February 21, 2016

We are in the midst of a sermon series talking about the gospel itself and it stems from a message. I heard from a conference in 2007 from Tim Keller. So I want to give credit where credit is due but that one message has informed numerous weeks of talking about the gospel because between what he said and what might one of my undergrad professors Montana Smith taught me way back in the 80s are all that stirred up in me boy. We need to talk about the gospel, especially in the culture today, which seems to be kind of squeezing in on the church and challenging us to know clearly what we believe what is essential and what is non-essential and so we want to continue this serious Series this morning talking about the gospel what it is and so by review we said the gospel fundamentally is historical. It's about the Life Death teaching Miracles and resurrection of Jesus Christ. And so when we preach and proclaim the gospel, we're preaching and proclaiming this historical This reality. It's not moral advice. And sometimes we can slip off into the direction of tree of the Gospel like a man-made religion. Like the other religions in the world is if it's just a system of thought or moral rules and regulations that if we gained this wisdom or learn these rules and we keep them then we're good. But Christianity is fundamentally different from every other world religion because it's not man-made because it's about God. It's a message about what God did when he came to Earth in the flesh in the form of Jesus Christ. And so we preach the historical reality of the Gospel not some sort of human thinking or system about advice or moral rules or laws. We preach the gospel the historical gospel. Secondly. We said the gospel calls forth or generates worship from you and I the reality is we dwell upon we believe in place her face. In the goodness of God revealed in the gospel of Christ and his goodness outshines human Idols, that's an essential element to because it's the way in which God works in our life to change us human religion thinks purely in terms of God being power because that's human thinking when we think about if there's going to be a God Almighty B, we think will this must be a being a power that if there is a God it must be power expressed. And so when it's a human made God God is simply power and therefore all of human reaction with God is out of fear. You had better get right you had better jump through these hoops, or do these things are our find the right path of wisdom or live the right more awake or you're in trouble with God because God is purely power and authority because she does not affirm that human thinking or that human narrative Christianity says that God is love. A radical statement that at the heart of the universe the deepest reality we find in God our maker is a God who sacrifices himself for his creation. Sometimes we we grow accustomed to that language in those words and we don't realize the radical nature the otherworldly, that's the nonhuman thinking us of the Gospel. It's about what God has done not what we must do but instead what God has done in Christ and the more we fully see the gospel the whole gospel the more we see that reality of the goodness of God of his sacrifice of his giving himself up for his own creation. The more we are drawn to worship Him and fall down at his feet and follow him and that's the called appreciated to be moved by the reality of God's character to have faith and trust in his goodness and to let the knowledge and the faith that we have his goodness outshine. The other Idols in this world that compete for attention to realize that he is so much better that he is good and trustworthy and that we can trust him and follow him. We talked about how the gospel is Christ centered. The gospel isn't necessarily Church centered or even Bible centered. But sometimes our religion are Christianity can get off the rails a little bit and it could really be Church Center where the heart of what we're doing is all about church and keeping the church active and up and alive and running excetera excetera and that can become more focused or we can become people of the book as an end in itself where we study and that's an end in itself as opposed to the scriptures lead us to Christ. They point us to him. The reality is the gospel is Christ centered Church Center. Human centered not even Bible centered those things are means to an end and the end is to see Christ as the Son of God to see God's glory revealed in Jesus Christ and to respond to him and we spoke about that house. We see that Jesus is the substance of every 4 shadow of God's plan and purpose we talked about how he's True and better Adam who won his battle in the garden a tougher battle in the garden and his righteousness was attributed to seize the the true and better Abraham who left everything to come to Earth and follow God faithfully. And when our way to him that Jesus is the direction the ultimate fulfillment of the trajectory of the old part of the Old Testament Old Testament and New Testament that keeps God is going to rescue God is going to redeem and Jesus is the Fulfillment of all of that. The cross is the center of Christianity. And the New Testament and last week we talked about the fact that the gospel is personal it confronts us with the size of our debt and our sin before the holy God. And also with the magnitude of his provision for us. Jesus died the death we should have died and he lived the life. We should have lived and it sometimes in today's culture. There's a tendency to think of the Gospel almost as purely social again at another way to kind of go off the rails and go away from Biblical Christianity. The gospel is socially does make an impact. It does call us to change the world into Champion justice, but that's the fruit of the reality of the Gospel is personal that it confronts us individually with our sin and the size of our sin so that week we aren't we are called to respond to God's goodness and his graciousness with our own personal devotion and finally confronts us with the magnitude of his provision that not only are we Sinners who stand in the presence of holy God, but that holy God. Robed himself with his divinity and came to Earth in the flash talk on an apron of a servant and washed his disciples feet that that God went to the cross and look down and said father forgive them. They don't know what they're doing. But we not only stand condemned in the presence of a holy God, but we stand redeemed in the presence of a holy God and that dual reality calls forth from us that worship. We talked about this Devotion to God this giving of Our Lives to him and as we give our life to him as we are transformed as disciples that does impact the culture that does impact Justice and social realities is the fruit of what God is doing in our lives individually. So an essential part of the Gospel is that it's personal. And it bears fruit out in our culture. And so I want to talk about this sort of thing as it continues into the culture the gospel. We talked about this last week and let me review this just a little bit more we talked about how sometimes we can we can focus in an imbalanced way on the nature of the Gospel being personal but when we have the whole gospel, we understand that both our debt is paid and our righteousness is provided if we focus only on number one sweet we can kind of walk this Christian walk that really is this salvation anxiety type of lock. We don't have this tremendous confidence that God has provided for us. We said, yes, I know that he died on the cross and my sins are paid for but we kind of stopped there and we say now it's up to me to kind of live a holy Christian Life and if I don't live a holy Christian life, then my salvation is in Jeopardy. If I haven't been a good enough Christian since God gave me the gift of a clean slate if I haven't kept that slate clean then I'm not sure I'm saying so we have this anxiety anxiety gospel understanding then we can walk in such a way that smart buy legalism and moralism and isolation because those sorts of practices can I become the foundation of our Salvation instead of the work of Christ to see how that can happen in life of the church and so we can slip into that. Well, I'm going to I'm going to be a certain kind of a certain kind of conservative a certain kind of, you know, a moral person and that's the source of my salvation. And since I'm doing this I'm better than those who aren't doing it, you know, and we slip into that stereotype. Like you've heard me say it a million times. We slip into kind of a cultural living that says, well, I don't smoke drink or two or or go with girls who do and so we slip into that sort of thinking thinking that the substance of our Salvation that that we're walking this walk that equals our Salvation we slip into this sort of false thinking but just as equally dangerous is to focus only on number two, and that's where some Well, Jesus has forgiven me. I've got forgiveness so I don't have to worry about anyting Bonhoeffer called that cheap Grace and his book the pastor who wrote during World War II. He even said that sort of misunderstanding of the Gospel was part of what late paved the way for Nazism to rise even in the face of the church in Germany that there were too many Christians who had that sort of what some other calls today including Tim Keller the sort of easy believism, I've made my profession. I've got my salvation. It's almost like a vaccination that I got and now I just go about life and that ends up producing this sort of unchanged life. In that Christian and really very little or or perhaps no influence on others and again the same way maybe we can look around and we can see that sometimes if Christianity in the Bible Church, we make the mistake of kind of circling the wagons and isolating herself and trying to live out. Our faith is kind of a moralism kind of Walker and isolationism illegalism. Cuz that's the substance of Christianity. You can also see where sometimes group the Christians get together and they make the other mistake. They kind of stay. Well. It's no big deal. I got saved and it's not going to change my life. I'm just going to live the way I need to live and then they they over accommodate to the culture and to the challenges in this world. Do you see those two extremes that we can sometimes fall in a lot and we tend to Cluster together so a bunch of Christian to see the goal of Christianity to circle the wagons and keep yourself pure and isolated from the world. They all kind of like mine get together and say that's how we're going to live our life. And then sometimes you sometimes Christian to get overburdened with a sense of being relevant and an engaging the culture. They make that two important but they'll cluster together and said well, we really want we don't talk about Sin and we don't want talk about holding us and we don't want to talk about God's judgment and wrath will just leave all that out and then State become endangered in the same sort of deformity of a gospel and having unchanged life. The reality is is both those realities that we embraced that God has provided for our sin on the cross and that is provided for our righteousness through Christ. And so that we have this debt to God that should call for some this this this Worship in this Devotion to follow him. But we also have this provision for our righteousness that removes that sense of anxiety that Were Somehow earning our own salvation. And so we follow God out of this position of joy that he has done for us what we could never do for ourselves. And the amazing truth of who God says who God is his character that should grip our hearts and our minds our imagination that were enthralled with him and want to follow him because of his goodness. That sort of need to eat to have balance continues this morning as we talked about the fact that the gospel is cultural and you could also use the word Incarnation meaning the gospel comes into the life of humans. That was the whole point of Christ coming in. The flash is the gospel could have remained somehow separate from Human culture and human life and God could have just pronounced from Heaven. Here's the deal. He would have done that. But the very nature of what God wanted to do was to come in the flesh and walk among us beat with us be next to us until the gospel incarnates itself into the gospel is culture on the way. It works in our life as we are transformed by the gospel as folks. You've understood it fully as folks whose Hearts have been turned toward God because of his kindness As Romans to says as we are transformed by the gospel the way we do things changes and a different culture grows. That's that's how the world is influenced as our lives are changed we end up with her our own kind of culture. Now. There's no avoiding culture churches have culture no matter what some of its healthy and some of its own healthy sum of its biblical and some of its unbiblical the challenge is for us to be so squarely focused on Christ and the truth of the Gospel that what happens in our own lice individually and our lives as a church is this gospel saturated culture? And so that it empowers our own lives as disciples and the influence of the lives of those around us. I'll give you one example that has been in my mind for years and you're something that Drew me to Christ when I first met a group of Christians, I wasn't raised in the church. I was in college. I was living a life of a pagan life for like a better language just following the crowd doing what everybody else was doing, but I was dissatisfied with that. I knew that that that life should have more than that to just Blow your your paycheck every week on Self Indulgence and then just look forward to the next paycheck. So you can blow that paycheck. You know, it just took me about six months of that to say is this is it I mean if I was 18 years old saying if this is as good as it gets this is depressing if my whole life is just to be living for myself earning a paycheck so I can do whatever the heck I want to do with it, you know spend it on whatever, you know, whether it's consumerism or whether it's worse things. It's still the same principle that your life is essentially about yourself and it took me a while. Maybe it's because of who I am. It's a deep look inside myself. I thought well, there's not enough here to sustain their entire life, you know, this is depressing if this is how good it yet and I'm at these Christians and one thing that was different about them is they were always willing to serve others. Mountain General that's not a normal part of our culture is it? Most people who go to restaurants, for example, they think I'm here to be served as matter fact. There's The Stereotype that Christians especially or unattractive restaurant guests on Sundays after church a lot of waiters and waitresses. I don't really like working Sunday lunch cuz you get these Church crowd and they're demanding and picky and that sort of stuff and you know, that's that's the human culture. I'm at the stripper Christians who had their own culture that was counter to given culture and a lot of it was based on this sermon that Tommy O's who was a big part of this Christian group that that I got converted through who is a wonderful preacher. You can go online Tommy Olson and find his website and listen to Fantastic sermons. He's he's a great guy Tennessee boy, he's got his Doctorate but he hides that so he likes to present himself as it's kind of this country bumpkin who tell stories and yes, but he tells them with great skill and thoughtfulness. So he has these wonderful sermon and I still remember to this day this sermon that he preached in a bar. Where is the name of one of the gates in the Old Testament in Jerusalem, and it was the gate that was least traveled and until the guards who are that gate? Nobody ever came in that gate there was never a parade at that gate. There was never dignitaries arriving and because it faced an area that would never be attacked because of the terrain around that are there was never anything really exciting or anything to do with that gate but he preaches stayed faithful to it because that was the nature being a servant and so they did this unglorified task even though it was never the object of attention. They were faithful to that gate and use that image of parvar and challenge the Christian. He was preaching to to say look part of the nature of being Christians is weeping Serve by Jesus Christ. Is that blow your mind that the maker of the universe put on human flesh and that ain't even human flashy took out a rolling plains is disciple speed but that's part of what he injected into human culture human thinking that we would serve one another as opposed to a human culture that says, you know, what life is about life is about being served Flags. Degrees and making enough money so that I can sit on my butt and have other people serve me that's the epitome of success in it in our culture to be able to sit on your butt and say somebody's going to bring me one. I want or something needs to be done. I'll have somebody else do it and Jesus came and turned it on its head and he said those are going to be great among you will be those who are servants. And so he preached that sermon and I would be with this group and and we be a restaurant and they would make sure they cleaned up everything. They bust their own tables. They would clean up underneath the table. They make it spotless and then they would tip the waiter or waitress generously and say God bless you and you know, the waiters and waitresses. That's just a little bit weird. I mean, I like it. That's wonderful. It's one big table full of 30 of noxious Christians because we were laughing and having fun drinking to eat nachos having a grand old time, but we made sure that we cleaned up after ourselves and that was this little Counter Culture that existed in this group of Christians because of who they understood Christ to be to them. I thought you see the reality that as we are transformed by Christ the way we do things are different. The way we eat at a restaurant.

Is different because of who Christ is the way we treat a waiter or waitress is different because of who Christ is and that becomes part of our culture and I'll sometimes we get it wrong and we jump right into the flowing stream of a culture. That's not reference that God not thinking about God but the challenge is to be changed in such a way that the way we behave our own culture maybe even their own families may be a friend of our children spend the night and in one of her one of her kids does something really bad and they notice us and I'm talking hypothetically but another family in so you don't have to tell them that this would not happen in our home but maybe something wrong and you was a Christian parent react with great patience and kindness and you say well, that's no big deal if we get another one of those those those are replaceable. You know, that's a different kind of culture that child may have been growing in a culture where something goes wrong and the hammer gets dropped. There's all kinds of opportunities as price changes us for us to display to others what that looks like and that's the challenge for us as Christians not just to accept the personal reality of the Gospel. I'm personally saved and changed but to realize that the very nature of the Gospel is Incarnation is designed for us to go out into the culture and make an impact and make a difference. So the gospel then practice both personal and cultural the biblical phrase. We are in the world but not of the world is one maybe were familiar with we're taught that that's been priest for years that phrase have been around forever, but we are challenged to be in the world but not of the world but the reality is sometimes we can get it wrong by being of the world right sometimes Christian compromise essential morality that compromise their morality of their christlikeness until they become too much of the world There's no distinction. No difference. Maybe they snap their kids head off just like somebody else. Maybe they go to restaurants like you don't want I'm paying good money and you better get me a tea here that's going to be reflected in your chip Maybe. Spirit becomes one that's very much of the world as opposed to different than the world. We get it wrong when we do that, but we also get it wrong when we are not in the world. Can you see that? Sometimes we never give the world a chance to experience the difference that Christ is making in our lives. Sometimes we never carry our Christian culture with us so to speak because we isolate ourselves. We never actually build relationships and go into the world or invite others into our world that don't know Christ sometimes 99% of all of our relationships. If not 100 are with fellow believers. And would that reflect what Christ models in the gospel?

What? But sometimes we were so fearful of being of the world that we overcompensate and say, you know what the way I'm not the way I'm going to not be other world is I'm just not going to be in the world. I'm just never going to have that relationship. I'm never going to be in that building. I'm never going to be in that place. I never going to get involved in somebody's messy life that's going to you know, I'm just going to back away, but you don't find Christ modeling that and if we believe that Jesus Christ is the full revelation of God. And that following him is the best thing that could ever happen to us or our lives than we are challenged to follow the example of Christ. I cannot be on the world in terms of our sinfulness, but to be in the world in terms of our relationships are routines our activities. Jesus got in trouble for that Denis. There were a lot of people who kept saying. Would you quit being in the world every time we turn around you're you're you're drinking or eating or a big banquet or party with tax collectors and prostitutes. Would you stop doing that? And Jesus answer was no. No, I will not stop doing that. The father sent me to be a physician to those who are sick to those who need a physician and if he had decided Well, I know it bothers you. I know it makes you uncomfortable. I know you want to assume that there's something sinful just by the very fact that I'm at a table with tax collectors and sinners that you're calling me a drunk or drinking with those through outside the kingdom. I know you want to say with that in itself a simple cut it out if Jesus bought into that pressure, what would that have meant for all of us?

Did it said fine? I'll just hang out with those who see themselves as saved. As right with God. Aren't you glad that he went trolling for gentiles? Like you and I that he rejected the false for like a better language church at church or synagogue Sepulchre at that time that said old were the good people and everybody else is the bad people and we're only going to associate with good people and instead. He just turn that whole cart over. That that his anger when he turns over the tables in the temple is not about money being changed in the temple. His anger is about the fact that they were using the space in the temple that was designed for Gentiles to come and over here the message and the fact that they were saying, you know why the people who pay the bills the people that the Believers are the ones who put money in the in the temple offering quite that's who it's about and that never happens in the church. I've never had anyone come to me and say now preacher. Your first priority needs to be those who put money in the offering plate. But the truth is a half.

Remind me of the Pharisees in the New Testament. Did the church is the only organization on the face of the Earth that exists for non-members?

Do you understand that? We were called together so that as we go through our lives, we will what make disciples and Jesus preceded that Great Commission by saying all authority on heaven. And on Earth has been given to me. Can anybody Trump his authority? Can I drop it know if I ask you to do something or pressure you or guilt you or project into doing something that contradicts Jesus Christ. You tell me to go jump in the lake. Maybe do it nicely. But I can't Trump what he says. I can't Trump his authority and no Elder. No Deacon. No member in the church. Can Trump the authority of Jesus Christ. He's giving us this great gift of calling us away from our self because I tell you I know for 18 years on a life devoted to self is a dead end. And sometimes even in the church. We keep pulling away from discipleship. God longs to free us from our sin. He longs to give us life that are transformed. He calls us again against to discipleship but it looks so distasteful to us because it starts with self-denial and we just think there's no way that could be a path to happiness. But if we will continue to see the goodness of Christ. Character in love and dependability and faithfulness revealed in the action of Christ and his heart is there too if we will continue to grow in our faith and our trust and say, you know what, I'm going to trust you father that even when you asked me to do things that just don't feel But they're going to be good. I'm going to trust that, you know more than I do and that you are good and that even when you're calling me to deny myself, even when you're calling me to do things that aren't my cup of tea when you're calling me to not put myself first or to think of others in a way that you're genuinely painful because I want what I want. We trust him that he's working in our lives. We look at him in such a way that his goodness trumps everything else that can draw our attention.

Listen to how Peter says that we've been talking about 1st Peter chapter 1 and 2 really doing this whole series and in Chapter 2 beginning and verse 11 and 12. He balances these two things that I've been preaching about right in this passage uses dear friends. I urge you as foreigners and exile to abstain from sinful desires which wage war against your soul. And so he's saying look you guys are exiled in the world in which you live. The world is not going to say I was sure we want to live a christ-like way and they're they're not going to invite us to embrace a call to this price. Like there's going to be many many points in which the world challenges us invites us temps us draws us away from Holiness in from God. I'm from christlikeness. And so Peter saying look you you are a foreigner Zandex Isles in this world you live in abstain emerging abstain from sinful desires, which wage war against your soul. Now we live in a world that wants to trick us and save us all know. This isn't Waging War against your soul. We live in a culture that says you don't want that. The best most fulfilling life is a life that acts on your own desires without hesitation. If you want something you should just get it if you have an urge or desire, you should just feel that urge or desire but you should just make that you're very identity. These are the things I want and I'd better get what I want or life won't be good. I won't be happy and if you dare to suggest that I should live my life doing exactly what my urges want me to do then somehow you're wrong or bigoted or mean one prime example where we can see the lie because it's become transparent in our culture is no longer hitting the way it was is an ear of addiction. So many people are enticed by this culture to say Self Indulgence doing what you want as much as you want. That's really the path to Freedom. That's a good life. Don't let anybody tell you not to do what if you want until people step in to use of drugs or other assorted candy consumerism. You really stopped preaching to go to Midland right? Sometimes we can become addicted to spending all of our money on ourselves. I'm weak and what's wrong with that. That's just the American way and then I earn the money I'll buy whatever I want. That's just the pattern you don't learn spend repeat and we can slip into these sorts of things that at the beginning look like all this is the good life and then down the road. What do we discover? We discovered that what was disguised as Freedom ends up being an addiction what look like this glorious and open field ends up being a small cage that were penned in. People who thought they were going to embrace a life. That would be everything there ever wanted end up in life that control them. Maybe they go to jail. Maybe their relationships are broken because of their addictions or their struggles or maybe they bury them self in so much debt that all they can do is be a slave to the lender the rest of their life.

And the culture tricks us and so when scripture says dear friends, I heard you as for Xanax house to abstain from sinful desires, which wage war against your soul. He's speaking the truth. At the core part of being a Christian but look at how I continue is it it's both this and what he continues to say in the next verse. He says live such a good life among the pagans that though they accuse you of doing wrong. They may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day that he visits us. So at the same time staining we're staying away from we're also engaging in such a way that the goodness lived out in our lives is seeing by the pagans so that they might say, well I know but I know I'm well business home and we're good friends and I keep seeing things in him that are the kind of things. I wish I had and I keep seeing the opposite of things that I struggle with him instead of these things that act like a boot on my neck. I see this is Joy this freedom, but if we never engage in relationships, if we never live in the world, if we never be friend those who don't know the Lord in genuine ways, then we're not being faithful to the scriptures. Did you offer we want to go to one extreme to the other we want to be a prophet who stands in the in the Public Square and says to the world repent and here's your list of sins. And then we wouldn't want to go back and circle the wagons and live our life that way for others will make a mistake if they look I don't want to be a prophet that's got so much negative baggage who wants to be the person who's the heavy and tell people doing wrong. And so then we just say let's just be good on hold hands and say there's nothing really wrong. Whatever is right for you is right for you, and that's fine. And that's an equal travesty of the Gospel. because we're supposed to preach the truth and preach it in love or supposed to be both the priest who offers comfort and care and compassion who invites confession and preaches forgiveness and also the prophet who warns there are things in this world that will wage war against your soul danger stay away from them repent turn in a different direction and Spoto's thanks to all those who are prophets don't really end up acting like a priest very often or sometimes those who are priests don't end up being having the backbone to be the profit and speak that sort of hard truths and these verses point do I set is supposed to be both that were challenged to be both that were challenged to speak difficult truths and also live a life of compassion and love Deborah Roberts the word exiled In this passage is not the idea of Taurus, but it's a long-term resident who's a non-citizen. I feel like I skipped up.

I'm a Staff. I am I had a question my mom which I just answered. You know, is it either that we we preach the truth or that we serve and love without condition and in my master's program that they love the challenge us at Emmanuel because it's too. Sometimes we always wanted to be one of the other they would always pose questions were they back is in the corner and they finally forced to say yes. Is Balto snakes? It's not simply one or the other. It's not either we preach the truth or we serve and love without condition is that we serve and love without condition and the Very people our culture is experiencing as those who are serving and loving them without condition are the very people who speak the truth to them in love. So when we serve somebody in need we're doing exactly what Christ would have us to to care for them to provide a home for the homeless or food for the hungry or companionship or friendship or a visitor for those in prison, but part of that compassion and love is also speaking the truth to them the truth about the need to repent the truth about the debt. They have before God their own sitting there life in the Forgiveness that Christ has provided. The idea being exiled is this idea of being a long-term resident yet a non-citizen. So it's not the idea of true or sometimes we would you likely say. Well, I'm just a curious. I have no investment this world and I'm just going to circle the wagon weight for right but that's not what this passage is teaching, but we don't plant ourselves so deeply that we get conformed to the world and said we understand that we are here long-term. We are a long-term resident alien is one author puts it in this world, but we're not citizens. And so we offer an alternative culture. It's interesting the language. She uses here. Peter is the sign language in Jeremiah 29 when he talks about being exiled now, that's when Israel's going into exile. And in the wrestling with what it means and there's two there's two minds that some say look. Let's just live outside the city can't we just live outside the city and not have anything to do with this corrupt Nation that's calling us into Exile. Can't we just isolate ourselves and form our own little Jewish camp out here and have nothing to do with them. And God says no. And then the city that they're going in Exile says yeah come into the city. We want you to come deep into the City and we want you to become citizens. We want you to adapt our culture and adapt our ways and lose your identity as followers of God, and God says, no not going to do that either. Instead. He says I want you to go deeply into the city, but I want you to remain set apart. Alaska challenge Frost Jesus Peters using that sign language for you and I what it means to live out. Our faith in today's world is to be set apart to be different and to be holy and yet to still be engaged with this Lost World. And sometimes we think to be set apart. I have to isolate myself and we're not following the example of Christ. We are to be set apart and different and holy and we are to have relationships with others deep real authentic relationships so that we can be a witness to them. And what that means for us is the challenge and I'm going to bite the worship team to come forward cuz will end on on these thoughts. The challenge is to be honest for the front for those of us as Believers. The challenge is we've got to have real discipleship going on our life.

because if I'm going to get engaged in relationships with those outside the kingdom then I better have really have Christ in my life to show them. Right, it could even be dangerous if I'm not really a disciple and I start engaging with the culture. That's non-Christian. Therefore I could possibly pulled into it. As of the challenge is to fold if you're a follower of Jesus Christ, you are invited and challenged to have an actual real ongoing relationship where you're growing more and more as a disciple, you're growing stronger and stronger in your marriage. You're you're going more christ-like in the way you handle your finances, you're growing more christ-like in the heart and the burden you feel for those who are outside the kingdom your love for them. This is swelling and growing where you want to engage you want to care for you want to have those relationship. It means this real discipleship going on and not just what he look I give when the offering plate pass and I come to church when the doors are opened, you know, and I and I give the Christian radio whenever they have their Marathon, you know, I'm a good It's it's just a million times more. It means giving your very heart and soul. the god letting him determine your priorities your use of time. Trusting him with your sins and your struggles. It means real relationships are those who need the Lord not just handing out of track or doing a phone is on or knocking on the door. It means getting involved in actual relationships where your loving and caring unconditionally. It's not a quota. It's not a notch on a belt. It's not a well. I engage this guy for a while. He didn't seem interested. So hopefully on him, it's we have the same Father in Heaven. There's no other father. There's no other Creator and even though he doesn't know it yet. I want to be his friend and I want to leave him to that truth. And even if you reject that truth, even if you reject me, I want as much as he allows me to continue to be loving and caring because of who God is to me. Even our very enemies we are called to keep loving and being caring toward because we follow a savior who died for his enemies. Who gave his life for his enemies and so we're called even in the face of rejection to continue to love and serve without condition. Real relationship sacrificial relationships christ-like relationships with a church around us. Now that's a challenging and will close on this. I love the fact that the end of both letters went when Peter is closing out first and second Peter and all the challenge that's in that he ends by saying but grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ to him be glory both now and forever. Amen. We're always growing in the grace and knowledge of Jesus. You understand that you could have been a Christian for 30 years. And sometimes you read a passage of scripture or you hear something on the radio from a preacher and you think who I've been getting this wrong. I got a I got a shift this little bit. I got to I got to change. I've been going in the wrong direction on this and that's part of growing in the grace Lord. He is always there for us at every point to offer his grace. When we realize we need to do something a little bit better or a little bit different or we have a sin that we've not been dealing with. Hebrews 4:16 says we can approach the throne God's Throne boldly because of the work of Christ knowing we're going to receive the grace and the help that we need and still growing in that Grace of the Lord is meeting at any point. We can turn to him and strive to be more devoted strive to see him with with clear. I strive to worship him more fully in the way we live. And it's all part of growing in the knowledge where we discover more and more about Christ more and more about his greatness in his sacrifice for us and more more about the challenge to live like him a life the sacrificial and focused on others. And even as that knowledge challenges us again, and again that Grace meets us at every point with patience and instruction and forgiveness.

So we have the Savior who's provided for our sins and provided for our righteousness and provided for our walk with him with Grace and knowledge at every point.

As we sing Our Song here is a song Same to our Savior. To celebrate that goodness. If you've never made a decision to give your life to Christ to follow him. I invite you during that song to come to me. I'll be in the back or if you have a prayer concerning come to me and pray in the back or they'll be pretty members both in the back and the front if you got a prayer need or decision to make for all of us. I want the chance to say with eyes maybe a little more wide-open to the goodness of God. We want to say thank you Lord. I want to keep instructing me and thank you for your grace. Is there at every time that I need to be told the same thing, you know the 78 time and then on the 78, wait a minute. I should totally be gracious and going and it's a good direction to be like him. What's thing?