would go to the moon and back and 00:33:13.859 --> 00:33:17.919 back and back and back, and that's how Jesus, that's how George comes to Jesus. 00:33:20.039 --> 00:33:31.000 And yet, in Jesus, the new type, all of that is on him. His perfect life, that's why he can die 00:33:31.000 --> 00:33:35.819 and take the punishment that I deserve for that sentence as long as my arm. And then there's another 00:33:35.819 --> 00:33:41.799 benefit. Look at verse 17. For if, because of one man's trespass, that's Adam, death, again he reminds us, 00:33:41.799 --> 00:33:49.500 death reigned. Death reigns. Death reigns. Nobody is defeated other than Christ and his resurrection. 00:33:49.700 --> 00:33:55.879 But it comes through that one man. What happens? Look at the contrast. Much more. Well, those who receive 00:33:55.879 --> 00:34:05.659 the abundance of grace and the free gift of being made right with God, we reign in life through that 00:34:05.660 --> 00:34:12.680 one man, Jesus Christ. God did not design human beings to be under the crushing weight of death 00:34:12.680 --> 00:34:20.619 to destroy us. He designed us to go into the world and go into the universe and go into the galaxies and 00:34:20.619 --> 00:34:29.460 to flourish in life. And that will come back. And he goes on. There's more. Look at verse 18. By the way, 00:34:29.519 --> 00:34:34.500 the point is, if you could put the point up there, the point for all this, there is a greater grace-filled 00:34:34.500 --> 00:34:39.420 covenant of eternal life. That's the big point for this section. There is a greater grace-filled 00:34:39.420 --> 00:34:46.280 covenant with a new covenant head, and it's marked by eternal life and liberty and freedom. But look at 00:34:46.280 --> 00:34:52.840 verse 18. Therefore, as one trespass by Adam led to condemnation, I've already explained, for all human 00:34:52.840 --> 00:35:00.099 beings, so one act of righteousness, Jesus' perfect life and death upon the cross, leads to being made right 00:35:00.099 --> 00:35:08.739 with God, justification and life for all who enter that covenant. And there's more. Verse 19. For as by 00:35:08.739 --> 00:35:15.900 one man's disobedience, the many were made sinners, so by the one man's obedience, that is Christ, 00:35:16.259 --> 00:35:23.779 the many will be made right with God. Now he says, I better remind them. The law came in not to give you a 00:35:23.780 --> 00:35:29.680 way to try to make a ladder to climb to heaven that you can climb yourself. No, the law came in to 00:35:29.680 --> 00:35:34.260 increase the trespass. He's going to explain more about that in chapter 7. I won't say anything about 00:35:34.260 --> 00:35:42.100 it now. You can wait till I get to chapter 7. But where sin increased, grace abounded all the more. 00:35:42.360 --> 00:35:49.640 What is God's heart for you? God takes no delight in the death of a sinner, but that you and I will turn 00:35:49.639 --> 00:35:54.839 from our wickedness and live. The message of the book of Ezekiel. Put in our liturgy, if you do 00:35:54.839 --> 00:35:59.279 morning and evening prayer, as a way to remind. That's God's heart for you. God's heart for you 00:35:59.279 --> 00:36:06.400 is that you would realize you are in Adam, and you sin because you are a sinner, and you're going to 00:36:06.400 --> 00:36:12.039 die, and you call out to God, and you come into Christ, and you discover all of these benefits that 00:36:12.039 --> 00:36:16.179 he wants you to actually reign in life. That's what his desire is. He wants you to know a super 00:36:16.179 --> 00:36:21.899 abundance of grace. And then it continues in verse 21, the final verse for today. So that, 00:36:22.339 --> 00:36:28.299 as sin reigned in death, grace also might reign through righteousness, 00:36:29.359 --> 00:36:34.339 his being making us right, leading to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. 00:36:34.340 --> 00:36:47.640 Hallelujah. I mean, that's just so beautiful. Just a couple of takeaways. I don't know how this has 00:36:47.640 --> 00:36:54.019 touched you or affected you. Just four very quick takeaways. And if you can't write them down, 00:36:54.180 --> 00:36:57.800 or you can go online to look at it, or you can go on. I think the YouTube thing will have a link 00:36:57.800 --> 00:37:03.800 that we'll give to you. The first one is that, who does not want to know that the story of their life 00:37:03.800 --> 00:37:10.500 can have an ending, which is true and good and beautiful? Who doesn't want to know that? Who 00:37:10.500 --> 00:37:15.019 doesn't want to know that they can come to God in their brokenness? They can come to God with a record 00:37:15.019 --> 00:37:20.220 that would, if they put all the charges down, would go to the moon and back and back and back and back. 00:37:20.219 --> 00:37:23.939 And who wants to know that at the end of their story, that, you know, 00:37:24.079 --> 00:37:32.179 you're born again, and God is designed, and now in Christ you have eternal life, 00:37:32.739 --> 00:37:39.259 and your future is one of superabundance grace. And this has all been publicly declared by God. 00:37:39.359 --> 00:37:44.519 This is now your destiny. And you might be having very, very hard times, and you will have very, 00:37:44.519 --> 00:37:50.840 very hard times, but those hard times do not define you. What defines you is this final word 00:37:50.840 --> 00:37:55.579 about you, and the final word about you is the story of your life will be good and true and beautiful. 00:37:56.320 --> 00:38:03.500 And who doesn't want that? And this isn't just a fiction. This is true. Another one, who does not 00:38:03.500 --> 00:38:10.579 need a deeper life of gratitude for God's free gift of grace to you? Who doesn't need to be more grateful? 00:38:10.579 --> 00:38:17.259 You know, there's so many of us, and part of the problem with, you know, that doom scrolling and 00:38:17.259 --> 00:38:24.279 social media is it's making us feel inadequate. It's making us feel superior. It's making us feel 00:38:24.279 --> 00:38:31.259 angry. It's making us feel suspicious of people who differ of us, and sometimes on really trivially 00:38:31.259 --> 00:38:36.299 small points. It does all of these types of things. And I'm not saying you should never look 00:38:36.300 --> 00:38:41.700 on Instagram. I'm not saying anything like that, but I'm saying, don't we need to spend more time 00:38:41.700 --> 00:38:47.240 on looking at things that make us grateful? Wouldn't you rather be formed by gratitude? 00:38:48.420 --> 00:38:53.460 Wouldn't you rather remember the things that come in services like that and what Christ has done for 00:38:53.460 --> 00:39:00.060 you and your eternal destiny in Him, and have that be that which you meditate upon and grow in gratitude? 00:39:00.059 --> 00:39:05.500 gratitude? And it's in the context of gratitude to deal with the bad news about your health and the 00:39:05.500 --> 00:39:09.719 bad news about your finances and maybe the bad news about what some people have said about you. 00:39:10.019 --> 00:39:14.719 I'm not saying you don't know those things, but wouldn't you rather deal with those things and 00:39:14.719 --> 00:39:19.539 walk towards them in a spirit of gratitude for what God has done for you? Don't you think you would 00:39:19.539 --> 00:39:24.960 deal with it better if gratitude was what drives you as you try to walk towards and deals with it, 00:39:24.960 --> 00:39:31.920 rather than doom? Here's the third one. Who does not need help to live a life of persistence, 00:39:32.699 --> 00:39:38.820 impenitence, and pressing on? By the way, when I'm saying who does not, I need it. 00:39:41.019 --> 00:39:47.460 I'm a marsh wiggle. I can easily think of 53 things about to go bad. I need to live out of gratitude more, 00:39:48.220 --> 00:39:54.519 like I do. And, you know, the fact is that what we need is, you know, like I got an email just the 00:39:54.519 --> 00:39:58.820 other day that, you know, accused me of being a whole lot of bad things. And, you know, and probably 00:39:58.820 --> 00:40:03.019 most of it wasn't fair. But as I was sharing with you last week, I was smiling when I got it, 00:40:03.059 --> 00:40:07.860 not entirely, but afterwards that, well, I preach one thing and now God makes sure I have to deal with 00:40:07.860 --> 00:40:13.320 it. It's not just abstract, you know. And on one level, I have to say, well, some of these things 00:40:13.320 --> 00:40:19.900 might be a little bit tiny fair, but, well, they don't know I'm way worse than that. And Christ has 00:40:19.900 --> 00:40:26.280 accepted me. And I don't say that to make me then be complacent in dealing with it. But I need to 00:40:26.280 --> 00:40:32.900 persist in repenting of the things I've done wrong. And I need to persist in then trying to move on and 00:40:32.900 --> 00:40:38.180 amend my life. And I need to acknowledge the Christian life. I'm going to write a blog about 00:40:38.180 --> 00:40:42.920 this, hopefully, in the next week. This Christian life is like the game Snakes and Ladders. Do kids still 00:40:42.920 --> 00:40:48.660 play Snakes and Ladders? They don't play that anymore? Okay, there's this old game, you'd roll the dice, 00:40:48.659 --> 00:40:52.519 and you'd move around the board. And you land on one spot, there's a ladder. The goal is to get up to 00:40:52.519 --> 00:40:57.019 the first one. And you get on a ladder, and you go way up. And then you go on another one, there's a 00:40:57.019 --> 00:41:00.659 snake, and you go slide way down. And that's what human life is like if you're a Christian, you're 00:41:00.659 --> 00:41:06.079 discipleship. If you don't think that's true, you're not being honest with yourself. You know, sometimes 00:41:06.079 --> 00:41:10.879 you have this profound experience, and it's as if your spiritual life just goes way up to the next level. 00:41:11.259 --> 00:41:15.299 And then maybe three weeks later, you have an email, or something comes to you about your sin, 00:41:15.300 --> 00:41:21.019 and you slide way back down there. And that's what you want to persist, knowing that Christ, 00:41:21.300 --> 00:41:30.000 you are in him. He will bring you to the end. And then finally, who does not need help? So if I need 00:41:30.000 --> 00:41:39.000 help to live a life, and these stories help me, I am in Christ. He is my covenant head. My sins really 00:41:39.000 --> 00:41:46.699 are forgiven. I really do have eternal life. Death and failure and accusations are not the final word 00:41:46.699 --> 00:41:52.500 about me. Those are not the final word about me. And this doesn't mean I don't care about the wrong 00:41:52.500 --> 00:41:57.099 things I do. I can look at them and try to repent and try to change my life and then fall and change 00:41:57.099 --> 00:42:03.219 my life and keep pouring. And if I need this, you know what else I need? I need to extend grace to 00:42:03.219 --> 00:42:10.179 others and pray for others as they're trying to deal with the same thing. It is not right if I say, 00:42:10.259 --> 00:42:14.519 okay, all you guys, you've got to give me grace, and I don't have to give any grace to you. 00:42:16.579 --> 00:42:22.379 This is teaching us to extend grace to others. Who does not need help in extending grace and prayers 00:42:22.379 --> 00:42:31.219 to others that they will persist in penitence and pressing on? Brothers and sisters, 12 minutes after 00:42:31.219 --> 00:42:36.059 the service, you have questions about historical Adam, all that other type of stuff, I will be here. 00:42:36.119 --> 00:42:43.199 I will try to answer your questions as best I can. This text is beautiful and wise and true. 00:42:44.379 --> 00:42:51.419 And if you do not yet know Jesus, you need to be born again. A point in time comes, you just have to say, 00:42:51.480 --> 00:42:59.159 God, I want to be Christ's. I want this to be true. I'm trusting you at your word. Could you take me as 00:42:59.159 --> 00:43:04.399 your child and make me born again? And there's no better time to do that prayer than today, 00:43:04.899 --> 00:43:07.339 right now. I invite you to stand. 00:43:13.679 --> 00:43:14.859 Bow our heads in prayer. 00:43:20.739 --> 00:43:27.460 Father, it's a bit shocking when we read this text to realize that every single one of us are vastly 00:43:27.460 --> 00:43:36.679 worse than we realize. And every one of us are vastly more lost than we ever realized. But we give you 00:43:36.679 --> 00:43:42.240 thanks and praise, Father, that you reveal these things to us in the context of saying that your 00:43:42.240 --> 00:43:51.920 grace is super abundantly more and that you desire a super abundance of more to us. And so, Lord, 00:43:51.920 --> 00:44:02.920 help us to be patient and persist and curious and prayerful and thoughtful as we deal with the weirdness of what it 00:44:02.920 --> 00:44:10.840 means to be a human being and the truth of your word. And Father, make us open to these truths. And not just open 00:44:10.840 --> 00:44:17.500 in an intellectual sense, but may these truths be really, really, really, really deeply forming in our hearts. 00:44:17.500 --> 00:44:23.980 That we will walk towards our problems and disappointments and hard times and our good times as well, 00:44:24.099 --> 00:44:31.739 Father, deeply filled with gratitude for Christ and what he has done for us and how he has brought us 00:44:31.739 --> 00:44:36.800 into himself and made us right with you. So, Father, we ask these things in the name of Jesus, 00:44:36.940 --> 00:44:40.059 your Son and our Savior. And all God's people said, 00:44:40.719 --> 00:44:41.199 Amen. 00:44:47.500 --> 00:44:48.500 Amen. 00:44:48.500 --> 00:44:48.500 00:44:48.500 --> 00:44:49.500 Amen. 00:44:49.500 --> 00:44:49.500