How Should We Live? | Johnny Graves

Our world that has so many differing views on what is right, and what is wrong.  But the 

Episode Transcript

Bob (00:00):
This morning we're continuing our Summer in the
Scriptures series, and as ifyou've been with us for August,
you know we've had a number ofguest speakers, although this
morning's speaker is notnecessarily a guest, but he's
going to be our speaker today.
Johnny Graves is our Directorof Youth, Young Adults, and
Production Ministries.
He's very gifted.
God is doing some work in theteen ministry, and so Johnny's

(00:24):
going to bring a little bit ofthat.
He even brought his table fromnext door, so a little bit of
the teen ministry right here onthe platform.
And we're We're excited to hearwhat he has to share with us
today.
So I'm going to turn it over toJohnny.

Johnny (00:34):
All right.
Thank you, Pastor Bob.
Excited to be here and topreach from God's Word this
morning.
It's been an awesome summer,week in, week out, getting some
different guest speakers in fromour church and some from
outside the church.
And it's just been a blessingto receive God's Word those few
weeks.
And for myself, when I wasthinking about what should I
preach on since we were able tokind of just speak on whatever's

(00:56):
been on our hearts.
And I was getting ready abrainstorming some ideas what
the Lord wanted me to preach onand something that came to my
mind is I was hanging out withsome friends a few weeks ago
that don't attend church don'tknow the Lord and we were just
talking about life talking aboutlife and they're very
respectable of me and the pathI've chosen to walk down and the

(01:16):
you know the job I have here atchurch the way I'm raising my
family my faith in the Lord theysay I love that I love that I'm
so glad about that for you andI'm really glad that works for
you but I'm not there you knowmy friends would say you know
I'm not there I don't believe inthat.
I'm a little more progressive.
I'm a little more open.
And when I hear that word, I'mopen, it's kind of suggesting

(01:38):
that someone that maybe goes tochurch, someone that follows the
Lord is maybe not.
So I was trying to thinkthrough that.
What does that mean?
Because I think there's somedepth into that statement,
especially as a Christian, whenyou hear something like, I'm
open.
So I was wrestling with that,thinking through that a lot
after having thoseconversations.
And I figured it'd be cool tokind of talk this out with you

(01:59):
guys and It's going to be alittle philosophical today.
Hopefully it makes sense.
If it doesn't, I think PastorDave's back next week preaching.
So hang with me for a littlebit here this morning.
And I know school is startingsoon, so I figured the kids in
the room would appreciate alittle whiteboard session, get
our minds ready for someteaching.
So let me explain how this isgoing to look.
Yeah, is this working?
Let's see.

(02:20):
Yeah, it is.
All right, cool.
I can now preach.
So I'm open.
That's what we hear.
But from a You might hear thatin a different tone.
And for us, we would say, allright, well, if I'm not open,
that means I would be.
Let's see if this works.
Here we go.
There we go.
Very cool.

(02:40):
All right.
So here's like a rectangle or asquare, whatever shape you want
to say that.
It's closed, right?
It's got four lines.
There's no opening here.
And as a Christian, we wouldsay, you know what?
This is actually true.
We would say, this is what isgood.
This is what is life.
Ten Commandments.
Sermon on the Mount.
Jesus did give us a way.
Sorry, the handwriting ishorrible.
I'm a lefty, and I can't reallyblame smearing on an iPad, I

(03:04):
guess.
But hopefully you can readthat.
It says good.
It says life.
Matthew 7.14 says, For the gateis narrow, and the way is hard
that leads to life, and thosewho find it are few.
So we would say the Lord didgive us instructions on how to
live.
And anything outside of this,anything over here, if you did
these, what you would call evil,we would call sin, and so on.

(03:26):
John 14.15 says, If you loveme, you will keep me.
So as a Christian, we believethat this is actually true, that
the Lord did give us a way tolive our life.
But people's response to thismay be different than how we
respond to this, that there'sone way to live.
Because others would look atthis and say, well, that's kind

(03:48):
of judgy.
That's kind of restrictive.
That's not very open-minded.
It's very closed.
In today's world, some may sayChristianity is actually the
opposite of freedom.
The Christian life is just alife avoiding all these things.
You might hear things likethat.
And the last thing you want tobe today is someone who judges,
someone who restricts somebodyfrom living their life, telling

(04:12):
them what they can and can't do.
We never want to prohibitanybody from how they should
live their life.
And this has become a newbelief that we see.
Conversations I'm having, I'msure maybe you're having as
well, I'm open.
And I think what this mindsetis trying to believe is that
there are no walls, norestrictions.
That is what freedom is.

(04:32):
That's how we all want to liveour life.
I'm so glad that works for you.
Good job.
Awesome.
I'm happy you are where youwant to be.
I think this was pioneered by aCanadian philosopher, Charles
Taylor.
He says this, he says, let eachperson do their own thing and
one shouldn't criticize theother's values because they have
a right to live their own lifeas you do.

(04:54):
The only sin which is nottolerated is intolerance.
The only sin Maybe you'vewitnessed this.
The belief today is thatfreedom is the highest good for
any individual.
And freedom today means noboundaries, no limits.
And I've been spending a lot oftime reflecting, thinking about

(05:17):
this belief, thinking aboutthese comments, and really
trying to figure out what doesthis really mean for me?
What does this mean for you?
Because I think if we dig deep,we'll realize that this
actually is probably a majorimpossibility.
This freedom of self-assertion,the absent of the constraint of
choices, is not actuallyworkable.
So for instance, if somebodywanted to eat whatever they

(05:39):
wanted, whenever they wanted,however much they wanted, to
have the freedom to do that.
If you live in this mindset,you'll quickly realize that
freedom has now limited you andother freedoms in life.
It'll impact your health, it'llimpact your ability to move, to
play, living longer.
So you would see, actually, tohave freedom in one area, you

(05:59):
would might have to sacrificefreedom in other areas.
Tim Keller speaks about this inone of his books, and he gives
another example.
The question is not then, howcan this man live in complete
freedom?
The proper question is, whichfreedom is the more important,
the more truly liberating?
So do I want to practice myinstruments so that one day I

(06:20):
can be part of a band that toursaround the world this afternoon
and every afternoon after this?
Or do I want to play videogames with my friends?
If I don't have the...
decision-making to practiceevery day, I won't have that
freedom to later be a skilledmusician to tour and enjoy that
freedom.
You can't have both.
A couple years ago at youthgroup, we had a Jets player,

(06:42):
Bryce Hall.
He now plays with theBuccaneers.
He worshipped, actually had achurch down the road from here,
and he came and spoke at ouryouth group.
And he spoke about pre-season,getting ready for a whole season
in the NFL.
He was a great player, acornerback, played defense.
And he told us what it was likepreparing for a season and what
they all had to do as they gotready.
And he said they wouldliterally have to consecrate

(07:03):
themselves.
They would live in a certainenvironment, eat in a certain
environment, think in a certainenvironment.
Everything was in thiscontrolled environment for the
purpose of having the freedom toplay football in the NFL at a
high level.
And if they didn't preparetheir minds and bodies in such a
way, they might not have thatfreedom to play the sport that
they all love.
So we see this mindset offreedom may not necessarily work

(07:28):
out.
This freedom of having havingno boundaries.
So I recently started acoaching season.
I coach high school sports, Icoach volleyball, and I coach
soccer.
And our soccer season justrecently started.
And I was thinking about this,I was looking on the screen
here, and I was thinking, youknow what, if I add a few lines
to this picture here, righthere, it can quickly look a

(07:54):
little messy, but it can quicklylook like a soccer field, or a
football field, depending whereyou're from.
And I've been coaching for afew years and I can say with
confidence, I've never ever hada player come up to me after a
scrimmage, after a practice or agame, come up to me and go,
coach, I just want to say I'mreally upset with you because

(08:14):
you put lines out there on thefield.
And that's just, that's not me.
That's not how I play.
I need the freedom to gowherever I want, to do whatever
I want.
I want that freedom to go play.
And I really want to use myhands sometimes and I want to
tackle somebody.
I just don't like these rules.
You're constricting me frombeing who I am.
Like, no, I've never receivedthat ever.

(08:37):
We actually, this is ironic.
So most of the summer, wedidn't have lines on our field
when we were getting ready forthe season.
And we would put up maybe conesand such.
And when there weren't linesout there, there were more
arguments.
Did the ball really go out?
I couldn't really tell, right?
So when the lines got blurry,it actually caused more
confusion.
So when the lines out here inthe soccer field are painted, we
just got them painted fortryouts.

(08:58):
And every Everybody knows theiragreement.
Everybody loves playing thegame of soccer around the world.
And people use this as anoutlet.
They have so much freedom whenthey're playing the sport.
But the lines were helpful.
The boundaries were helpfulhere.
So we see freedom, truefreedom, may not necessarily be
ones without boundaries, oneswithout walls.

(09:19):
And I think if someone were toask questions to somebody who
says, I'm open, I think we'dfind quickly that it's actually
not boundary-free freedom.
that they believe they areliving in and even that they
believe.
So what I want to do is I wantto play this out a little bit
and just see how this is true.
See how that I think a majorityof people in this world do

(09:40):
actually believe in a life thathas boundaries, that has limits.
So we'll go through a coupledifferent arguments or a couple
different topics you might findyourself with in discussing this
topic with people.
So the first one we'll talkabout here is consuming.
What can we consume?
alcohol could we consume drugswho consume other things like

(10:02):
this and the sense of hey I wantto party this weekend I want
the freedom to do whatever Iwant I want the freedom to
consume whatever I want howevermuch I want so let's just put
we'll just put drinking in hereand we'll discuss okay well you
want freedom to do whatever youwant let's see how that plays
out for you or plays out for meas a believer I believe
Ephesians 5 18 says and do notget drunk with wine for that is

(10:24):
debauchery but filled with thespirit anything that alters your
state of mind drinkingsubstances etc I want to party
on the weekends, freedom to dothat.
So let's say I started livingin this mindset.
I start doing this everyweekend.
I start doing this during theweek and I become to the point
where I'm an alcoholic.
I lose my job.
I get kicked out of my house.
I lose my wife.

(10:45):
I lose my kids.
I have the freedom to makethese choices.
I have a very strong feelingand a hopeful feeling that
everyone in this room, all of myfamily, all of my friends would
not come up to me and be like,yes, bro, you're living in
freedom.
You do you.
That's amazing.
I'm so glad you You foundyourself.
Good for you.
I would hope and pray none ofyou would say that to me if that

(11:06):
is what took place.
Right?
And I think a majority of myfriends who don't even know the
Lord, who don't go to church,would probably not say that as
well.
I think they would say, we needto talk about your life that
you're living right now.
I think what we would find isthey assume that, well, I want
freedom to do whatever I want.
But I think if I started doingcertain things out here, they

(11:28):
would quickly say, you knowwhat, actually?
It's ironic that the majorityof beer ads say drink
responsibly at the end, right?
And I think what they're sayingthen is there's limits.
There's limits.
Regardless of if you follow theLord or not, I think we can
agree that this absolute freedomis not good for you.
There's a line.
There's a limit.
Let's do another one here.

(11:50):
So we'll try another topic thatChristians are supposedly boxed
around.
Let's talk about marriage here.
So marriage...
people would view, that's noteven how you spell marriage.
There's an A somewhere.
I'm pretty sure I wrote it.
There we go.
I think it's that.
I think it's something likethat.
So marriage here.
We believe that scripture saysin Matthew 19, four to six says,

(12:14):
he answered, have you not readthat he who created them from
the beginning made them male andfemale and said, therefore a
man shall leave his father andhis mother and hold fast to his
wife and the two shall becomeone flesh.
So they are no longer two, butone flesh.
What therefore God has So webelieve that God created
marriage as a special holy unionbetween a man and a woman, and

(12:36):
anything outside of that is notgood.
And what we hear today is,well, love is love.
Love has no boundaries.
And I think what that's tryingto say is, well, marriage has no
boundaries.
So that means all this stuffout here is good.
Love is love.
Love has no boundaries.

(12:57):
That's what we are hearing.
That's what we are beingpreached on.
So we move all theseboundaries.
And I think if we startedasking questions, we might see
that a lot of people mightactually do have boundaries.
So let's say your best friendis married, but he also wants to
love five other women.
I have a feeling most peoplewould say, well, actually, okay,

(13:18):
let's actually not allow that.
That's probably not good.
All right, well, what if a50-year-old man wanted to love a
five-year-old girl in marriage?
I think most people in todaywould say, okay, well, okay,
maybe not.
Maybe we'll have a boundarywith that too.
Well, what if love between aman and a woman wasn't
consensual?
All right, well, I think wefigure out quickly that most

(13:39):
people, I think, probably dohave boundaries within this
belief.
So this love has no boundaries,I think, is not a true
statement by people making this.
Your boundaries are justdifferent than mine, right?
They just have a different setof boundaries.
So I think the point I'm tryingto make here is, is there a way
to live?
Is there a way to live?

(14:00):
way to live?
I think the answer is yes.
There is a way to live.
And I think the secondaryquestion we have to start asking
is, well, all right, we've cometo the conclusion, we've gone
through some of thesephilosophical thoughts here.
There is a way to live.
But how do we determine that?
That's the next question is,well, how do we determine this

(14:20):
way to live?
Is it politics?
Should we just use that tofigure out how we should live
and find life, find out what isgood, because I think what we
will find quickly is how do wedetermine this way to live?
We're all going to have avariety of opinions on that.
Recently, I joined the ColsonFellows Group, along with some

(14:43):
of you that are here, and it'sbeen an incredible journey so
far, only a month in, and we'vebeen learning a lot about
worldviews, morality, what isgood, what is right, and a few
of these views we've beenreading about recently are the
theist view, the naturalistview, the postmodernism view,
the transcendentalist anddentalism view, and this is how
people decide, well, this is howwe are going to decide what is

(15:05):
right and wrong.
This is how we are going todecide how to live.
What is the good life here?
Let me give a short summary ofsome of these.
So naturalism, naturalisticmorality contends that ethical
truths are reducible to naturalproperties and discoverable
through empirical investigationwith moral behaviors understood
as evolutionary adaptations forsurvival and flourishing.

(15:27):
Naturalism is very hands-on, Ican see it, I can test it, I can
touch it, and so on.
Postmodernism says ethicsrejects the possibility of fixed
universal moral truths, viewingmorality as cultural,
historical, social constructcreated by discourses that
reflect the interests ofdominant groups.

(15:49):
And then Transcendentalismposits that moral truth
transcends empirical proof andis known through subjective
intuition rooted in the inerrantgoodness of people and nature
and the divinity of individualsinner compass so at large i
think we might see some somemajor problems these views can

(16:09):
have right is right or wrongbased upon what is for my
personal benefit or what is goodfor the community at large
because those might not alwaysalign well if the world was
created by accident with nopurpose wouldn't that mean our
theories our existence ourdecisions are also meaningless
with no purpose well what if myinner moral compass that we hear

(16:31):
about?
What if it's different thanyours?
And then we have conflict overwhich one's right.
Which compass is actually righthere?
If right and wrong are relativetruths, which is a
self-refuting statement, aren'tI also just a product of my
current time period andgeography of where I live?
And I think most of these viewsstruggle with one question.

(16:51):
Why?
Stephen Hawking said this.
He said, when I was 11, Iwanted to know how and why the
universe works.
Now I know how, but I still donot know why.
Why?
So let's take a look at acurrent event that I heard about
last week on the Colson Fellowsjourney of listening to these

(17:13):
Breakpoint podcasts, and this iswhat the podcast was about.
Quote, recently a historyteacher from Littleton, Colorado
went viral for praising the waythe Incas, her favorite empire,
sacrificed children.
She also reprimandedwhite-edged for wrongly teaching
generations of Americans thatthis practice was bad.

(17:34):
I'm not making this up.
After noting that humansacrifice was common within most
ancient civilizations, theteacher clarified that the Incan
version of offered victims fromthe upper class because they
were closer to the gods.
Also, the Incas druggedchildren before leaving them to
die of exposure on top of amountain.
Objections to this culturalpractice, she continued, are

(17:56):
primarily due to a whiteperspective which focuses on the
negative aspects End quote.
So this teacher's praising theIncas and their child sacrifice,
but it was kind of okay becausemaybe they gave them morphine
before they sacrificed.
And this was actually a goodthing.
Now again, we're seeing theworldviews are very different in

(18:17):
how they can collide and createarguments and debates over is
this actually good or is thisactually bad?
So naturally, should treatmentof the children be done for the
personal benefit or for thegreater good of the community.
So if sacrificing this childactually means a year of
blessings for the crops, for thewhole community, wouldn't that

(18:37):
be worth it based off of thatpoint of view?
Or as long as this group andthis society constructed and
created and voted on a law thatsaid this is good, how can we
refute that if it's a sociallyconstructed way?
Or if the parents' moralcompasses are in agreement that
this is good, how can asubjective truth be denied?
This is where we findourselves.

(18:57):
These are the news articlesthat are popping up another one
really quick was the euthanasiaindustry in Canada is
contributing to 1 in 20 deathsnow doctors say they can't keep
up with the demand so if wecan't come into agreement if we
can't come to an absolute truthof the sanctity of all human
lives if we can't come and agreeon what does it even mean to be

(19:20):
human no wonder we will findourselves in debates over topics
like these that we probablydidn't think would ever be
debated about but it's nothingnew This is nothing new.
Judges 17.6 says, In those daysthere was no king in Israel.
Everyone did what was right inhis own eyes.
So do we see what is going onhere?

(19:42):
We are trying to determine forourselves what is right.
Something we've seen from thebeginning.
Something that's at the rootlevel of sin which we'll talk
about.
When we try to redraw the linesthat God wrote, we are trying
to assume the role JohnMacArthur says this, he says, To

(20:29):
be like God as the serpenttempted Eve.
Basically, I think what theserpent was doing, what the
enemy was doing, was handing Evea pen and say, you can decide.
You can decide what is right,what is wrong.
You can know good and evil.
You can choose.
And I think what we see here onthe screen is when we get to

(20:54):
decide what is good and what islife, if we make that box a
little bigger?
Well, I'm actually not thatbad.
I'm actually not that bad.
I'm actually, I'm good.
I'm not that much of a sinner.
All right, Martin Lloyd-Jonesputs it this way.
He says, you will never makeyourself feel that you are a

(21:15):
sinner because there is amechanism in you as a result of
sin that will always bedefending you against every
accusation.
We're all on very good termswith ourselves and we can always
put up a good case forourselves.
Even if we try to makeourselves feel that we are
sinners, we'll never do it.
There's only one way to knowthat we are sinners and that is
to have some dim, glimmeringconception of God So if I add

(21:40):
all these things to say, well,this thing over here, actually,
I know someone in my family thatdoes that, so that can't be
bad.
Let's include that.
Or this thing over here, well,I actually want to do that on
the weekend, so let me make surethat's included in here.
And all these things are good.
This is what we've been tryingto do, I think, for centuries,
is try to justify, try to makeus seem better.

(22:03):
And this is what I wasthinking.
If we establish what is rightand what is wrong, Does that
make sense?
If we establish what is rightand wrong, and we make more
things right, I don't appear aswrong.
Thus, needing no one in my lifebut myself.

(22:25):
Slowly pushing God out of thepicture.
Because if I'm good, why do Ineed God?
And I think we've been seeingthat take place, right?
Over the years, seeing justslowly pushing God out.
We don't need him.
I'm actually naturally good.
And that's the belief we'vebeen seeing take place recently.
But this can't be it.
This can't be the good news,right?

(22:48):
The last one we didn't touch inwas theism.
Theism says this.
It says, ones that areabsolute, ones that are final.

(23:09):
Whatever God speaks is so.
Isaiah 55, 11 says this.
So my word, so shall my word bethat goes out from my mouth.
It shall not return to meempty, but it shall accomplish
that which I purpose and shallsucceed in the thing for which I
sent it.
We have a way to live and a waynot to live, all coming from

(23:32):
God himself.
And none of that can bechanged.
None of that can be edited.
or manipulated by mankind.
It is God's word, and God'sword is final, and God's word
does not change.
God's word does not, well, it's2025 in America, so let's make
that box a little different, orit's the 15th century France.
Let's just change it a littlebit.
God's word doesn't change.
God's word is final.

(23:54):
It is absolute.
There is a way to live.
And I think when we see that,we see there's right and wrong,
we see there's a way to live, wemight quickly look at that and
realize something is, wow, well,I struggle with a lot of those
things on the outside.
I do those things a lot.

(24:16):
I wrestle with that.
I don't know if I can possiblylive out these Ten Commandments
or when Jesus was preaching onthe Sermon on the Mount, he
really made it seem reallychallenging to live in such a
way.
What if I fall short?
What if I can't ever do that?
When we were on our missiontrip a few weeks ago in North
Carolina, we had a great time.

(24:36):
We had about 40 of us goingdown there and still lots to do
from the Hurricane Helenedisaster.
And so we're doing lots ofdebris cleanup.
We were using chainsaws.
We were fixing up some housesand so on.
And one of the houses we wentto, one tree, I guess, fell over
and it went across like twohouses.
And they got the tree allcleaned up and gone from before

(24:58):
we got there.
But they still had this hugestump that was there.
Huge stump.
And it was just, it was very,very gross.
Just tons of stuff around it.
And I think it was just a Itwas just a constant reminder of
just that horrible storm thatwas there.
And so while we were at thishouse, we were doing some other
things, getting some thingscleaned up, trying to make it
better, and we had this one lastthing we had to do, which was
to remove this stump.
And we had some very smartpeople with us, we had some very

(25:20):
strong, we had some wrestlerswith us, and we were like, all
right, let's tackle this, let'sdo this, and we'll be on our way
here.
And we start going, we hadaxes, we had chainsaws, we had
other sharp tools, we weretrying to get this stump out.
Couple hours goes by, and wedefinitely made some progress.
There was a point, I'm juststanding there, I'm looking at
this thing.
It's a huge stump.
When the stump falls over, youkind of see some of the roots.

(25:43):
And I'm looking at this thingand I'm like, guys, I would love
to finish this project.
But I don't think we're goingto be able to do this.
I don't think we could possiblyfinish this project with our
own hands.
This is going to be needing ofa very large machine that will
drive in here with wheels andtake this thing out of the
ground.
Some of it was still in theground.
I don't think a few teenagersand myself from New Jersey are

(26:06):
going to be able to tackle thisstump.
And I think what happened inthat moment is we realized our
humanity and we realized ourshortcomings.
We're very much showing in thatmoment as much as we wanted to
finish that project.
And I think when we look atthis, we also realize, I don't
think I can do this.
Like, I'm fallen.
I'm weak.

(26:26):
I'm broken.
I don't think I can do thisperfectly.
Romans 3.23 says, For all havesinned and fall short of the
glory of God.
My sin, my brokenness, it runsdeep.
It has drastically changed me.
And it's changed me so muchthat I feel such a need to fix
it.
Well, if I change these laws,if I change people's minds, if I

(26:49):
change things about me, if Itry, maybe it'll work.
But we'll only realize we havestill fallen short.
Any person would look at thisand say, you know what, give me
10 minutes.
Give me a day.
Give me a weekend.
I'm sure I won't be able tofollow this perfectly.
John MacArthur gives us hisshort definition of sin here.

(27:12):
He says, Where do I go for thisgood life?

(27:38):
Where do I go to live this lifethat I need to live?
And if God is the one whoplaced this, if God is the one
who formed this and spoke thisinto existence, how could I
possibly go to him of allpeople?
The one who created it, I haveto go to him and say, I broke
it.
And I think the reason a lot ofus struggle with repentance, I
think the reason a lot of us tryto change things here instead

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of going to him is because weplace our humanity upon the
Lord.
We believe God is up there, hishand on his head, asking for an
aspirin, saying, ah, you didthis again?
All right, or we might believeafter we've sinned, God is up
there just tapping his foot,going, about time you came to

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me.
Or believe God is up there witha list saying, yep, here you
go.
Remember all this stuff yousaid you weren't going to do?
You did it again last night.
You did it again this week.
But that's not God.
That's not the heart of theLord that we we read in
scripture.
And if that is who we believeGod is, no wonder we're not
running to him.
No wonder we're not repenting.

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No wonder we're trying tochange things to make ourselves
look better.
So that's not good news ifthat's who God is.
But the good news is that's notwho God is.
So if I fall short, I shouldrun to him.
The good news is all of thisstuff, all of this sin, all of

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this brokenness is the reasonJesus came.
Dane Ortlund says, it's whatgets him out of bed in the
morning.
I love that.
That's who our Jesus, that'swho our Savior is.
All this sin, all thisbrokenness is what gets Jesus
out of the bed, and he's like, Igot something to do today.
1 John chapter 4, 9 to 10 says,in this the love of God was

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made manifest among us, that Godsent his only son into the
world so that we might livethrough him.
In this is love, not that wehave loved You see, what may
turn us away in disgust is whatfills Jesus with compassion.
What may draw us to shove awayis what draws Jesus to embrace

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us.
We see here the absolute beautyand loveliness of the heart of
our Savior Jesus, a heart sowarm and so filled when he sees
us in the state we're in, whenhe sees us committing these
sins, when he sees us so broken,Jesus can't help but step
towards us.
Ready to embrace us.

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Ready to love us.
And for centuries we've beenjust trying to avoid the
inevitable, trying to changethis, change that, so I don't
need him.
Altering what God set forth inmotion so we don't have to go to
him by either fear orembarrassment, by ignoring and
hoping he doesn't see this messwe've created.
The very things we've been toshamed of, the very things we've

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been denying, the very thingswe don't want God to see are the
very things itself that drewJesus to come to us.
We just need to draw near tohim and ask for forgiveness for
these sins instead of trying toself-justify each and every one
of them.
2 Peter 3.9 says, The Lord isnot slow to fulfill his promise,
as some count slowness, but ispatient toward you, not wishing

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that any should perish, but thatall should reach repentance.
The Savior's All to reachrepentance.
Turn away from our sin todayand turn to the Lord and call
upon him to give you life.
Once you realize we can't dothat on our own, we need someone
else.
Daniel Ortlund also says thisin his book Gentle and Lowly.

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He says this.
He says, He has flown in, hehas correctly diagnosed the
problem, and the antibiotics areprepared and available.
He's independently wealthy, hehas no need of any kind of

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financial compensation, but ashe seeks to provide care, the
afflicted refuse.
They want to take care ofthemselves.
They want to heal on their ownterms.
Finally, a few brave young menstep forward to receive the care
being freely provided.
What does the doctor feel?

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Joy.
His joy increases to the degreethat the sick come to him for
help and healing.
It's the whole reason he came.
It's the whole reason he came.
That is the good news.
Life isn't found in a set ofrules.
Life isn't found in a sociallyconstructed path.

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Life isn't found by just tryingharder.
But I think what we see here isthat life is found in a person.
The good life is found and asavior named Jesus.
That is where life is.
That is where goodness is.
And that is where the livingthat we need to live takes place

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is when we run to Jesushimself.
Because all that sin we've beenjustifying, all those things
we've been trying to make happenis the whole reason Jesus came
so we don't have to do thatanymore.
But that we can just rest inthe savior himself.
John 14, six says, this.
Jesus said to him, I am theway, the truth, and the life.

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That is where life is found.
That is where goodness is foundin Jesus Christ himself.
So let us repent and draw nearto him this morning.
Let's pray.
God, we come before you inconfession.

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that we are sinners, that wehave contributed to this mess.
And we've made it a little bitmessier.
And we confess that we've beentrying to justify, we've been
trying to change what is goodand right, what is wrong, when

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that's something only you cando, Lord.
So Lord, we pray that ourhearts will find rest.
We pray that our hearts willultimately each day run to you
for life.
And that when we run to you inrepentance and confession, Lord,

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we know that you are just andable to forgive us of all of our
sins.
And that we don't need to raisea defense anymore, Lord, but we
can just throw our hands up,Lord, and say, save me.
Save me.
I know you have what it takesto heal me.
Because I am broken and in needof a savior.
So may we cling to you todayand each day going forward.

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Thank you for the life you'vegiven us through Jesus Christ
himself.
And we pray this all in themighty name of Jesus.
Amen.