1 00:00:01,480 --> 00:00:04,040 Well, hey everybody, again, it's great to see you. 2 00:00:04,880 --> 00:00:07,280 My name is Josh. I have the joy of serving as 3 00:00:07,280 --> 00:00:11,200 pastor here at the Garden. Well, this morning we are 4 00:00:11,200 --> 00:00:14,480 continuing our series titled The Story. 5 00:00:15,000 --> 00:00:18,560 It's a 10 week series and we're going Genesis to Revelation 6 00:00:18,560 --> 00:00:21,040 beginning to the end this morning. 7 00:00:21,040 --> 00:00:25,800 We're in week 4 of this series, and really our big objective 8 00:00:25,800 --> 00:00:30,040 across this whole series is to try and make sense of how this 9 00:00:30,280 --> 00:00:35,280 ancient library of texts from different geographies and 10 00:00:35,280 --> 00:00:40,080 languages and different cultures and spaces all together forms 11 00:00:40,080 --> 00:00:44,600 and tells 1 coherent and beautiful story about how God is 12 00:00:44,600 --> 00:00:46,960 redeeming the world in and through Jesus. 13 00:00:46,960 --> 00:00:49,880 And this morning we are picking up the pace. 14 00:00:49,880 --> 00:00:54,200 The first three weeks we covered 15 chapters and this morning 15 00:00:54,200 --> 00:00:55,920 we're going to cover, you know, the next seven books. 16 00:00:55,920 --> 00:00:58,520 We're going to cover the rest of the Old Testament in the next 17 00:00:58,520 --> 00:01:00,760 three weeks. So we're going to be moving 18 00:01:00,760 --> 00:01:04,599 quickly this morning. If you are a if you are a nerd, 19 00:01:05,040 --> 00:01:06,680 this is this is a good week for you. 20 00:01:06,680 --> 00:01:10,360 Like I'm going to drop some drop some Bible nerddom on here on us 21 00:01:10,360 --> 00:01:14,120 here today. But I think as we look 22 00:01:14,120 --> 00:01:18,080 particularly at the book of Exodus and especially on the 23 00:01:18,080 --> 00:01:22,360 giving of the law and the Mosaic covenant, I believe that there's 24 00:01:22,360 --> 00:01:25,600 a lot here for us as individuals who are following Jesus in 25 00:01:25,600 --> 00:01:28,240 Boston in the 21st century today. 26 00:01:28,240 --> 00:01:30,280 And I'm excited to unpack that with you. 27 00:01:31,160 --> 00:01:36,840 Growing up, for me, there was a couple of years where I attended 28 00:01:38,400 --> 00:01:42,160 a private school. It was a residential space and 29 00:01:42,160 --> 00:01:46,280 that honestly, the rules were super duper onerous, came from a 30 00:01:46,280 --> 00:01:48,320 conservative background, and this was a space. 31 00:01:48,320 --> 00:01:52,360 It was a Christian School and man, we had rules about 32 00:01:52,360 --> 00:01:55,800 everything. How you dressed, when mealtimes 33 00:01:55,800 --> 00:01:58,680 were, how you showed up, like how you interacted with the 34 00:01:58,680 --> 00:02:00,800 opposite sex, the language that you could use. 35 00:02:01,080 --> 00:02:04,600 Everything felt like it was regulated and regimented. 36 00:02:04,600 --> 00:02:08,320 And honestly, I hated it. I spent most of that like period 37 00:02:08,320 --> 00:02:12,560 of my life trying to figure ways to to to break the rules without 38 00:02:12,560 --> 00:02:16,160 getting in trouble was a primary objective for me in that season. 39 00:02:16,800 --> 00:02:19,800 And and I would describe looking back, I would say like that 40 00:02:19,800 --> 00:02:21,080 posture. Well, there was some good 41 00:02:21,080 --> 00:02:24,120 intentions behind it had a lot of just legalism, a lot of kind 42 00:02:24,120 --> 00:02:28,680 of rules forward, do these things so that you can be 43 00:02:28,680 --> 00:02:31,880 accepted. And I think a lot of us, I bring 44 00:02:31,880 --> 00:02:35,680 that account up because although I suspect that most of you don't 45 00:02:35,680 --> 00:02:38,520 have an exact like super conservative school space that 46 00:02:38,520 --> 00:02:42,440 you went to, whether it was in your home life or just an image 47 00:02:42,440 --> 00:02:45,120 that you've internalized from somewhere else. 48 00:02:45,400 --> 00:02:49,920 I think a number of us do have this imagination that this is 49 00:02:50,080 --> 00:02:53,440 how God is. This is what God's law is like. 50 00:02:53,440 --> 00:02:57,800 Like following God, I think many of us imagine is kind of, you 51 00:02:57,800 --> 00:03:01,800 know, being squeezed down into this narrow and constraining 52 00:03:01,800 --> 00:03:04,520 space where you can't do anything, you can't have much 53 00:03:04,520 --> 00:03:07,480 fun and, and, and you're just trying to like make sure that 54 00:03:07,480 --> 00:03:10,000 you don't step across the lines and get smited. 55 00:03:10,080 --> 00:03:12,000 I don't, I don't know if the, the verb tense there is correct, 56 00:03:12,280 --> 00:03:15,080 but like we're just, we're just like, can I, can I not get in 57 00:03:15,080 --> 00:03:19,040 trouble functions as a significant part of the 58 00:03:19,040 --> 00:03:20,840 spiritual life of a lot of Christians. 59 00:03:20,840 --> 00:03:24,600 I know, and especially when we start to talk about God's law. 60 00:03:25,360 --> 00:03:28,560 But the picture we see here that Phil read for us, and it's 61 00:03:28,560 --> 00:03:32,320 presented in the book of Exodus is actually very different. 62 00:03:33,320 --> 00:03:37,160 It's a story that connects this story, the story of giving of 63 00:03:37,160 --> 00:03:39,640 the Mosaic Law together with these stories that we've been 64 00:03:39,640 --> 00:03:42,800 looking at over the past several weeks. 65 00:03:44,440 --> 00:03:46,560 Here's the vision that God gives his people. 66 00:03:46,560 --> 00:03:51,240 Again, in verses 5 and 6 of chapter 19, we read this. 67 00:03:51,600 --> 00:03:54,440 If you obey Me fully and keep my covenant, that's the law, 68 00:03:54,440 --> 00:03:59,440 obedience and the Torah, then out of all of the nations you 69 00:03:59,440 --> 00:04:04,000 will be My treasured possession. Although the whole earth is 70 00:04:04,000 --> 00:04:09,120 mine, you will be for Me a Kingdom of priests, a holy 71 00:04:09,120 --> 00:04:12,080 nation. Now you may remember in the 72 00:04:12,080 --> 00:04:15,080 first installment of the series, the creation story, we 73 00:04:15,080 --> 00:04:19,040 discovered that that humanity was created to exist in the 74 00:04:19,040 --> 00:04:22,680 presence of God and to extend His purposes in the world. 75 00:04:23,480 --> 00:04:25,440 And this is what God is saying here. 76 00:04:26,280 --> 00:04:29,800 The law exists not to hem you in and make sure you don't have any 77 00:04:29,800 --> 00:04:35,760 fun, not to avoid being punished, but to allow you to 78 00:04:35,760 --> 00:04:40,080 steward my presence and to extend my purposes. 79 00:04:40,480 --> 00:04:44,000 This is what priests do. And I want to suggest to you 80 00:04:44,000 --> 00:04:46,760 something this morning that might be different than kind of 81 00:04:46,760 --> 00:04:48,080 how you grew up thinking about this. 82 00:04:48,080 --> 00:04:51,040 I know a lot of us have this imagination in our head. 83 00:04:51,040 --> 00:04:53,400 I, I, I was taught this at certain points of kind of like 84 00:04:53,400 --> 00:04:56,240 the Old Testament is all about law and rules in the New 85 00:04:56,240 --> 00:04:59,880 Testament is all about grace. Has anybody, anybody grew up 86 00:04:59,880 --> 00:05:01,920 hearing or thinking something along those lines? 87 00:05:02,880 --> 00:05:05,520 I don't think that's actually consistent with what we see here 88 00:05:05,960 --> 00:05:12,920 in Torah in the Old Testament. Instead, what we see is, is not 89 00:05:13,520 --> 00:05:18,600 a, not a prerequisite for being adopted into the family of God, 90 00:05:19,320 --> 00:05:22,200 but a pathway for flourishing for those who have already been 91 00:05:22,200 --> 00:05:24,680 adopted. Let me say that again, the law 92 00:05:24,680 --> 00:05:28,360 is not a prerequisite for entering the family. 93 00:05:29,360 --> 00:05:32,720 Rather, it's a pathway for folks who are already in. 94 00:05:33,720 --> 00:05:35,840 And look here at what the text says in verse 4. 95 00:05:35,880 --> 00:05:39,600 God reminds the people. He says, you yourselves have 96 00:05:39,600 --> 00:05:43,160 seen what I did to Egypt. I carried you on eagle's wings 97 00:05:43,160 --> 00:05:48,560 and brought you to myself. Before God talks at all about 98 00:05:48,560 --> 00:05:52,040 what the people are to do, what they're supposed to accomplish, 99 00:05:52,040 --> 00:05:55,080 or how they're supposed to behave, He reminds them what He 100 00:05:55,080 --> 00:05:56,960 has done. I carried you. 101 00:05:56,960 --> 00:06:00,480 I brought you. He talks about who they already 102 00:06:00,480 --> 00:06:06,400 are, treasured priests, holy. And and this rescue that he's 103 00:06:06,400 --> 00:06:10,680 referring to here in Exodus 19 is of course, a reference to the 104 00:06:10,680 --> 00:06:13,680 other key moment in this book, the Exodus, the event after 105 00:06:13,680 --> 00:06:17,960 which the book itself is named. All right, so let's try and 106 00:06:17,960 --> 00:06:21,720 catch up because we left off last week with Abraham and this 107 00:06:21,720 --> 00:06:25,680 covenant to Abraham in chapter 15, and now we're all the way at 108 00:06:25,680 --> 00:06:29,720 Sinai, the receiving of the law. So how did we get from here to 109 00:06:29,840 --> 00:06:33,640 there? All right, so two weeks ago we 110 00:06:33,640 --> 00:06:36,400 saw that God's, or three weeks ago now we saw that God's 111 00:06:36,400 --> 00:06:39,880 people, the first humans, were presented with essentially what 112 00:06:39,880 --> 00:06:43,480 amounts to 2 doors, right? An option to trust God and obey 113 00:06:43,480 --> 00:06:49,160 him, or an option to distrust him, take a shortcut, seize 114 00:06:49,160 --> 00:06:54,840 control and go their own way. Of course they choose door 2. 115 00:06:55,560 --> 00:06:57,600 They sin. And over the next chapters of 116 00:06:57,600 --> 00:07:01,080 Genesis we see this spiral of disconnection and death which 117 00:07:01,080 --> 00:07:05,000 follows. Last week we saw Abraham, who is 118 00:07:05,000 --> 00:07:07,040 so significant here in the story because again, he's kind of 119 00:07:07,040 --> 00:07:12,720 called out of nowhere, but he chooses instead door 1, the door 120 00:07:12,720 --> 00:07:16,280 of faith, the door of obedience. And God cuts this covenant with 121 00:07:16,280 --> 00:07:20,360 him as we saw a promising descendants land and a blessing 122 00:07:20,360 --> 00:07:23,480 to the world. But even Abraham doesn't 123 00:07:23,480 --> 00:07:26,440 consistently choose door number one, right? 124 00:07:26,440 --> 00:07:27,960 At times, he also goes his own way. 125 00:07:27,960 --> 00:07:31,360 In fact, if you look at Genesis chapter 12 where we were last 126 00:07:31,360 --> 00:07:34,760 week, we read about the part of the covenant like the very next 127 00:07:34,760 --> 00:07:38,520 section of that chapter records the story of Abraham. 128 00:07:38,520 --> 00:07:41,720 No sooner than God has brought him into this land that he's 129 00:07:41,720 --> 00:07:44,080 promised him, all of a sudden there's a famine. 130 00:07:44,080 --> 00:07:47,440 And Abraham is like, I'd rather like solve for this. 131 00:07:47,440 --> 00:07:50,360 I'm going to go to Egypt and migrate down here to get what I 132 00:07:50,360 --> 00:07:54,400 really need. What a picture for us, even 133 00:07:54,400 --> 00:07:57,200 those who are followers of Jesus, of our tendency, our 134 00:07:57,200 --> 00:08:01,120 temptation to look for comfort, to look for control, and to be 135 00:08:01,120 --> 00:08:03,520 willing to take a shortcut to find it. 136 00:08:04,200 --> 00:08:06,720 This is what Abraham does. He goes instead to Egypt. 137 00:08:07,320 --> 00:08:09,920 Egypt is a mess. Read that section of Genesis. 138 00:08:10,600 --> 00:08:14,040 And ultimately, Egypt itself becomes a picture in the 139 00:08:14,040 --> 00:08:17,960 biblical narrative of what it looks like when we choose to 140 00:08:17,960 --> 00:08:22,680 disobey God and go our own way. All right, we're jumping forward 141 00:08:22,680 --> 00:08:28,560 2 generations after Abraham, his sons are there, and once again, 142 00:08:28,560 --> 00:08:29,920 they're faced with a similar situation. 143 00:08:29,920 --> 00:08:32,320 Again, there's a famine. What are they going to do? 144 00:08:32,880 --> 00:08:35,200 And man, if there's a beautiful picture of generational sin in 145 00:08:35,200 --> 00:08:37,520 the Bible, this is probably it, right? 146 00:08:37,520 --> 00:08:41,640 Because his family says, oh, we know what Gramps did, right? 147 00:08:41,720 --> 00:08:45,800 We'll go to Egypt, They got food and off they go, following in 148 00:08:45,800 --> 00:08:50,120 his footsteps the same way. And then what happens in Egypt 149 00:08:50,120 --> 00:08:54,040 is something that I think many of us can relate to. 150 00:08:55,280 --> 00:08:59,160 They wind up in exile. See, the shortcut that they 151 00:08:59,160 --> 00:09:05,000 reach for to bail them out of a bad situation becomes precisely 152 00:09:05,000 --> 00:09:08,200 the thing that enslaves them, right? 153 00:09:08,400 --> 00:09:11,160 They're they're looking for an escape and get instead they get 154 00:09:11,160 --> 00:09:14,680 exploitation. We see Pharaoh, the first really 155 00:09:15,160 --> 00:09:18,920 awful villain in the text of Scripture, right? 156 00:09:19,440 --> 00:09:22,880 They start off on their own volition, looking for a shortcut 157 00:09:22,960 --> 00:09:26,520 to what they need, and instead they end up out of God's 158 00:09:26,520 --> 00:09:30,200 presence, out of God's purposes, and in bondage to the exact 159 00:09:30,200 --> 00:09:32,880 thing and place that they weren't reaching for. 160 00:09:33,800 --> 00:09:36,320 And man, I think this is an experience that every person in 161 00:09:36,320 --> 00:09:39,080 this room has had at some level or another. 162 00:09:39,920 --> 00:09:43,440 Like maybe you've been trying to do a little bit of retail 163 00:09:43,440 --> 00:09:47,800 therapy here and there, right? Shopping to soothe that itch and 164 00:09:47,800 --> 00:09:51,040 found yourself with, Oh my gosh, these credit card bills will not 165 00:09:51,040 --> 00:09:56,480 stop. Maybe you've been overwhelmed by 166 00:09:56,480 --> 00:09:59,920 the awfulness that you're experiencing in the world or 167 00:10:00,360 --> 00:10:03,840 even in your home. And so you reach for one of 168 00:10:03,840 --> 00:10:07,120 these little devices, right? Just to numb it a little bit. 169 00:10:07,960 --> 00:10:10,920 And before you know what's happening, you're caught in this 170 00:10:10,920 --> 00:10:14,440 dopamine loop of doom scrolling, can't get out. 171 00:10:14,440 --> 00:10:17,400 All of a sudden your attention is shot, your sleep is shot, 172 00:10:18,480 --> 00:10:21,840 you're locked in. Do the same thing in so many 173 00:10:21,840 --> 00:10:25,600 areas of our life, man. I want fulfilment, I want 174 00:10:25,600 --> 00:10:29,120 connection. God hasn't sent the right person 175 00:10:29,120 --> 00:10:30,240 yet. Maybe this person will be good 176 00:10:30,240 --> 00:10:33,680 enough. Let me let me see if I can get a 177 00:10:33,680 --> 00:10:35,120 little bit of fulfilment over here. 178 00:10:35,840 --> 00:10:38,720 We know that it's not right, but we step outside to take a 179 00:10:38,720 --> 00:10:43,040 shortcut. And so often, isn't it true? 180 00:10:43,240 --> 00:10:46,840 I know I can attest to this. We find ourselves enslaved to 181 00:10:46,840 --> 00:10:51,040 exactly the same things that we tried to use as an escape. 182 00:10:52,120 --> 00:10:54,520 And so this is what happens to God's people here. 183 00:10:55,680 --> 00:10:59,360 And at this point, enter Moses. Because there is this cycle 184 00:10:59,720 --> 00:11:01,640 which happens throughout this portion of Scripture we're going 185 00:11:01,640 --> 00:11:08,320 to see in the coming weeks as well of sin, of exile, and then 186 00:11:08,320 --> 00:11:11,040 of rescue, right? God's people sin. 187 00:11:11,040 --> 00:11:15,280 There are consequences. Their sin ends up resulting in 188 00:11:15,280 --> 00:11:17,400 this pattern of, of disconnection and death. 189 00:11:17,400 --> 00:11:21,520 But God does not abandon them. And this is what we see here in, 190 00:11:21,520 --> 00:11:26,320 in, in Exodus chapter 6 and in verse 6, Exodus comes to Moses 191 00:11:26,320 --> 00:11:31,720 and he says, Hey, I am the Lord. I will bring you the people out 192 00:11:31,720 --> 00:11:33,680 from under the yoke of the Egyptians. 193 00:11:34,160 --> 00:11:37,800 I will free you from being enslaved to them, and I will 194 00:11:37,800 --> 00:11:40,840 redeem you with an outstretched arm. 195 00:11:42,000 --> 00:11:44,720 I will redeem you. And then he goes on to say this. 196 00:11:44,720 --> 00:11:49,160 He says, I will take you as my own people, and I will be your 197 00:11:49,160 --> 00:11:51,720 God. Then you will know that I am the 198 00:11:51,720 --> 00:11:55,760 Lord your God who brought you out from under the yoke of the 199 00:11:55,760 --> 00:11:58,240 Egyptians. That's rescue. 200 00:11:58,240 --> 00:12:00,200 That's deliverance, That's liberation. 201 00:12:01,280 --> 00:12:04,440 But there's also this word here, which is maybe a little bit less 202 00:12:04,440 --> 00:12:08,760 familiar to us, the word redeem. Redeem is the Hebrew word Gaal 203 00:12:08,760 --> 00:12:11,800 here. And Gaal means to restore to 204 00:12:11,800 --> 00:12:15,880 rightful ownership. So say, for instance, maybe 205 00:12:15,880 --> 00:12:19,640 you've been here, We live in a city, You had a bike, It was out 206 00:12:19,640 --> 00:12:23,880 of doors, chained up, and then you didn't have a bike, right? 207 00:12:23,880 --> 00:12:26,560 You came out and said chain was slashed, right? 208 00:12:26,560 --> 00:12:29,160 Somebody brought those Clippers out and the bike is gone. 209 00:12:29,320 --> 00:12:31,440 All right, So this the second part doesn't happen as often, 210 00:12:31,440 --> 00:12:36,000 but maybe you registered said bike and then it got found later 211 00:12:36,000 --> 00:12:38,880 and returned to you, right? It would be a great ending to 212 00:12:38,880 --> 00:12:42,400 the story. All right, Well, if that bike is 213 00:12:42,400 --> 00:12:45,760 was restored to, if it was brought back into the original 214 00:12:45,760 --> 00:12:50,960 ownership, if we were Jewish, we would use the word gal to 215 00:12:50,960 --> 00:12:54,160 redeem. It's not always the the picture 216 00:12:54,160 --> 00:12:55,920 that we have of redeemed, but that's what the word actually 217 00:12:55,920 --> 00:12:58,160 means. It means to take something which 218 00:12:58,160 --> 00:13:03,240 has been lost, which has been stolen and and restore it to its 219 00:13:03,240 --> 00:13:06,880 proper place. And this is what God promises to 220 00:13:06,880 --> 00:13:10,160 do with his people. He says, Hey, you got lost, you 221 00:13:10,160 --> 00:13:12,640 went your own way and you got locked up. 222 00:13:13,640 --> 00:13:15,680 You were stolen away and enslaved. 223 00:13:15,680 --> 00:13:18,040 But hey, I'm going to come. I'm going to break those 224 00:13:18,040 --> 00:13:21,040 shackles free. I'm going to free you from that 225 00:13:21,040 --> 00:13:25,520 which binds you, and I'm also going to restore you into my 226 00:13:25,520 --> 00:13:28,960 family. And of course, over the 227 00:13:28,960 --> 00:13:32,400 following chapters of Exodus, there is this incredible story 228 00:13:32,400 --> 00:13:35,960 and many of you know it, right? We've got the let my people go, 229 00:13:35,960 --> 00:13:38,280 Charlton Heston moment. We've got like all of these 230 00:13:38,480 --> 00:13:44,360 spaces where God shows up and goes to war essentially with the 231 00:13:44,360 --> 00:13:48,760 king of Egypt, the baddest man alive, and through a series of 232 00:13:48,760 --> 00:13:51,760 plagues demonstrates that he is the one true God. 233 00:13:51,760 --> 00:13:55,920 God is going basically, not only am I going to break the chains 234 00:13:55,920 --> 00:13:58,960 that bind you, but I'm also going to reintroduce myself. 235 00:13:58,960 --> 00:14:03,000 Hey, this is who I am. I am the God of your father's, 236 00:14:03,000 --> 00:14:04,920 the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. 237 00:14:05,640 --> 00:14:09,800 I'm the God of power and I am the God who has the rightful 238 00:14:09,800 --> 00:14:13,640 claim on your allegiance. And towards the end of this 239 00:14:13,640 --> 00:14:16,800 whole story, there are are a couple of events that happened. 240 00:14:17,160 --> 00:14:19,120 These are events that may be familiar to you. 241 00:14:19,120 --> 00:14:22,200 I wish we could like talk about this for a week, but but 242 00:14:22,200 --> 00:14:25,040 specifically Passover and the parting of the Red Sea. 243 00:14:26,200 --> 00:14:30,160 Obviously, these are moments of deliverance, right In the final 244 00:14:30,160 --> 00:14:34,800 plague, the the murder and evil which has been visited upon the 245 00:14:34,800 --> 00:14:38,160 people of God is now visited upon their oppressors. 246 00:14:38,160 --> 00:14:41,800 Justice is served and people are, are, are set free. 247 00:14:42,160 --> 00:14:44,480 And, and how are the people of God spared? 248 00:14:44,480 --> 00:14:49,520 Well, there's this mark of blood that gets posted up above the 249 00:14:49,520 --> 00:14:53,320 doorways of their homes, of their households. 250 00:14:53,320 --> 00:14:57,680 And what is that all about here? Well, it's, it's a hook we're 251 00:14:57,680 --> 00:15:00,320 looking forward to something we're going to talk about later 252 00:15:00,320 --> 00:15:03,400 in the story with Jesus later tonight or later this this 253 00:15:03,400 --> 00:15:06,120 morning. But it's also an identity 254 00:15:06,120 --> 00:15:09,120 symbol. See, very often blood was used 255 00:15:09,120 --> 00:15:11,400 as a symbol almost in the way that we would use a wedding 256 00:15:11,400 --> 00:15:14,800 ring. God is making a claim on his 257 00:15:14,800 --> 00:15:16,840 people. He's saying everyone marked by 258 00:15:16,840 --> 00:15:20,320 the blood, these are my people. And then we Fast forward shortly 259 00:15:20,320 --> 00:15:23,840 thereafter and what happens? The people began to escape. 260 00:15:23,840 --> 00:15:27,480 They, their, their Pharaoh says that's it, get out of here. 261 00:15:27,480 --> 00:15:29,840 Peace, not peace, but get out of here. 262 00:15:30,800 --> 00:15:35,480 And so they take off and God parts the Red Sea, right? 263 00:15:35,520 --> 00:15:39,600 And if you're if you're noticing here, the ways in which God 264 00:15:39,600 --> 00:15:43,920 takes these chaos waters that we took in verse 1 and creates 265 00:15:43,920 --> 00:15:48,040 something out of them. If you're thinking of baptism, 266 00:15:48,800 --> 00:15:52,320 this moment where we pass through the water to become new 267 00:15:52,320 --> 00:15:54,720 creation. And you see the layers of 268 00:15:54,720 --> 00:15:58,080 symbolism and some of you all I got to tell you are so into 269 00:15:58,080 --> 00:16:00,440 marvel. You you like no, all the 270 00:16:00,440 --> 00:16:03,800 backstories, all the villains like all the like this is how it 271 00:16:03,800 --> 00:16:06,120 was in the comic books. This some of y'all like got the 272 00:16:06,120 --> 00:16:09,080 hip hop history right. You know, like this is this MC 273 00:16:09,080 --> 00:16:11,600 did this and he did this and he pulled in this this beat and 274 00:16:11,600 --> 00:16:14,200 this is this mixtape. Like some of us, some of y'all I 275 00:16:14,200 --> 00:16:17,120 know are swifties in here. And it's just like man, it's 276 00:16:17,120 --> 00:16:21,600 like layers and layers and layers, right friends, we need 277 00:16:21,600 --> 00:16:24,520 to be like that with the Bible. The Bible is crazy. 278 00:16:25,200 --> 00:16:28,480 The layers, the callbacks, the intricacies, the plot twists in 279 00:16:28,480 --> 00:16:31,080 this story are incredible. And this is what's going on 280 00:16:31,080 --> 00:16:33,720 here. God is basically saying by blood 281 00:16:33,720 --> 00:16:37,800 and water, I have redeemed you. Oh, I have restored you to 282 00:16:37,800 --> 00:16:39,040 myself. You are not my people. 283 00:16:40,120 --> 00:16:42,400 It's beautiful. It's what he does with us. 284 00:16:43,000 --> 00:16:45,360 So God rescues his people out of Egypt. 285 00:16:45,560 --> 00:16:50,360 He redeems them in this way, this identity marker, and then 286 00:16:50,360 --> 00:16:54,720 he brings them to Sinai, the mountain where he will give them 287 00:16:54,760 --> 00:16:57,840 the law. Back in the spring, we got the 288 00:16:57,840 --> 00:17:01,480 exciting news that my daughter Ava had been admitted to a 289 00:17:01,480 --> 00:17:04,240 school near our house that we were excited for her to be at 290 00:17:04,800 --> 00:17:07,280 and that was great. We kind of celebrated and had a 291 00:17:07,280 --> 00:17:09,359 little party. And then a couple of weeks 292 00:17:09,960 --> 00:17:12,640 early, a couple of weeks ago, Ava actually started at that 293 00:17:12,640 --> 00:17:15,440 school, right? And we, we began the process of 294 00:17:15,440 --> 00:17:18,800 learning about pick up and drop off routines and Oh my gosh, 295 00:17:18,839 --> 00:17:21,920 like the what they do everyday and all the consent forms that 296 00:17:21,920 --> 00:17:24,440 we have to sign and like, don't bring peanuts. 297 00:17:24,440 --> 00:17:27,480 And like, you know, it's just like an endless list of things 298 00:17:27,480 --> 00:17:31,120 that you have to be aware of. And I think this is actually a 299 00:17:31,120 --> 00:17:34,440 pretty good metaphor for what happens here because see, we 300 00:17:34,440 --> 00:17:38,640 often again misunderstand the law as a prerequisite for 301 00:17:38,640 --> 00:17:42,720 getting in the family. But but what we see here clearly 302 00:17:42,720 --> 00:17:45,760 in the book of Exodus is that God's people are actually 303 00:17:45,760 --> 00:17:49,400 already restored to him. They are redeemed to him by 304 00:17:49,400 --> 00:17:51,480 grace through his sovereign action. 305 00:17:52,080 --> 00:17:55,160 They did not fight off Pharaoh. They did not part the sea. 306 00:17:55,680 --> 00:17:59,520 God did that, right? So God brings them to himself by 307 00:17:59,520 --> 00:18:03,920 his own power. But then they get to Sinai and 308 00:18:03,920 --> 00:18:08,600 there's a constitution. He says, hey, guys, like here's 309 00:18:08,600 --> 00:18:11,280 how we live in this family, right? 310 00:18:11,280 --> 00:18:13,360 Here's the way that we do things. 311 00:18:13,560 --> 00:18:15,480 There's some things that are in, there's some things that are 312 00:18:15,480 --> 00:18:17,560 out. If you walked in this morning, 313 00:18:17,560 --> 00:18:21,480 you passed a sign on which you saw these identity statements. 314 00:18:22,440 --> 00:18:27,280 We attune to the Holy Spirit. We imitate Jesus, we cultivate 315 00:18:27,280 --> 00:18:30,880 Shalom, right? This is who we are attempting to 316 00:18:30,880 --> 00:18:32,960 live into. This is who we are as a church 317 00:18:32,960 --> 00:18:35,960 community. And this is kind of the same 318 00:18:35,960 --> 00:18:38,200 thing as what's happening at the Mather School. 319 00:18:38,520 --> 00:18:41,680 What we are attempting to do here, God with his people is 320 00:18:41,680 --> 00:18:45,120 saying like, you're already in the family, but then here's how 321 00:18:45,120 --> 00:18:48,120 we live together. This is what it looks like to 322 00:18:48,120 --> 00:18:53,360 walk that out in our family. And look, this is super 323 00:18:53,360 --> 00:18:58,360 important for us because I think people often get thrown by the 324 00:18:58,360 --> 00:19:02,360 law of Moses, like, first of all, because it has some things 325 00:19:02,360 --> 00:19:05,600 that I think I hope we're on board with, like do not kill, 326 00:19:05,880 --> 00:19:08,560 honour your parents. Everybody up here agrees with 327 00:19:08,560 --> 00:19:10,640 that today, right? Like there are some things in 328 00:19:10,640 --> 00:19:12,920 the law that are obvious, they seem universal, right? 329 00:19:12,920 --> 00:19:14,600 These are good things for all people. 330 00:19:15,240 --> 00:19:17,720 And then if you're in Boston, you won't have to be here very 331 00:19:17,720 --> 00:19:21,160 long before somebody is like the Bible and shellfish and like the 332 00:19:21,160 --> 00:19:23,640 crossing of fibres together, like what, what, what is even 333 00:19:23,640 --> 00:19:26,240 going on, right? And the law also contains a 334 00:19:26,240 --> 00:19:29,440 bunch of those things, right? Things that don't make any sense 335 00:19:29,440 --> 00:19:31,560 to us and don't actually apply to us. 336 00:19:31,560 --> 00:19:34,840 So how do we figure out like, how do we make sense of this 337 00:19:34,840 --> 00:19:39,160 question of like, what pieces of this are relevant to us and what 338 00:19:39,160 --> 00:19:43,160 is not? Well, the law is absolutely a 339 00:19:43,280 --> 00:19:47,160 unique document for a particular people in a particular time and 340 00:19:47,160 --> 00:19:50,120 place, right? So it doesn't just transfer one 341 00:19:50,120 --> 00:19:51,800 to one. I know some Christians are doing 342 00:19:51,800 --> 00:19:54,280 that. And if you want to, good luck 343 00:19:54,280 --> 00:19:58,760 first of all, right? But also we see clearly in Jesus 344 00:19:58,760 --> 00:20:04,680 that that's not actually the way, but there are the purposes 345 00:20:04,680 --> 00:20:07,800 of the law and understanding these purposes are so helpful 346 00:20:07,800 --> 00:20:09,960 for us. And, and you can understand the 347 00:20:09,960 --> 00:20:14,240 purposes pretty simply across three major categories. 348 00:20:14,640 --> 00:20:16,600 And all of these categories are relevant for you and me. 349 00:20:17,160 --> 00:20:19,800 All right, So the first big category of what's going on in 350 00:20:19,800 --> 00:20:23,080 the law is these rituals of identity. 351 00:20:23,520 --> 00:20:25,360 We'll say these, these rituals of identity. 352 00:20:26,480 --> 00:20:30,160 And there's all of these ways that God prescribes from Exodus 353 00:20:30,240 --> 00:20:34,440 all the way through Deuteronomy, where over and over he explains 354 00:20:34,440 --> 00:20:36,120 what it means to live as the people of God. 355 00:20:36,160 --> 00:20:39,680 And there's a lot of thing that has to do with remembering your 356 00:20:39,680 --> 00:20:42,960 story, understanding where you came from. 357 00:20:43,480 --> 00:20:45,320 Like these people are going to go through generations. 358 00:20:45,320 --> 00:20:47,200 And we are so quick to forget, aren't we? 359 00:20:48,120 --> 00:20:51,680 And so God's puts in place things like Sabbath, this, this 360 00:20:51,680 --> 00:20:55,680 weekly ritual, he places these festivals in their communal life 361 00:20:55,680 --> 00:20:59,360 that will shape them year after year, things like the day of 362 00:20:59,360 --> 00:21:01,680 Atonement. And, and, and there's also all 363 00:21:01,680 --> 00:21:05,840 these like physical and tangible markers like the, the, the, the 364 00:21:05,840 --> 00:21:08,400 text of scripture that they will notice on their door frame. 365 00:21:08,400 --> 00:21:11,440 And actually even in some cases where on their forehead, right? 366 00:21:11,640 --> 00:21:14,520 There's all of these things to remind the people of God who 367 00:21:14,520 --> 00:21:16,840 they are. That's the first category, 368 00:21:16,840 --> 00:21:20,360 rituals for identity. But second, there are also 369 00:21:20,400 --> 00:21:24,040 boundaries for holiness. There are boundaries for 370 00:21:24,040 --> 00:21:27,320 holiness. See, God is significantly 371 00:21:27,320 --> 00:21:31,600 concerned here in Torah that his people, this people that he's 372 00:21:31,600 --> 00:21:35,440 calling out from all of these other nations are going to in 373 00:21:35,440 --> 00:21:39,080 fact wind up being kind of just like all of the other nations, 374 00:21:39,720 --> 00:21:41,960 right? And, and all of the other 375 00:21:41,960 --> 00:21:45,560 nations, not great, right? Corruption and idolatry, 376 00:21:46,400 --> 00:21:50,520 selfishness, right? Bigotry, us, them. 377 00:21:50,520 --> 00:21:54,400 Like there's all of these different ways in which the 378 00:21:54,400 --> 00:21:57,560 cultures around them are actually toxic. 379 00:21:58,400 --> 00:22:03,520 And so God puts in place a great deal of of law, of rules of 380 00:22:03,520 --> 00:22:05,680 guidance to maintain the purity of the people. 381 00:22:06,560 --> 00:22:09,920 And some of this has to do with actually like avoiding clear 382 00:22:10,000 --> 00:22:11,720 sin, things that we would think of as sin. 383 00:22:11,720 --> 00:22:14,760 And some of it is just like, Hey, stay away from those 384 00:22:14,760 --> 00:22:16,640 people, right? We're just going to have some 385 00:22:16,640 --> 00:22:20,800 different food laws so that who you eat dinner with is different 386 00:22:21,320 --> 00:22:24,000 because they, they're going to rub off on you, right? 387 00:22:24,000 --> 00:22:27,520 You can't actually be my covenant people if you're 388 00:22:27,520 --> 00:22:31,280 constantly hanging out with the folk who are taking you in the 389 00:22:31,280 --> 00:22:34,680 other direction. So God has these boundaries for 390 00:22:34,680 --> 00:22:37,480 holiness, these these boundary markers and rituals, everything 391 00:22:37,480 --> 00:22:41,280 from sexual ethics to the the prohibitions on idolatry to the 392 00:22:41,280 --> 00:22:45,480 food laws and many more. And finally, there are what we 393 00:22:45,480 --> 00:22:47,640 would call rules for flourishing. 394 00:22:48,160 --> 00:22:51,400 So not only are there rituals for identity and boundaries for 395 00:22:51,400 --> 00:22:53,760 holiness, but they're also rules for flourishing. 396 00:22:54,960 --> 00:22:56,840 And God is very deeply concerned about this. 397 00:22:56,840 --> 00:23:01,240 See, his people was never intended to be a private thing 398 00:23:01,240 --> 00:23:04,800 for individuals so that in eternity, after they die, they 399 00:23:04,800 --> 00:23:07,720 go to a different place. That's part of it, but that's 400 00:23:07,720 --> 00:23:09,960 not the primary lens of the story. 401 00:23:10,880 --> 00:23:15,360 See, actually a great deal of Torah is about like, how do we 402 00:23:15,360 --> 00:23:16,920 care for the people on the margins? 403 00:23:17,680 --> 00:23:20,320 How about the orphans? How about the widows? 404 00:23:20,560 --> 00:23:23,920 How about the people who don't have a home and our sojourners 405 00:23:23,920 --> 00:23:25,280 with us? We want to make sure that we 406 00:23:25,280 --> 00:23:28,560 don't treat them just like we were treated by Pharaoh and the 407 00:23:28,560 --> 00:23:31,800 Egyptians. Like, how are we going to set up 408 00:23:31,800 --> 00:23:37,000 our society, our economics, our social patterns in a way that 409 00:23:37,000 --> 00:23:40,120 makes sure that no one ends up persistently on the bottom? 410 00:23:40,120 --> 00:23:42,600 We're going to have things like the year of Jubilee where all 411 00:23:42,600 --> 00:23:44,480 debts are released every second year. 412 00:23:44,480 --> 00:23:47,200 Everyone is set free. All private property goes back 413 00:23:47,200 --> 00:23:49,160 to the person, back to the community, right? 414 00:23:49,360 --> 00:23:52,000 Things are, all of these things are being reset on a regular 415 00:23:52,000 --> 00:23:55,440 basis to create equity in the community, right? 416 00:23:55,560 --> 00:23:57,520 People are told, don't harvest your whole field. 417 00:23:57,520 --> 00:24:01,280 Make sure you leave some right for the for the folks who don't 418 00:24:01,280 --> 00:24:05,080 have enough. So it's not just rituals for 419 00:24:05,080 --> 00:24:07,960 personal holiness. They're also cultivating this 420 00:24:07,960 --> 00:24:12,000 way of life together as a community that creates 421 00:24:12,000 --> 00:24:15,600 flourishing for all, not just for them, but for others as 422 00:24:15,600 --> 00:24:18,400 well. And, and the reason for this is 423 00:24:18,400 --> 00:24:24,160 very simply the, the text makes clear is so that you will be a 424 00:24:24,160 --> 00:24:27,840 witness to the nations, so that everyone will look at your 425 00:24:27,840 --> 00:24:31,880 common life together and say, oh, that's what God is like. 426 00:24:32,800 --> 00:24:36,720 That is what God is like. God is, is, is holy and just. 427 00:24:36,720 --> 00:24:39,400 And, and in order for you to remain rooted in this, you need 428 00:24:39,400 --> 00:24:44,560 this constitution, you need this pathway in order to live in the 429 00:24:44,560 --> 00:24:47,880 family. Now, ultimately we discover that 430 00:24:47,880 --> 00:24:52,880 Israel does a very poor job of following this kind of same as 431 00:24:52,880 --> 00:24:56,400 us, right? What we'll see all the way 432 00:24:56,400 --> 00:24:58,520 through. In fact, if you look at Torah, 433 00:24:59,200 --> 00:25:01,240 there's all of these laws, right? 434 00:25:01,920 --> 00:25:04,680 And but they're not all dropped in one place. 435 00:25:05,280 --> 00:25:08,520 It's like some laws, some stories of them disobeying those 436 00:25:08,520 --> 00:25:11,680 laws, some more laws, some more stories of them disobeying those 437 00:25:11,680 --> 00:25:14,200 laws, some more laws, more stories of disobedience. 438 00:25:14,200 --> 00:25:15,960 It's just like, it's a mess, guys. 439 00:25:17,800 --> 00:25:20,280 They don't follow. In fact, we see this repeated 440 00:25:20,280 --> 00:25:25,960 cycle of sin, right, disobedience, exile and rescue 441 00:25:25,960 --> 00:25:28,840 over and over and over. So what the the book of Judges 442 00:25:28,840 --> 00:25:33,080 is all about, it's just watching this pattern play on repeat. 443 00:25:35,440 --> 00:25:37,240 But for us, I want to pause here. 444 00:25:37,240 --> 00:25:39,600 We're going to pick up this thread next week, but I want to 445 00:25:39,600 --> 00:25:43,960 pause here and, and think about the law for us because according 446 00:25:43,960 --> 00:25:46,720 to the New Testament, we are not bound by the Mosaic law. 447 00:25:47,160 --> 00:25:50,520 Like if you are into oysters, you want to wear some Lululemon. 448 00:25:50,560 --> 00:25:52,560 Good news. There may be other reasons why 449 00:25:52,560 --> 00:25:53,960 you shouldn't do that. I don't know. 450 00:25:54,160 --> 00:25:55,720 But like, nothing in the Bible, right? 451 00:25:55,720 --> 00:25:58,040 You're good, freed up permission from here. 452 00:26:00,040 --> 00:26:03,560 But I think we very often because of that, because we 453 00:26:03,560 --> 00:26:06,520 understand, we get like Paul is there, we've read some of that. 454 00:26:06,520 --> 00:26:09,200 We understand that we're not bound by the law in those ways. 455 00:26:10,200 --> 00:26:14,040 But very often we still find ourselves falling into one of 456 00:26:14,040 --> 00:26:16,800 two ditches, one of two pitfalls, if you will. 457 00:26:17,920 --> 00:26:21,640 On the one hand, we imagine that the Christian life, the life of 458 00:26:21,640 --> 00:26:24,240 faith, is all about earning our acceptance. 459 00:26:25,080 --> 00:26:28,000 After all, why would we have all of these rules? 460 00:26:29,600 --> 00:26:33,240 So in in order to, in order to be good enough, to be worthy, to 461 00:26:33,240 --> 00:26:36,760 be accepted, to experience the love of God, we've just got to, 462 00:26:37,560 --> 00:26:40,560 we've got to follow the rules. We've got to climb this ladder 463 00:26:40,560 --> 00:26:42,840 of acceptance in order to belong. 464 00:26:44,440 --> 00:26:47,520 Some of us believe that and some of us don't believe that, but we 465 00:26:47,520 --> 00:26:49,960 still believe that, if you know what I mean, right? 466 00:26:50,920 --> 00:26:53,320 Like we wouldn't say that on a test, but if you look at our 467 00:26:53,320 --> 00:26:57,000 lives, we're still striving, hustling and trying to earn our 468 00:26:57,000 --> 00:27:02,480 keep and friends even before we get to the New Testament in 469 00:27:02,480 --> 00:27:05,960 Jesus, we're going there. But even here we see that that 470 00:27:05,960 --> 00:27:10,880 is that is never been the way this relationship with God has 471 00:27:10,880 --> 00:27:17,040 worked from the very beginning. God calls his people by grace. 472 00:27:17,360 --> 00:27:20,920 He breaks off their bondage and he says, welcome, come on in 473 00:27:20,920 --> 00:27:23,640 into my presence. I want to be with you. 474 00:27:24,240 --> 00:27:27,120 I want to cooperate with you to extend my purposes in the world 475 00:27:28,360 --> 00:27:31,760 from the beginning. Friends, if you this morning are 476 00:27:31,760 --> 00:27:36,280 still trying to get your life cleaned up enough before you can 477 00:27:36,280 --> 00:27:39,360 be a Christian. If you're trying to do enough 478 00:27:39,360 --> 00:27:43,080 right thing so that someday you'll be worthy of love and 479 00:27:43,080 --> 00:27:46,640 belonging, I have good news. Like stop it. 480 00:27:47,640 --> 00:27:49,840 You don't have to. That's not the way. 481 00:27:50,560 --> 00:27:53,360 God already says yes to you. He already welcomes you. 482 00:27:54,160 --> 00:27:57,080 You're already in. The acceptance letter is sitting 483 00:27:57,080 --> 00:28:00,480 on your desk and all you have to do is say I'm in. 484 00:28:01,480 --> 00:28:03,720 All you have to do is receive the gift. 485 00:28:04,720 --> 00:28:08,080 Even here with God's people in the Hebrew Bible, we see the 486 00:28:08,080 --> 00:28:12,120 same thing. Grace comes first, not guidance. 487 00:28:13,160 --> 00:28:16,200 There's no hurdles they have to jump over in order to become 488 00:28:16,200 --> 00:28:18,840 part of the family. They just have to trust God. 489 00:28:20,160 --> 00:28:22,920 So that's the first thing. Some of us are in the ditch of, 490 00:28:23,080 --> 00:28:28,000 of striving and trying to pay our way in to be good enough to 491 00:28:28,000 --> 00:28:32,520 get there. But there is another ditch and, 492 00:28:32,600 --> 00:28:35,880 and honestly, I think probably more of some of y'all are over 493 00:28:35,880 --> 00:28:36,920 here. Some of y'all are over here. 494 00:28:37,480 --> 00:28:39,120 Sometimes I'm over here, sometimes I'm over here. 495 00:28:39,520 --> 00:28:43,920 And the other ditch is honestly, it looks more like entitlement 496 00:28:45,440 --> 00:28:49,160 and, and at times the church is at fault here, honestly, because 497 00:28:49,160 --> 00:28:53,320 we have focused so much on how you become part of God's family, 498 00:28:54,280 --> 00:28:55,880 which is good. We should do that. 499 00:28:55,880 --> 00:29:00,200 That's really important. But we focus so much on becoming 500 00:29:00,200 --> 00:29:04,040 part of God's family that we haven't talked much about what 501 00:29:04,040 --> 00:29:07,000 it looks like to live as a member of God's family. 502 00:29:07,960 --> 00:29:10,520 Like what does it mean to actually live in the way of 503 00:29:10,520 --> 00:29:12,240 Jesus, to live in the way of love? 504 00:29:12,640 --> 00:29:16,560 The law is given as a gift. You see this throughout. 505 00:29:16,560 --> 00:29:19,000 It's not a burden, It's not a problem. 506 00:29:20,000 --> 00:29:22,600 David says, like, I love your law. 507 00:29:23,720 --> 00:29:27,840 It's the pathway to flourishing. And look, the Mosaic law is a 508 00:29:27,840 --> 00:29:30,360 different law for a different time and place, but we still 509 00:29:30,360 --> 00:29:34,000 have the law of love. We still have the the direction 510 00:29:34,000 --> 00:29:35,760 of the Spirit. The New Testament still has a 511 00:29:35,760 --> 00:29:40,800 lot to tell you about how to live and how do we relate to 512 00:29:40,800 --> 00:29:43,480 that? I think sometimes, sometimes I 513 00:29:43,480 --> 00:29:47,040 sometimes maybe you get in this posture. 514 00:29:47,040 --> 00:29:49,840 We're like, I prayed the prayer I'm in. 515 00:29:50,720 --> 00:29:52,880 I did the thing. I go to church like I'm I'm one 516 00:29:52,880 --> 00:29:55,200 of the good guys now. Like that's it. 517 00:29:56,760 --> 00:30:00,080 And friends, adoption is not the end of the journey. 518 00:30:01,240 --> 00:30:06,240 Praise God that you have been adopted by grace and also great. 519 00:30:06,960 --> 00:30:09,000 Now you've got to figure out how to be part of the family, what 520 00:30:09,000 --> 00:30:10,680 it looks like because there's some culture, there's some 521 00:30:10,680 --> 00:30:14,600 rhythms, there's some some ways of doing and sharing life that 522 00:30:14,600 --> 00:30:19,440 shapes us in the way of love. And so friends, I want to invite 523 00:30:19,440 --> 00:30:23,480 us to consider this morning, what does that look like for 524 00:30:23,480 --> 00:30:26,000 you? Like, what does that look like? 525 00:30:26,000 --> 00:30:28,920 And not just for you personally, but in the in the community that 526 00:30:28,920 --> 00:30:32,280 you're in, like here as our broader church community, we do 527 00:30:32,280 --> 00:30:35,600 a lot of things in these spaces, but also in the smaller groups 528 00:30:35,600 --> 00:30:39,920 that you are part of. What are your rhythms of life? 529 00:30:41,320 --> 00:30:44,880 Do you have rituals for identity? 530 00:30:45,920 --> 00:30:48,800 Are you doing things on a regular basis that reminds you 531 00:30:48,800 --> 00:30:53,840 who you are and whose you are that help to ground you in the 532 00:30:53,840 --> 00:30:58,040 reality that that you have been made part of God's family by 533 00:30:58,040 --> 00:31:01,240 grace? My friends, honestly, a lot of 534 00:31:01,240 --> 00:31:06,960 us I think would have a lot more joy if we spent more time in the 535 00:31:06,960 --> 00:31:10,080 presence of Jesus, just wondering at his awe and his 536 00:31:10,080 --> 00:31:12,440 goodness and his love and his grace towards us. 537 00:31:12,440 --> 00:31:17,800 There is rough stuff out in the world, and yet we have been 538 00:31:17,800 --> 00:31:20,000 rescued. Praise God. 539 00:31:20,560 --> 00:31:23,440 Like if you've been liberated from something, we need to think 540 00:31:23,440 --> 00:31:25,280 about that. You need to be reminding 541 00:31:25,280 --> 00:31:28,080 yourself about that regularly, getting excited about that, 542 00:31:28,080 --> 00:31:32,800 worshipping God about that. So we need these rituals of 543 00:31:32,800 --> 00:31:36,160 formation. That's why we come to church on 544 00:31:36,160 --> 00:31:37,720 Sunday. It's why we make space in our 545 00:31:37,720 --> 00:31:41,960 lives or quiet time to spend time on our face before God each 546 00:31:41,960 --> 00:31:44,240 day. It's it's why we have things 547 00:31:44,240 --> 00:31:46,680 like the church retreat and these other spaces. 548 00:31:47,400 --> 00:31:50,040 Like there's not a legalistic requirement for you to do these 549 00:31:50,040 --> 00:31:51,320 things. You don't get a merit badge 550 00:31:51,320 --> 00:31:54,920 because you show up. But you absolutely do need 551 00:31:54,920 --> 00:31:59,600 rituals in your life to remind you of who you are and where 552 00:31:59,600 --> 00:32:00,880 you're going and what's most important. 553 00:32:01,600 --> 00:32:03,760 Friends we also need in our lives and boundaries for 554 00:32:03,760 --> 00:32:08,440 holiness. Like we are not immune, right? 555 00:32:08,440 --> 00:32:10,160 We're supposed to be for our neighbors. 556 00:32:10,160 --> 00:32:12,440 We're supposed to be loving our neighbors showing up. 557 00:32:12,440 --> 00:32:16,800 It's not about just retreating from the world, but also if 558 00:32:16,800 --> 00:32:21,040 we're not going to look exactly like our neighbors, right? 559 00:32:21,040 --> 00:32:26,480 There need to be some. Like how you spend your money or 560 00:32:26,480 --> 00:32:30,040 invest or save should be different from somebody who 561 00:32:30,040 --> 00:32:34,960 doesn't follow Jesus. Like how you program your life 562 00:32:35,640 --> 00:32:41,200 and your kids lives, your daily routine, your weekly stuff, what 563 00:32:41,200 --> 00:32:44,520 programs you're in. Like I'm not here to tell you 564 00:32:44,520 --> 00:32:48,480 how to do it, but I am here to say like that being a Christian 565 00:32:48,480 --> 00:32:51,760 should matter for that, right? You should be thoughtful about 566 00:32:51,760 --> 00:32:55,200 what does it look like to build a life that that allows me to 567 00:32:55,200 --> 00:32:58,720 practice the presence of Jesus, that allows me to extend his 568 00:32:58,720 --> 00:33:02,520 purposes in the world. That isn't just about like, how 569 00:33:02,520 --> 00:33:07,560 do I, like, get the best possible job, make the most 570 00:33:07,560 --> 00:33:10,960 possible money, have the most spectacular vacations available? 571 00:33:11,560 --> 00:33:14,280 Those are good things. I'm not against any of that. 572 00:33:14,920 --> 00:33:17,240 But if those are at the very centre of your life, your 573 00:33:17,240 --> 00:33:20,200 liturgies don't have enough holiness in them. 574 00:33:22,520 --> 00:33:25,880 Friends, we need things that will form us as a community, not 575 00:33:25,880 --> 00:33:30,440 just as individuals into rules for flourishing, right? 576 00:33:30,680 --> 00:33:36,280 We need to practice justice and hospitality and inclusion and 577 00:33:36,280 --> 00:33:40,560 mercy and generosity as a community and as individuals 578 00:33:40,560 --> 00:33:46,080 within that community, right? The way of Jesus is still not 579 00:33:46,080 --> 00:33:48,520 just about going to heaven when we die, praise God for that. 580 00:33:49,720 --> 00:33:52,880 But it's also about learning to live in a way that speaks, that 581 00:33:52,880 --> 00:33:57,480 declares to the nations and to those around us, this is what 582 00:33:57,480 --> 00:34:00,880 God's family looks like. This is how they move together. 583 00:34:00,880 --> 00:34:04,360 This is how they live together. And we need some habits for 584 00:34:04,360 --> 00:34:07,080 that, right? We need to, we need habits of 585 00:34:07,080 --> 00:34:09,000 generosity. We need habits of solidarity. 586 00:34:09,000 --> 00:34:12,159 We need habits of presence if we're going to become those 587 00:34:12,159 --> 00:34:16,320 kinds of people. Look, I've covered a lot of 588 00:34:16,320 --> 00:34:19,760 ground this morning. I'm curious about what this 589 00:34:19,760 --> 00:34:23,239 looks like for you. We're going to begin to move 590 00:34:23,239 --> 00:34:26,679 into a time of response and friends this morning. 591 00:34:26,679 --> 00:34:30,960 This message is not about following a checklist, A to do 592 00:34:30,960 --> 00:34:36,199 list. It's not about some new kind of 593 00:34:36,199 --> 00:34:40,840 law developed and designed by Pastor Josh and accepted by 594 00:34:40,840 --> 00:34:44,960 everyone else. But I am going to suggest to you 595 00:34:44,960 --> 00:34:48,199 that you have the Holy Spirit, you have the word of God. 596 00:34:49,159 --> 00:34:52,199 And our lives need to be saturated by those, guided by 597 00:34:52,199 --> 00:34:56,840 those, not just so we can avoid punishment, not so that we can 598 00:34:56,840 --> 00:35:00,920 be part of the family. If you accepted Jesus, you 599 00:35:00,920 --> 00:35:05,360 already got that part, but so that we can go on this journey 600 00:35:05,360 --> 00:35:11,440 together of becoming a people of love, a people who are hold 601 00:35:11,440 --> 00:35:15,120 space for the presence of God and extend his purposes in the 602 00:35:15,120 --> 00:35:18,240 world, who love God and love our neighbors well. 603 00:35:19,480 --> 00:35:24,320 And this invitation is for all of us, God's people then and 604 00:35:24,320 --> 00:35:28,480 God's people now. The law, friends, is not an 605 00:35:28,480 --> 00:35:32,600 entrance exam for applicants, but a syllabus for those who are 606 00:35:32,600 --> 00:35:37,200 already part of the community. How are we engaging the 607 00:35:37,200 --> 00:35:41,000 curriculum, Friends? This morning we're going to 608 00:35:41,000 --> 00:35:43,960 pivot in our gathering to receive communion. 609 00:35:45,280 --> 00:35:48,880 And this is really appropriate because I just talked about 610 00:35:48,880 --> 00:35:52,040 rituals for identity, and there's no beautiful one than 611 00:35:52,040 --> 00:35:58,480 this right here, because this reminds us who we are, where we 612 00:35:58,480 --> 00:36:01,600 come from, and why we are beloved. 613 00:36:02,960 --> 00:36:06,040 It's a call back explicitly to the story we've already talked 614 00:36:06,040 --> 00:36:11,720 about today at Passover when God used his blood to to to mark out 615 00:36:11,720 --> 00:36:15,880 his people. Blood is still a marker for us 616 00:36:15,880 --> 00:36:20,360 today, and so as we partake of the juice or the wine that 617 00:36:20,360 --> 00:36:24,600 represents his blood, as we eat the cracker that represents his 618 00:36:24,600 --> 00:36:30,560 body, we root ourselves in this story, this memory, this 619 00:36:30,560 --> 00:36:33,600 identity that we are God's people. 620 00:36:34,360 --> 00:36:39,600 Rescued friends, how have you been rescued today? 621 00:36:40,760 --> 00:36:44,360 How has Jesus intervention in your life been some good news 622 00:36:44,360 --> 00:36:47,480 that gets you excited? Do you have a story of 623 00:36:47,480 --> 00:36:51,480 liberation that you are excited about wanting to tell people 624 00:36:51,480 --> 00:36:54,200 about? Let's remember that. 625 00:36:55,320 --> 00:36:59,080 And when when we see these these guidelines, these rules, when 626 00:36:59,080 --> 00:37:01,800 the New Testament has some stuff to tell us about how we live as 627 00:37:01,800 --> 00:37:08,480 a people, may we shift our relationship to it from 628 00:37:08,480 --> 00:37:11,920 something that we kind of onerously go along with in order 629 00:37:11,920 --> 00:37:16,680 to avoid punishment to a faithful belief that God desires 630 00:37:16,680 --> 00:37:20,360 our flourishing and that of the world and has entrusted his way 631 00:37:20,360 --> 00:37:23,240 to us in order to guide us into that. 632 00:37:24,280 --> 00:37:28,280 Friends, we me, we be people who live in and from his very life.