1 00:00:01,160 --> 00:00:04,880 Welcome to the River City Church Podcast and a message by our 2 00:00:04,880 --> 00:00:08,960 lead pastor Jason Powers. Our prayer is that this message 3 00:00:08,960 --> 00:00:13,280 would inspire and encourage you build your faith and point you 4 00:00:13,320 --> 00:00:15,880 to the life changing love of Jesus. 5 00:00:16,400 --> 00:00:19,720 May you enjoy the goodness of God as you follow him today. 6 00:00:21,360 --> 00:00:26,240 Hi everybody. Hey, listen, that is such a good 7 00:00:26,240 --> 00:00:27,680 song. Because here's the deal. 8 00:00:27,680 --> 00:00:31,550 Here's that means ready. Means our hope is alive. 9 00:00:32,350 --> 00:00:35,070 And that means that thing that you're hoping for that just 10 00:00:35,070 --> 00:00:38,350 seems out of reach. It's alive. 11 00:00:38,590 --> 00:00:40,350 It's accessible. You have access to it. 12 00:00:40,350 --> 00:00:43,070 That is good news. Hey, I don't do this very often, 13 00:00:43,070 --> 00:00:45,910 but we got a lot of stuff going on and so I just kind of want to 14 00:00:45,910 --> 00:00:48,710 point at some of it. When you go outside, there's 15 00:00:48,710 --> 00:00:50,230 Conan Ice out there. We're grateful that they're 16 00:00:50,230 --> 00:00:51,270 here. We've got a lot of stuff. 17 00:00:51,510 --> 00:00:54,470 Especially I want to talk about our men's ministry. 18 00:00:54,950 --> 00:00:57,210 I love. What's going on in our men's 19 00:00:57,210 --> 00:01:01,410 ministry right now? And guys searching for Jesus, 20 00:01:01,410 --> 00:01:03,210 trying to figure it out, finding their way. 21 00:01:03,890 --> 00:01:06,370 But it's a great place to be. And on September 2nd, coming up 22 00:01:06,370 --> 00:01:08,730 in a couple weeks, we're going to have a men's conference and 23 00:01:08,730 --> 00:01:10,410 it's going to be here. Now here's the bet. 24 00:01:10,410 --> 00:01:12,690 You know what I like best about our men's conference? 25 00:01:12,890 --> 00:01:15,530 It's not an overnight thing. So you don't have to bunk with a 26 00:01:15,530 --> 00:01:17,690 bunch of people that you don't know, right? 27 00:01:17,690 --> 00:01:20,170 And it's weird. You get you got the snorers and 28 00:01:20,170 --> 00:01:22,850 you got the one guy who doesn't know he's a snore. 29 00:01:22,850 --> 00:01:24,810 And so like, right, we don't have any of that. 30 00:01:24,810 --> 00:01:27,730 It's all of the best. And none of the worst. 31 00:01:28,210 --> 00:01:30,610 And and we're just going to talk about things that are 32 00:01:30,610 --> 00:01:32,250 significant and relevant to all of us. 33 00:01:32,250 --> 00:01:35,050 So you can stop by the table out there and you can talk to Jaime 34 00:01:35,050 --> 00:01:37,610 and the team that's out there. But if you got time and if you 35 00:01:37,610 --> 00:01:40,810 got the ability to do that, I think it would be well worth 36 00:01:40,810 --> 00:01:44,570 your time to do that. And so we begin, as we do each 37 00:01:44,570 --> 00:01:48,850 week, with our confession. Our confession as a church is we 38 00:01:48,850 --> 00:01:53,820 are badly broken. Yes, you are grace and peace to 39 00:01:53,820 --> 00:01:55,500 you. You said a couple of weeks ago 40 00:01:55,700 --> 00:02:00,660 that that phrase, that that statement is a declaration of 41 00:02:00,660 --> 00:02:04,230 freedom, right? Like we said, if we would really 42 00:02:04,230 --> 00:02:08,509 lean into that and unpack it and take for all that it's worth, if 43 00:02:08,509 --> 00:02:11,070 we would really get into that place and we could be free. 44 00:02:11,230 --> 00:02:14,790 But what it means is telling the truth about all of it. 45 00:02:15,110 --> 00:02:17,950 Not just saying in kind of a general sense, hey, I'm broken 46 00:02:17,950 --> 00:02:20,470 and kind of some nonspecific kind of general ways, ways that 47 00:02:20,470 --> 00:02:22,590 aren't too close to me, that you'll never really figure out. 48 00:02:22,750 --> 00:02:24,910 And I'm really not going to admit really to anybody, but if 49 00:02:24,910 --> 00:02:28,670 we will get into the nitty gritty and acknowledge I am 50 00:02:28,670 --> 00:02:35,010 addicted, I am jealous of every person who has more money than. 51 00:02:35,010 --> 00:02:37,930 Me, or a bigger house than me, or a smaller waste than me, or 52 00:02:37,930 --> 00:02:42,730 better reputation than me, I am if we will admit, man, give me 53 00:02:42,730 --> 00:02:45,730 one second to say something negative about another person, 54 00:02:45,730 --> 00:02:49,610 boy, and I will jump on it. Because underneath I know that I 55 00:02:49,610 --> 00:02:53,010 have a. Deep and growing insecurity, and 56 00:02:53,010 --> 00:02:57,930 who I am, if we will acknowledge the reality, if we will. 57 00:02:58,720 --> 00:03:02,040 Face the idea that we have imposter syndrome and I can talk 58 00:03:02,040 --> 00:03:03,280 about. That's one of my, one of my 59 00:03:03,280 --> 00:03:04,680 things that I really struggle with, right? 60 00:03:04,680 --> 00:03:08,440 Like I walk in to whatever room that I'm in and my the voices in 61 00:03:08,440 --> 00:03:10,120 my head. That thing that I believe just 62 00:03:10,120 --> 00:03:12,760 says you're a fraud and everybody knows it. 63 00:03:12,760 --> 00:03:15,920 And in just a minute it's going to be exposed and you're going 64 00:03:15,920 --> 00:03:17,400 to be exposed and there's going to be shame. 65 00:03:17,400 --> 00:03:19,800 There's going to be all that. And So what I do instead of that 66 00:03:19,800 --> 00:03:23,320 what do I do is I tell jokes and I'm funny guy and then but then 67 00:03:23,320 --> 00:03:25,280 I'm not really real with who I am. 68 00:03:25,280 --> 00:03:27,800 And so we've talked about how if we could just. 69 00:03:28,310 --> 00:03:31,790 Tell the truth about who we are. Then we could begin to 70 00:03:31,790 --> 00:03:35,110 experience that love and kind of this verse that has been 71 00:03:35,110 --> 00:03:38,030 throughout our whole time together is maniculations 5 One, 72 00:03:38,030 --> 00:03:40,830 right? It's for freedom, the Christ to 73 00:03:40,830 --> 00:03:43,430 set you free. You know what all of this is 74 00:03:43,430 --> 00:03:45,990 about? The law and the prophets and 75 00:03:45,990 --> 00:03:48,270 Jesus and all of it. It's about freedom. 76 00:03:49,230 --> 00:03:52,430 God's design and his desire for life is that you would live 77 00:03:52,670 --> 00:03:54,030 free. But we don't. 78 00:03:54,980 --> 00:03:57,540 We live as slaves, bound to our mask. 79 00:03:57,540 --> 00:04:00,620 And so because of that, we have to hide from the reality of real 80 00:04:00,620 --> 00:04:02,140 life. And the idea is freedom. 81 00:04:02,140 --> 00:04:05,700 And I'm not talking, I'm not talking like freedom in any kind 82 00:04:05,700 --> 00:04:08,620 of geopolitical social kind of sense. 83 00:04:08,740 --> 00:04:11,820 I'm talking about the freedom to be really fully alive, to be 84 00:04:11,820 --> 00:04:13,340 able to wake up in the morning and go. 85 00:04:13,460 --> 00:04:16,140 Today sucks. And I've been having a bad day 86 00:04:16,140 --> 00:04:20,420 and I don't like it. And to just feel that all the 87 00:04:20,420 --> 00:04:24,220 way down to the bottom and know that I don't have to hide from 88 00:04:24,220 --> 00:04:25,980 it and I don't have to pretend from it. 89 00:04:26,100 --> 00:04:28,580 Because at the end of the day and at the end of the life, 90 00:04:28,820 --> 00:04:33,180 that's not final, it means acknowledging. 91 00:04:33,300 --> 00:04:37,940 I've got anxiety that most days calls the shots in my life. 92 00:04:38,780 --> 00:04:41,660 And I've got a way of dealing with it that doesn't include 93 00:04:41,900 --> 00:04:45,060 facing it owning it. And moving through it. 94 00:04:45,060 --> 00:04:48,300 See, that's the freedom that Jesus has set you free for. 95 00:04:48,660 --> 00:04:52,860 The freedom to be fully alive, to experience every aspect of 96 00:04:52,860 --> 00:04:56,500 humanity, the best parts of it, but also the worst parts of it, 97 00:04:56,700 --> 00:05:00,140 and to overcome and to live ultimately in light. 98 00:05:00,180 --> 00:05:04,300 Of those, that is freedom. It means that we are free. 99 00:05:04,460 --> 00:05:06,860 We have been set free to live. Listen, Christian, this is so 100 00:05:06,860 --> 00:05:07,820 much for us. Are we ready? 101 00:05:07,820 --> 00:05:12,700 Listen, you are free to live unoffended. 102 00:05:14,270 --> 00:05:19,150 You are free to not get your feelings hurt by things that 103 00:05:19,150 --> 00:05:22,590 happen out there. Because like Jesus said right 104 00:05:22,590 --> 00:05:24,790 when they were nailing to the cross, he says they don't even 105 00:05:24,790 --> 00:05:27,790 know what they're doing. They don't even know the stakes. 106 00:05:27,910 --> 00:05:31,590 You are free to know that another person's belief or idea 107 00:05:31,590 --> 00:05:36,990 about you or their behavior does not diminish or destroy you in 108 00:05:36,990 --> 00:05:38,190 the least. You know why? 109 00:05:38,190 --> 00:05:42,480 Cuz you're free and we're broken and we diminish. 110 00:05:42,480 --> 00:05:45,280 We hurt other people's feelings and we diminish them in ways 111 00:05:45,280 --> 00:05:48,120 that maybe we know and maybe we don't know, but we are free. 112 00:05:48,160 --> 00:05:52,800 We are free from jealousy. You don't have to be jealous of 113 00:05:52,800 --> 00:05:57,000 another person's anything because God made You Beautiful 114 00:05:58,200 --> 00:06:03,480 and enough and sufficient, and then on top of that he gave you 115 00:06:03,480 --> 00:06:05,870 his spirit. So that you can overcome. 116 00:06:05,870 --> 00:06:08,870 And when you do find those ugly things, those weaknesses, those 117 00:06:09,070 --> 00:06:11,830 failures, those insecurities, when you do experience those 118 00:06:11,830 --> 00:06:15,110 things, you have the ability and the power to go beyond those 119 00:06:15,110 --> 00:06:19,350 things you have. You are free to live, fully open 120 00:06:19,350 --> 00:06:24,030 to your relationships. Not have to hide from people. 121 00:06:24,150 --> 00:06:27,110 To accept people as they are and to live fully expected. 122 00:06:27,230 --> 00:06:30,990 Basically. Listen, you are free to grow in 123 00:06:30,990 --> 00:06:34,230 this life. You are free to not be defined 124 00:06:34,230 --> 00:06:38,310 and identified by what you were, or even by what you are now. 125 00:06:38,310 --> 00:06:40,910 You are free to grow. Into what God has created you to 126 00:06:40,910 --> 00:06:42,190 be. And listen, students, this is 127 00:06:42,190 --> 00:06:46,190 really for you because you're going to a place tomorrow and 128 00:06:46,190 --> 00:06:47,550 some of you went back this past week. 129 00:06:48,490 --> 00:06:51,850 You are going to a place tomorrow that is going to try to 130 00:06:51,850 --> 00:06:56,170 define you for who you are, whether it is by your grades or 131 00:06:56,170 --> 00:06:59,010 by the clothes that you wear, or by the car that you get dropped 132 00:06:59,010 --> 00:07:01,770 off in or the car that you drop yourself off in. 133 00:07:02,490 --> 00:07:05,650 There will be no shortage of people trying to tell you that 134 00:07:05,650 --> 00:07:10,930 you don't measure up unless what I want to tell you students is 135 00:07:11,090 --> 00:07:15,750 you are free from that. You do not have to buy into a 136 00:07:15,750 --> 00:07:18,550 system that tells you you don't measure up, that you're not 137 00:07:18,790 --> 00:07:21,470 enough. See, this is the good news. 138 00:07:21,950 --> 00:07:25,150 This is why we get together at the as a church, because that's 139 00:07:25,150 --> 00:07:28,110 not a message that really resounds through our culture. 140 00:07:28,110 --> 00:07:31,270 Is it that you're enough? Because it's easier to sell you 141 00:07:31,270 --> 00:07:32,630 something if you don't have enough? 142 00:07:33,030 --> 00:07:35,310 It's easier to make you afraid and then control you if the 143 00:07:35,310 --> 00:07:38,350 other guy is the bad guy, if the danger is always out there 144 00:07:38,470 --> 00:07:40,270 lurking. But that's not the story in 145 00:07:40,270 --> 00:07:42,260 Scripture. And I'm not just talking about 146 00:07:42,260 --> 00:07:44,100 the story and the Gospels of Jesus is teaching. 147 00:07:44,100 --> 00:07:46,340 I'm talking about the whole story, Scripture going all the 148 00:07:46,340 --> 00:07:47,940 way back. See, in the beginning, after 149 00:07:47,940 --> 00:07:50,300 mankind fell and they walked out of the garden, there was this 150 00:07:50,460 --> 00:07:52,100 period where they didn't know what was going on. 151 00:07:52,100 --> 00:07:53,140 Who are we? How do we find? 152 00:07:53,140 --> 00:07:55,340 And there was the ark and the rain and all of that. 153 00:07:55,460 --> 00:07:57,740 But God found a guy called Abraham. 154 00:07:57,740 --> 00:08:02,070 And he said, Abraham, I am going to make you into a nation, man. 155 00:08:02,070 --> 00:08:04,310 That's a big promise, right? Like, I'm going to make you and 156 00:08:04,390 --> 00:08:06,670 I'm going to give you children and your children, children, so 157 00:08:06,670 --> 00:08:09,590 that an entire nation's worth of people will be from you. 158 00:08:09,590 --> 00:08:11,310 And those became the Hebrew people. 159 00:08:11,310 --> 00:08:13,070 And he says, and I'm going to give you a place. 160 00:08:13,070 --> 00:08:15,430 And so they left, and they ended up in Egypt. 161 00:08:15,430 --> 00:08:18,190 And for 400 years they lived in Egypt. 162 00:08:18,310 --> 00:08:22,830 But at some point during that time, they became enslaved. 163 00:08:23,390 --> 00:08:26,470 See, that's what us and them always leads to, right? 164 00:08:26,470 --> 00:08:28,750 Like, that's how political power, and that's what all this 165 00:08:28,990 --> 00:08:31,430 ultimately ends up devolving into, controlling and 166 00:08:31,510 --> 00:08:35,110 manipulating the other people. So God's people were enslaved in 167 00:08:35,150 --> 00:08:38,549 Egypt, and God comes to Moses and he says, Moses, I want you 168 00:08:38,549 --> 00:08:41,750 to go tell my people that their time of bondage and slavery is 169 00:08:41,750 --> 00:08:42,750 up. And Moses was a. 170 00:08:43,070 --> 00:08:45,830 Shepherd in the wilderness. And he's like, you got the wrong 171 00:08:45,830 --> 00:08:47,590 guy. I don't know what you're talking 172 00:08:47,590 --> 00:08:50,670 about, but God sent him. And so Moses went to Pharaoh and 173 00:08:50,670 --> 00:08:52,470 he said Pharaoh, you've heard the song, right? 174 00:08:52,670 --> 00:08:54,590 Let my. People go. 175 00:08:54,750 --> 00:08:58,630 And Pharaoh said no, because as you would like, you don't want 176 00:08:58,630 --> 00:08:59,910 your whole labor force getting out. 177 00:08:59,910 --> 00:09:01,790 Like you can't do that. That doesn't make any kind of 178 00:09:01,790 --> 00:09:05,670 economic sense at all. So then what this ultimately 179 00:09:05,670 --> 00:09:11,670 comes down to is who's God has the right to say, who comes and 180 00:09:11,670 --> 00:09:14,230 goes. And God demonstrated his power 181 00:09:14,230 --> 00:09:16,630 over the Egyptian gods through a series of plagues. 182 00:09:16,990 --> 00:09:18,710 Right. At first it's the plague of the 183 00:09:18,710 --> 00:09:21,790 Nile, the blood of the water. The Nile turns to blood, right. 184 00:09:21,910 --> 00:09:25,870 So God is bigger than the than the God of the Nile, right, The 185 00:09:25,910 --> 00:09:27,950 Egyptian guy. And over and over and over and 186 00:09:27,950 --> 00:09:31,230 over it goes down until finally and every single time Pharaoh's 187 00:09:31,230 --> 00:09:33,430 like, no, no, no. And finally says OK, maybe you 188 00:09:33,430 --> 00:09:36,030 can't, OK, no you can't, right. And he goes back and finally at 189 00:09:36,030 --> 00:09:40,270 the end God, through Moses, goes to Pharaoh and says listen, a 190 00:09:40,270 --> 00:09:42,710 plague is coming on the people here and what's going to happen 191 00:09:42,710 --> 00:09:46,430 is the first born of everything is going to die. 192 00:09:47,530 --> 00:09:49,650 You're like, that's brutal. God, how could you do that? 193 00:09:50,610 --> 00:09:53,530 First born of the cattle, the first born of the Egyptians, 194 00:09:54,130 --> 00:09:56,650 even the first born of the Israelites. 195 00:09:56,730 --> 00:09:59,410 If, are you listening? If he said. 196 00:09:59,410 --> 00:10:03,310 But there's a way out. If you'll take a spotless lamb 197 00:10:03,310 --> 00:10:05,230 and listen, I'm not an agriculture guy. 198 00:10:05,310 --> 00:10:07,230 I don't know what that means, right? 199 00:10:07,390 --> 00:10:09,950 But I know they knew, right? And they were in the situation. 200 00:10:10,070 --> 00:10:13,790 But it meant without blemish, without, without a spot. 201 00:10:13,790 --> 00:10:16,830 It meant their fur and their pedigree and everything was 202 00:10:16,910 --> 00:10:19,470 perfect. And if you'll take this spotless 203 00:10:19,470 --> 00:10:22,030 lamb and on this night, this night comes, if you will 204 00:10:22,030 --> 00:10:25,070 sacrifice this lamb, and if you'll put the blood of this 205 00:10:25,070 --> 00:10:27,830 lamb on the doorpost of your house, is what will happen is 206 00:10:27,990 --> 00:10:30,790 the Angel of death that's going to come through the land and 207 00:10:30,790 --> 00:10:33,910 kill the first one, is that he will pass over your houses. 208 00:10:34,030 --> 00:10:36,990 Now here's the thing, though. It wasn't just limited to the 209 00:10:36,990 --> 00:10:39,950 Israelites, right? Anybody in all the land who put 210 00:10:39,950 --> 00:10:43,390 the blood of the lamb over the doorposes, over the doorposts. 211 00:10:44,550 --> 00:10:46,710 The Angel of Death would have passed over. 212 00:10:47,710 --> 00:10:49,310 See? So here's the thing. 213 00:10:50,510 --> 00:10:53,870 It's not really about their power, is it? 214 00:10:54,590 --> 00:10:56,150 It's not really about their strength. 215 00:10:56,270 --> 00:10:57,630 It's not really about their might. 216 00:10:57,630 --> 00:11:00,110 It's not about their wisdom. It's not about their ingenuity 217 00:11:00,110 --> 00:11:03,190 at all. What it really is about is God's 218 00:11:03,190 --> 00:11:06,390 protection and God's plan and his and his deliverance. 219 00:11:06,430 --> 00:11:10,910 And he says, if you'll obey and if you'll follow, then I will 220 00:11:11,270 --> 00:11:14,590 pass over you. And sure enough, that night he 221 00:11:14,590 --> 00:11:19,030 did in Pharaoh his house, his first born, dies. 222 00:11:19,430 --> 00:11:21,630 He comes out and he kicks the people of Israel out, and they 223 00:11:21,630 --> 00:11:23,790 go in, and for 40 years they wander in the desert. 224 00:11:23,910 --> 00:11:26,910 Now, 40 years is a long time, and it's an entire generation, 225 00:11:26,910 --> 00:11:28,750 an entire generation passed away. 226 00:11:29,070 --> 00:11:32,110 And so at the end of their forty years, they're standing, they're 227 00:11:32,110 --> 00:11:34,790 ready to enter into the promised land. 228 00:11:34,790 --> 00:11:37,310 And the promised land is the land that God had promised them 229 00:11:37,470 --> 00:11:41,350 is described as a land flowing with milk and with honey. 230 00:11:41,830 --> 00:11:44,870 A picture of abundance, right? A picture of of wealth and a 231 00:11:44,870 --> 00:11:47,960 picture of it's the The idea is they don't have to do it. 232 00:11:47,960 --> 00:11:50,840 They're going to go into a land in a place that is so bountiful 233 00:11:50,840 --> 00:11:54,440 and so full and so rich that they'll have everything that 234 00:11:54,440 --> 00:11:56,000 they need. Absolutely. 235 00:11:56,000 --> 00:11:59,040 Just. Provided for them after a year 236 00:11:59,040 --> 00:12:00,840 of living in the wilderness and living in the desert. 237 00:12:00,840 --> 00:12:03,000 That's got to sound pretty good, doesn't it? 238 00:12:03,920 --> 00:12:06,160 But because of Moses did some things that he shouldn't have 239 00:12:06,160 --> 00:12:09,080 done, he didn't get to go in. So what happened is Moses 240 00:12:09,080 --> 00:12:11,780 gathers the people. On the foot of a mountain, right 241 00:12:11,780 --> 00:12:13,460 on the very edge of the promised land. 242 00:12:13,540 --> 00:12:16,180 And what he does is he reminds them, and we have his reminders, 243 00:12:16,180 --> 00:12:18,460 the book of Deuteronomy. The book of Deuteronomy is 244 00:12:18,460 --> 00:12:22,420 basically a sermon. It's Moses's last sermon to the 245 00:12:22,420 --> 00:12:24,300 people of Israel. And if you go look at it, it's 246 00:12:24,300 --> 00:12:26,580 even longer than one of my sermons, which gives me great 247 00:12:26,580 --> 00:12:29,460 comfort and hope. And I just, I feel really good 248 00:12:29,460 --> 00:12:33,540 about that. But this theme that runs 249 00:12:33,540 --> 00:12:35,820 throughout one of the things that runs throughout the Book of 250 00:12:35,820 --> 00:12:41,530 Deuteronomy is don't forget. God made a covenant with his 251 00:12:41,530 --> 00:12:44,850 people. Don't forget where you came 252 00:12:44,850 --> 00:12:46,370 from, he says it's. Listen to Deuteronomy chapter 253 00:12:46,370 --> 00:12:48,730 16, verse one. This is Moses now remembered. 254 00:12:48,850 --> 00:12:50,970 There's about a million people listening to him and he's 255 00:12:50,970 --> 00:12:52,690 standing up and he's telling Listen what Moses tells the 256 00:12:52,690 --> 00:12:55,730 people of Israel. Observe the month of a bead, and 257 00:12:55,730 --> 00:12:58,770 keep the Passover to the Lord your God, so we know what 258 00:12:58,770 --> 00:13:01,530 Passover was, right? Passover was the remembrance 259 00:13:01,650 --> 00:13:04,610 that God's Angel of death passed over the people of Israel. 260 00:13:04,770 --> 00:13:07,970 Observe the past over, for in the month of a bead, the Lord 261 00:13:07,970 --> 00:13:10,930 your God brought you out of Egypt. 262 00:13:11,090 --> 00:13:14,330 By night, the Lord God brought you out of Egypt. 263 00:13:14,410 --> 00:13:16,570 He didn't say, Listen, you didn't escape. 264 00:13:17,090 --> 00:13:20,810 You weren't so sneaky, right? You didn't muster up an army 265 00:13:20,810 --> 00:13:22,330 that overthrew the Egyptians, he said. 266 00:13:22,330 --> 00:13:26,410 Listen, in the middle of night, God brought you out of Egypt 267 00:13:26,530 --> 00:13:31,630 because you were captive. You were slaves. 268 00:13:31,870 --> 00:13:36,030 You had no power, You had no money, You had no authority. 269 00:13:36,150 --> 00:13:38,590 And God said, I'm about to lead you into the promised land where 270 00:13:38,590 --> 00:13:40,190 you're gonna have everything that you ever want. 271 00:13:40,310 --> 00:13:44,390 But the idea is every year you need to celebrate this so that 272 00:13:44,390 --> 00:13:48,590 you. Don't forget see what God was 273 00:13:48,590 --> 00:13:50,910 doing was building into the people of Israel. 274 00:13:50,910 --> 00:13:54,270 This mechanism that would trigger so that they could not 275 00:13:54,270 --> 00:13:58,690 become a people with masks. So that they would not be a 276 00:13:58,690 --> 00:14:02,130 people who lived in denial about their great tendency and 277 00:14:02,130 --> 00:14:05,210 penchant for finding themselves in the midst of slavery. 278 00:14:05,370 --> 00:14:09,290 Don't forget Israelites, you were slaves. 279 00:14:09,410 --> 00:14:13,730 You have been slaves. Remember where you come from, 280 00:14:13,890 --> 00:14:18,450 verse 2, and you shall offer the Passover sacrifice to the Lord. 281 00:14:18,450 --> 00:14:20,250 You remember what it was? The spotless lamb. 282 00:14:20,410 --> 00:14:22,650 They sacrifice the lamb, they eat the lamb. 283 00:14:22,730 --> 00:14:25,210 They put the blood on the doorpost and the Angel will will 284 00:14:25,210 --> 00:14:28,250 pass over, he says. You'll offer the Passover 285 00:14:28,250 --> 00:14:31,210 sacrifice to the Lord your God from the flock or the herd at 286 00:14:31,210 --> 00:14:34,250 the place the Lord will choose to make his name dwell there. 287 00:14:34,330 --> 00:14:36,170 So he's talking about the place where he was choosing, right. 288 00:14:36,290 --> 00:14:38,530 So what happened is, as they wandered in the wilderness, they 289 00:14:38,530 --> 00:14:41,170 built a big tent. They call it a Tabernacle, And 290 00:14:41,170 --> 00:14:43,290 the presence of God dwelt in that place. 291 00:14:43,450 --> 00:14:46,330 And they were going to take that Tabernacle into the promised 292 00:14:46,330 --> 00:14:49,130 Land, and they would set it up. But someday there would be a 293 00:14:49,130 --> 00:14:52,010 temple, and that temple was going to be a reminder that 294 00:14:52,010 --> 00:14:55,050 God's presence dwells in the midst of the people of Israel. 295 00:14:55,210 --> 00:14:59,170 And So what began as a family, family meal in the middle, in 296 00:14:59,210 --> 00:15:03,970 each individual homes would grow and expand to the people. 297 00:15:04,370 --> 00:15:06,850 We'll celebrate in the place where I show you in the city and 298 00:15:06,850 --> 00:15:08,330 in the temple where you show you, and there will be the 299 00:15:08,330 --> 00:15:11,170 sacrifices there, he said, listen, our bondage and our 300 00:15:11,170 --> 00:15:13,810 slavery is both individual and corporate. 301 00:15:13,810 --> 00:15:15,690 You remember what Isaiah said last week? 302 00:15:15,850 --> 00:15:18,610 I am a people. I am a man of unclean lips. 303 00:15:18,610 --> 00:15:22,090 And what I live among the people of unclean lips. 304 00:15:23,060 --> 00:15:25,900 Said listen, bondage and slavery is individual. 305 00:15:25,900 --> 00:15:30,220 It is our story and corporately it is our story. 306 00:15:30,740 --> 00:15:33,620 We spent all summer talking about these idols that we pick 307 00:15:33,620 --> 00:15:36,740 up, and we have individual idols and we have corporate idols. 308 00:15:36,740 --> 00:15:40,020 We have things that we worship and we grab on to individually. 309 00:15:40,940 --> 00:15:47,820 But Father instituted into the mythos of his people a symbol, 310 00:15:48,180 --> 00:15:51,160 the symbol of the Passover lamb. That would tell them, hey, 311 00:15:51,160 --> 00:15:53,480 listen when you find yourself locked in. 312 00:15:53,480 --> 00:15:55,040 When you find yourself locked down. 313 00:15:55,120 --> 00:15:59,120 When you are just stuck. When the hurts that you've 314 00:15:59,120 --> 00:16:02,160 experienced in your life threatened to overwhelm you and 315 00:16:02,160 --> 00:16:05,160 you can't get free and you can't see how you could possibly be 316 00:16:05,160 --> 00:16:07,880 free. When you pick up habits just to 317 00:16:07,920 --> 00:16:11,990 cope with life. When life is so big and so scary 318 00:16:12,110 --> 00:16:15,190 that you can't imagine not taking a drink to deal with it, 319 00:16:15,310 --> 00:16:18,710 or not spending a dollar to drink with it or not, whatever 320 00:16:18,710 --> 00:16:21,550 it is, whatever that thing is. When you get stuck like that, 321 00:16:21,910 --> 00:16:24,550 when you have these hang ups that you just can't get around, 322 00:16:24,630 --> 00:16:27,110 well, God put right into the center. 323 00:16:27,110 --> 00:16:30,550 Right into the middle of his people, was this symbol, this 324 00:16:30,670 --> 00:16:33,750 Passover lamb. That said, freedom isn't about 325 00:16:33,750 --> 00:16:35,510 your way to finagle your way out of it. 326 00:16:36,270 --> 00:16:38,110 It's not your ability to be stronger. 327 00:16:38,230 --> 00:16:41,390 This isn't about pulling yourself up by the bootstraps. 328 00:16:41,510 --> 00:16:44,270 This isn't about every person makes their own way. 329 00:16:44,270 --> 00:16:45,870 This is anything like that. This is a picture of 330 00:16:45,870 --> 00:16:50,270 deliverance, not escape. We serve a God who finds his 331 00:16:50,270 --> 00:16:54,790 people in captivity and leads them to freedom and leads them 332 00:16:54,790 --> 00:16:58,590 out. And what God said is every year, 333 00:16:58,710 --> 00:17:02,600 remember? Every year you need to remember, 334 00:17:02,600 --> 00:17:05,480 we say every week we get together and we remind ourselves 335 00:17:05,480 --> 00:17:08,640 that we're badly broken, to remind us that even if you're 336 00:17:08,640 --> 00:17:11,960 not in the middle of some horrendous heinous hang up right 337 00:17:11,960 --> 00:17:14,920 now. We tend that way if we don't 338 00:17:14,920 --> 00:17:17,400 keep short list and if we don't take care of what we're supposed 339 00:17:17,400 --> 00:17:20,520 to do, we'll end up there. So we let the symbol this 340 00:17:20,520 --> 00:17:23,079 Passover land. But he went beyond that too. 341 00:17:23,960 --> 00:17:27,160 Verse three, you shall eat no leavened bread with it. 342 00:17:27,359 --> 00:17:29,240 Leaven was. Yeast. 343 00:17:29,240 --> 00:17:30,960 You can scrape it off of the grape leaves, right? 344 00:17:30,960 --> 00:17:34,280 And you would put into a lump of flour or a lump of dough and it 345 00:17:34,280 --> 00:17:35,960 would rise and you would make bread out of it. 346 00:17:35,960 --> 00:17:38,400 He says you shall eat no leavened bread with it. 347 00:17:38,400 --> 00:17:40,080 Right. So it's imagined bread. 348 00:17:40,240 --> 00:17:44,200 If you take all of the yeast out of it, it's just gross, right? 349 00:17:44,280 --> 00:17:45,120 We let it. Great. 350 00:17:45,120 --> 00:17:48,600 God bless the 21st century. Like, we got like, like sugar in 351 00:17:48,600 --> 00:17:49,600 it. And we like, oh, it's like a 352 00:17:49,600 --> 00:17:50,840 tortilla. Listen, I loved it. 353 00:17:50,960 --> 00:17:53,680 This was not that. It was just. 354 00:17:54,080 --> 00:17:56,840 Gross, right. You shall have no leavened bread 355 00:17:56,840 --> 00:17:59,080 within, and listen for seven days. 356 00:17:59,080 --> 00:18:02,480 You shall eat it the Passover with unleavened bread, the bread 357 00:18:02,480 --> 00:18:04,800 of affliction. For you came out of the land of 358 00:18:04,840 --> 00:18:08,280 Egypt in haste, that all the days of your life you may 359 00:18:08,280 --> 00:18:11,040 remember the day when you came out of the land of Egypt. 360 00:18:11,160 --> 00:18:14,320 He says, I want you to live. I want you to remember that you 361 00:18:14,320 --> 00:18:15,760 were slaves, and that God led you out. 362 00:18:15,920 --> 00:18:18,720 And so this symbol, the Passover land, But this unleavened bread, 363 00:18:18,720 --> 00:18:20,440 became a symbol too. And here was the deal. 364 00:18:20,560 --> 00:18:22,960 It takes time for the yeast to rise, doesn't it? 365 00:18:23,380 --> 00:18:25,460 They put the yeast in there and then it rises. 366 00:18:25,460 --> 00:18:26,660 Right. Well, here's the deal. 367 00:18:26,740 --> 00:18:30,500 Slavery is ending tonight. Who's going to hang around and 368 00:18:30,500 --> 00:18:34,060 wait for the bread to rise? Lord, I would love to be free. 369 00:18:34,060 --> 00:18:35,420 I would love to enjoy all the good things. 370 00:18:35,420 --> 00:18:37,540 But I'm waiting for this lovely ciabatta to read. 371 00:18:37,540 --> 00:18:39,700 It's got, it's got a proof for another hour and then we're 372 00:18:39,860 --> 00:18:40,500 gone. No. 373 00:18:40,660 --> 00:18:42,740 When freedom comes, you go. Now. 374 00:18:43,700 --> 00:18:47,220 Can you imagine that jail doors being thrown open? 375 00:18:47,220 --> 00:18:49,820 And you're like well. But I've got 3 squares here, and 376 00:18:49,820 --> 00:18:51,460 I'm getting kind of used to the Blumpy pillow. 377 00:18:51,460 --> 00:18:55,610 And know that, listen, you don't toil in slavery. 378 00:18:56,210 --> 00:19:00,810 You don't linger in bondage. When the opportunity comes, you 379 00:19:00,810 --> 00:19:03,970 go and you get out. And So what Levin was, was 380 00:19:04,130 --> 00:19:06,170 yesterday's on. Here's why it took for seven 381 00:19:06,170 --> 00:19:06,730 days. Right? 382 00:19:06,810 --> 00:19:08,730 Because it would be easy to go. Yeah, I can choke. 383 00:19:08,730 --> 00:19:12,640 Anything down for a day, right? The Levin was that fermented 384 00:19:12,640 --> 00:19:14,040 lump. And you would say this is the 385 00:19:14,040 --> 00:19:15,720 lump, the Levin lump that I have, and you would take a 386 00:19:15,720 --> 00:19:18,360 little bit of it all and you would save it for tomorrow. 387 00:19:18,360 --> 00:19:21,240 So when you start tomorrow, you've already got a rise and 388 00:19:21,240 --> 00:19:23,840 God said for seven days you got to get rid of all of it so that 389 00:19:23,840 --> 00:19:27,160 there is none of it left. You don't take anything with 390 00:19:27,160 --> 00:19:29,920 you. Listen, we don't take mementos 391 00:19:30,080 --> 00:19:33,840 of slavery because slavery is something that we want to 392 00:19:33,840 --> 00:19:37,360 remember, but we want to leave behind, isn't it? 393 00:19:38,450 --> 00:19:40,690 We want to do that. And so God built into the 394 00:19:40,690 --> 00:19:44,650 rhythms of the Israelites, the rhythms of the people, don't 395 00:19:44,850 --> 00:19:49,730 linger in slavery. And so this leaven, this yeasted 396 00:19:49,730 --> 00:19:54,090 dough, became a symbol. It became a a reminder of 397 00:19:54,330 --> 00:19:58,130 captivity. And the thing with captivity is 398 00:19:58,290 --> 00:20:01,810 it is fundamentally incompatible with freedom. 399 00:20:02,690 --> 00:20:06,010 You are either free or you are not. 400 00:20:06,900 --> 00:20:09,780 You are either captive or you are. 401 00:20:10,820 --> 00:20:13,940 And the question is why would you bring it with you? 402 00:20:14,860 --> 00:20:18,820 Can you imagine like like buying your own, buying a brand new 403 00:20:18,820 --> 00:20:20,860 house and you're ready to move into the new house and you just 404 00:20:20,860 --> 00:20:23,980 go walk in and you just like, break the plumbing because, 405 00:20:23,980 --> 00:20:26,300 well, the plumbing at your old house was bad and so we're just 406 00:20:26,300 --> 00:20:28,100 going to do the same thing here, no? 407 00:20:29,120 --> 00:20:32,440 When you get free, when you get new, when something new happens, 408 00:20:32,600 --> 00:20:36,320 you lean into all of that. So keep that in mind, right? 409 00:20:36,320 --> 00:20:39,840 Keep that symbolism of the Passover, the Lamb, and 11 keep 410 00:20:39,840 --> 00:20:42,520 that in mind as we read this in Matthew chapter 13. 411 00:20:42,520 --> 00:20:44,760 This is Jesus talking and he picks up this. 412 00:20:44,760 --> 00:20:46,320 Symbol of 11 that everybody would know. 413 00:20:46,560 --> 00:20:48,800 And he uses it this one time in a really unique way. 414 00:20:48,800 --> 00:20:52,720 Listen, verse 33 and Matthew 13. He told him another parable. 415 00:20:53,040 --> 00:20:54,080 The Kingdom of heaven. Right? 416 00:20:54,080 --> 00:20:55,960 This is good. This is the Kingdom of heaven is 417 00:20:55,960 --> 00:20:58,420 like 11. We know what that is, right? 418 00:20:58,420 --> 00:21:01,660 The lump yeasted dough. It's like 11 that a woman took 419 00:21:01,660 --> 00:21:05,820 and she hit it in three measures of flour until it was all 11. 420 00:21:05,820 --> 00:21:08,860 So like you take a golf ball size of 11 and you take 3 421 00:21:08,860 --> 00:21:11,060 measures right? Three measures of flour with 422 00:21:11,100 --> 00:21:15,180 £50. So you take £50 of flour and you 423 00:21:15,180 --> 00:21:19,140 take a golf ball size of Leven dough and you throw that in 424 00:21:19,140 --> 00:21:21,540 there and soon enough the. Whole thing, right? 425 00:21:21,540 --> 00:21:25,420 Just blows up and it expands and becomes this yeasted lump. 426 00:21:26,350 --> 00:21:29,190 Said the Kingdom is like that. This is a good analogy, right? 427 00:21:29,190 --> 00:21:30,950 He says. Listen, the Kingdom can be like 428 00:21:30,950 --> 00:21:32,110 that. If you just get a little bit in 429 00:21:32,110 --> 00:21:35,230 there and you let a little bit of a freedom start to grow and 430 00:21:35,230 --> 00:21:36,830 you hit, it'll expand and it'll grow. 431 00:21:36,990 --> 00:21:41,970 But that's not the usual use of. 11 If you go to verse or to 432 00:21:41,970 --> 00:21:44,690 chapter 16, what did it say? Verse 6. 433 00:21:44,690 --> 00:21:47,130 And we're gonna go down to verse 12, it says this Jesus is 434 00:21:47,130 --> 00:21:50,250 telling his disciples, watch and beware of the 11 of the 435 00:21:50,250 --> 00:21:52,050 Pharisees and the Sadisties. Right. 436 00:21:52,170 --> 00:21:54,050 So the Pharisees and the Sadisties were the religious 437 00:21:54,290 --> 00:21:57,490 leaders and now his disciples, Jesus disciples, were a lot like 438 00:21:57,490 --> 00:22:00,610 me, really slow on the uptake, right? 439 00:22:00,610 --> 00:22:03,050 So they start just being like, oh, he's talking about bread. 440 00:22:03,170 --> 00:22:04,490 Jesus hungry. He's that bread. 441 00:22:04,570 --> 00:22:06,210 And they're all looking. They're like, well, I don't have 442 00:22:06,210 --> 00:22:07,490 any bread. So, Jesus. 443 00:22:08,090 --> 00:22:11,570 Starts like rubbing the bridge of his nose and he's like no 444 00:22:12,330 --> 00:22:15,090 verse 12, he explains me, He's like, I'm not talking about that 445 00:22:15,090 --> 00:22:17,570 Listen verse 12. Then they understood that he not 446 00:22:17,570 --> 00:22:21,450 tell them to be aware of the leaven of bread, but of the 447 00:22:21,770 --> 00:22:24,610 teaching of the Pharisees and the sadness. 448 00:22:25,930 --> 00:22:30,690 He said be careful. The teaching that you sit under 449 00:22:31,130 --> 00:22:35,620 because a little bit goes a long way because that teaching that 450 00:22:35,620 --> 00:22:37,820 they do, you just hear a little bit and it gets in your brain 451 00:22:37,820 --> 00:22:40,460 and it starts to grow and it starts to ferment, it starts to 452 00:22:40,460 --> 00:22:42,220 expand and it can take over the whole thing. 453 00:22:42,220 --> 00:22:44,820 And you go, well, great, well, what's the what's the 11 of the 454 00:22:44,820 --> 00:22:46,140 Pharisees? What's that that they're talking 455 00:22:46,140 --> 00:22:47,700 about? Listen, Luke, chapter 12. 456 00:22:47,940 --> 00:22:50,300 In the meantime, so many thousands of the people had 457 00:22:50,300 --> 00:22:52,380 gathered together that they were trampling one another. 458 00:22:52,780 --> 00:22:55,460 Jesus began to say those disciples first listen, he turns 459 00:22:55,460 --> 00:22:57,020 around, there was all these people and he turns around. 460 00:22:57,020 --> 00:23:01,900 He says beware of 11 of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy. 461 00:23:01,900 --> 00:23:05,020 Do you know why the 11 of the Pharisees was hypocrisy and this 462 00:23:05,020 --> 00:23:11,220 is important? The Pharisees whole world was If 463 00:23:11,220 --> 00:23:16,260 you keep the law good enough, God will come back. 464 00:23:17,700 --> 00:23:23,780 If you behave, then you will have the blessings of God if you 465 00:23:23,780 --> 00:23:28,100 do all the right things on the right days, the right time with 466 00:23:28,100 --> 00:23:31,660 the right people if you are good enough. 467 00:23:32,270 --> 00:23:35,270 Then you will be accepted, and then you will be free. 468 00:23:35,350 --> 00:23:38,990 And Jesus knew what we know, what we masked. 469 00:23:39,070 --> 00:23:42,710 There is no escape from that other than hypocrisy. 470 00:23:42,710 --> 00:23:45,030 Do you know why? Because you're not good enough. 471 00:23:46,470 --> 00:23:49,590 Because you can't keep the law well enough. 472 00:23:50,830 --> 00:23:54,150 And the thing that I would say to us here is whether those of 473 00:23:54,150 --> 00:23:55,990 us in this room, there's a couple of 100 people in this 474 00:23:55,990 --> 00:23:58,430 room right now. Listen, whether you're rich or 475 00:23:58,430 --> 00:24:01,000 poor. Whether you were raised in 476 00:24:01,000 --> 00:24:04,640 church or you've never been to church in your life, whether 477 00:24:04,640 --> 00:24:08,640 you're a Republican or Democrat, whether you're black or white or 478 00:24:08,640 --> 00:24:15,600 brown, you cannot do good enough to make Jesus accept you. 479 00:24:17,080 --> 00:24:21,360 You cannot be good enough to earn your way. 480 00:24:22,240 --> 00:24:25,880 And yet we try, don't we? We divide the world up into us 481 00:24:25,880 --> 00:24:27,320 and them. People who look like me, who 482 00:24:27,320 --> 00:24:29,760 think like me, who talk like me, who earn like me. 483 00:24:30,480 --> 00:24:32,080 And we say, well, that's got to be good enough. 484 00:24:32,080 --> 00:24:34,160 And what Jesus said is beware of that. 485 00:24:35,040 --> 00:24:36,880 Beware of the mask. Right, Because that's what it 486 00:24:36,880 --> 00:24:38,240 is. Every time I say it's us and me, 487 00:24:38,240 --> 00:24:41,840 that's a mask where I just say no, yeah, no, no, we're OK. 488 00:24:41,840 --> 00:24:44,720 We're good enough so that what happens in is I have to hide all 489 00:24:44,720 --> 00:24:46,560 the things. This happens a lot in church, 490 00:24:46,560 --> 00:24:48,800 doesn't it? You've experienced that, you 491 00:24:48,800 --> 00:24:50,580 know. I had someone last week come and 492 00:24:50,580 --> 00:24:51,020 talk to me. Right? 493 00:24:51,020 --> 00:24:52,660 And the house is going fine. Fine. 494 00:24:52,660 --> 00:24:53,780 I said it too. I'm fine. 495 00:24:53,780 --> 00:24:54,660 You're fine. We're all fine. 496 00:24:54,660 --> 00:24:56,620 Everything's fine. Maybe not. 497 00:24:57,420 --> 00:24:59,820 And again, like, you don't have to unpack it, all right here on 498 00:24:59,820 --> 00:25:03,740 the front row for me, Right? But the question is, do we walk 499 00:25:03,740 --> 00:25:10,300 around like it's fine? Do we just say it's fine, see 500 00:25:10,300 --> 00:25:12,420 what happens then as we get into this place where we have to 501 00:25:12,420 --> 00:25:17,620 cover up where we really are and Jesus can't heal what we're not? 502 00:25:18,720 --> 00:25:22,760 Jesus can't deliver us from a slavery that we don't admit that 503 00:25:22,760 --> 00:25:26,360 we have. And so this symbol of leaven, 504 00:25:27,080 --> 00:25:30,880 the symbol of yeast rising and expanding and spreading through, 505 00:25:30,960 --> 00:25:32,800 became a symbol. At first it was a symbol, a 506 00:25:32,840 --> 00:25:36,760 symbol of literal captivity, the people literally captive in a 507 00:25:36,760 --> 00:25:39,520 literal time and in place. But it grew, and Jesus took it 508 00:25:39,520 --> 00:25:43,480 and coughed it and used it and expanded to be a symbol of 509 00:25:43,600 --> 00:25:47,960 spiritual slavery. Of spiritual bondage. 510 00:25:48,120 --> 00:25:52,520 And what the symbol conveys to us is that whatever you tolerate 511 00:25:53,240 --> 00:26:00,080 will permeate, for better or for worse, the Kingdom of God. 512 00:26:00,400 --> 00:26:03,320 The holiness and the righteousness that He came to 513 00:26:03,320 --> 00:26:07,040 set us free from that He said, us free, for that will permeate 514 00:26:07,320 --> 00:26:10,910 God's love and his. Rule in your life a little bit 515 00:26:11,070 --> 00:26:13,510 will spread, he said. It's like a mustard seed, right? 516 00:26:13,510 --> 00:26:15,630 It's the smallest of all seeds, but boy, it grows into the 517 00:26:15,630 --> 00:26:19,230 biggest tree in the garden. Even the birds can sit on it. 518 00:26:20,230 --> 00:26:24,470 What we tolerate will permeate. What that also means is that a 519 00:26:24,470 --> 00:26:29,390 little bit of prejudice will spoil the whole lump, right When 520 00:26:29,390 --> 00:26:33,790 we say, well, I don't like that kind of person, but this kind of 521 00:26:33,790 --> 00:26:37,470 person's okay, beware. That's prejudice. 522 00:26:38,110 --> 00:26:42,030 And it will spread. You begin by having nice, nice 523 00:26:42,030 --> 00:26:44,510 and neatly lines. But eventually what happens is 524 00:26:44,510 --> 00:26:50,950 it begins to spread everywhere. A little bit of fear spread 525 00:26:50,950 --> 00:26:53,670 through the whole, through the whole lump. 526 00:26:54,670 --> 00:26:58,390 Whether we're afraid of a medical outcome, it will grow 527 00:26:58,390 --> 00:27:00,230 and it will consume us, and we'll become afraid of 528 00:27:00,230 --> 00:27:03,550 everything to the point where every itch on the back of our 529 00:27:03,550 --> 00:27:06,060 elbow. Sends us into anxiety. 530 00:27:06,060 --> 00:27:08,420 And I don't say that judgmentally or to cast one like 531 00:27:08,420 --> 00:27:10,540 I I know because I've been there. 532 00:27:11,780 --> 00:27:13,980 But it can also be fear of people. 533 00:27:14,860 --> 00:27:18,140 It spreads. And what happens is we live in a 534 00:27:18,140 --> 00:27:20,580 culture where we can find a bunch of people who think 535 00:27:20,580 --> 00:27:24,180 exactly like we do, who will reinforce that fear to us that 536 00:27:24,180 --> 00:27:26,100 the problem is the other guy out there. 537 00:27:27,070 --> 00:27:30,270 And so it grows and it grows. And then we begin to walk around 538 00:27:30,270 --> 00:27:33,110 in our lives looking for people again who look and think and 539 00:27:33,110 --> 00:27:36,470 talk just like us, who tell us that the bad guy is in that 540 00:27:36,470 --> 00:27:39,550 camp, the bad guy isn't in our camp. 541 00:27:39,910 --> 00:27:44,070 What about anger? You get angry at somebody and 542 00:27:44,070 --> 00:27:46,950 you tolerate it and you let it set in your heart. 543 00:27:47,070 --> 00:27:50,070 And then what does it do? It consumes you and becomes 544 00:27:50,070 --> 00:27:52,190 bitterness. And you know, have you ever 545 00:27:52,190 --> 00:27:54,270 known somebody just ate up with bitterness? 546 00:27:55,580 --> 00:27:58,860 Didn't start that way. It started with a little 547 00:27:58,980 --> 00:28:03,820 offense, a little slight, a little wound, probably 548 00:28:03,820 --> 00:28:06,500 justified, probably rightfully earned. 549 00:28:06,540 --> 00:28:10,820 But that little offense consumes and grows and expands and takes 550 00:28:10,820 --> 00:28:14,980 over until we are completely and totally eaten up with it. 551 00:28:16,100 --> 00:28:19,260 Affairs, nobody sets out and says today I will have an 552 00:28:19,260 --> 00:28:20,980 affair. Today I will destroy my marriage 553 00:28:20,980 --> 00:28:22,940 and my children know what happens is we have. 554 00:28:23,060 --> 00:28:27,460 We feel overlooked. And so we have a little bit of 555 00:28:27,580 --> 00:28:32,260 indiscretion, a little bit of innuendo, and a little bit 556 00:28:32,500 --> 00:28:35,700 leavens the whole lump. That's how addictions start, 557 00:28:36,460 --> 00:28:38,620 right? You learn at some point in your 558 00:28:38,620 --> 00:28:41,660 life that if I take a drink, I'm better able to cope with the 559 00:28:41,660 --> 00:28:45,300 pressures of this life. If I spend a dollar, I feel 560 00:28:45,300 --> 00:28:46,860 better. But you know what? 561 00:28:46,860 --> 00:28:48,700 Those aisles are diminishing returns. 562 00:28:48,700 --> 00:28:51,060 The same dollar that gives you relief today won't give you 563 00:28:51,060 --> 00:28:53,060 relief tomorrow. So you spend 2. 564 00:28:53,460 --> 00:28:56,180 Now it's not 1 drink, It's two drinks. 565 00:28:56,700 --> 00:28:59,540 And before you know it, it is our very existence. 566 00:28:59,740 --> 00:29:02,140 It is our survival. And friend, I want to tell you, 567 00:29:03,820 --> 00:29:10,220 Jesus came to make you free. Now that freedom isn't easy. 568 00:29:10,220 --> 00:29:12,380 It's not. It's it's hard fought. 569 00:29:12,380 --> 00:29:13,420 You've got it. You got to get it. 570 00:29:13,580 --> 00:29:17,500 But you need to know any remnant of slavery that we tolerate. 571 00:29:18,120 --> 00:29:24,200 Any remnant of slavery that we tolerate will eventually consume 572 00:29:24,200 --> 00:29:26,520 us. That one group of people that 573 00:29:26,520 --> 00:29:30,560 you allow yourself to be distrustful of just on the 574 00:29:30,560 --> 00:29:33,080 surface of it. And So what that means is so. 575 00:29:33,080 --> 00:29:37,640 So the response to that then is is good religious word repent. 576 00:29:38,570 --> 00:29:40,210 Right. So the word repent means you're 577 00:29:40,210 --> 00:29:43,330 walking down a road and what you happens is you come to discover 578 00:29:43,330 --> 00:29:46,090 that that word Rd. that you're on leads to bitterness. 579 00:29:46,090 --> 00:29:47,970 It leads to anger. It leads to addiction, it leads 580 00:29:47,970 --> 00:29:50,410 to fear, it leads to separation and all of those things. 581 00:29:50,530 --> 00:29:53,450 And you're walking down that road and one day the light goes 582 00:29:53,450 --> 00:29:54,450 on, you go. You know what? 583 00:29:54,730 --> 00:29:56,850 I don't want to be on this road anymore. 584 00:29:57,370 --> 00:29:59,450 I don't want to live afraid anymore. 585 00:29:59,790 --> 00:30:01,830 I don't want to be addicted anymore. 586 00:30:01,870 --> 00:30:04,710 I don't want to be angry at the world anymore. 587 00:30:04,710 --> 00:30:07,670 I don't want to be angry at my mom or my dad anymore. 588 00:30:07,670 --> 00:30:10,590 And so we just go, I'm going to turn around and I'm going to get 589 00:30:10,590 --> 00:30:12,830 over here on this road where freedom is. 590 00:30:12,910 --> 00:30:16,190 But the problem is all of the things that make that road, that 591 00:30:16,190 --> 00:30:19,030 road, aren't on this road. And So what repentance is. 592 00:30:19,150 --> 00:30:22,310 It is the intentional and deliberate and systematic 593 00:30:22,310 --> 00:30:24,470 rejection of all of those things. 594 00:30:25,720 --> 00:30:28,280 It is saying no when that feeling comes up. 595 00:30:28,280 --> 00:30:31,280 And I want to have that anger fantasy at my dad for the things 596 00:30:31,280 --> 00:30:32,880 not you dad. That's my daddy's right there. 597 00:30:32,880 --> 00:30:34,160 It's not him. He's wonder if I love it right. 598 00:30:34,400 --> 00:30:36,200 But whatever it is that thing right? 599 00:30:36,200 --> 00:30:38,920 Like you just go, no, I'm not giving into that. 600 00:30:39,040 --> 00:30:41,560 I forgive my dad. Not because I feel like it, 601 00:30:41,720 --> 00:30:46,000 because I am free from it and you And here's a question, 602 00:30:46,000 --> 00:30:47,200 right? A lot of times the question that 603 00:30:47,200 --> 00:30:49,080 we get is, well, how much can I get away with? 604 00:30:50,360 --> 00:30:55,120 Like how much sin can I like can I like nibble at listen, did you 605 00:30:55,120 --> 00:31:00,520 know there are acceptable in the city? 606 00:31:00,520 --> 00:31:04,000 There are acceptable levels of fecal matter in the water. 607 00:31:04,600 --> 00:31:06,800 Do you know what an acceptable level for me is? 608 00:31:07,520 --> 00:31:12,200 Zero. I want 0 feces in my water, 609 00:31:13,240 --> 00:31:15,680 right? At no point do I just go. 610 00:31:15,680 --> 00:31:18,840 Well, what if it's? 10 parts per million, How's 611 00:31:19,200 --> 00:31:21,180 that? None of it. 612 00:31:21,940 --> 00:31:25,980 The answer for the answer for our sin isn't how close can I 613 00:31:25,980 --> 00:31:30,220 get to slavery? The question is how far can I 614 00:31:30,220 --> 00:31:32,100 get? And So what happens is we begin 615 00:31:32,100 --> 00:31:33,740 to systematically route those things out. 616 00:31:33,740 --> 00:31:35,460 Listen, I'm about to get your business. 617 00:31:35,460 --> 00:31:38,260 You ready? Some of you need to go have 618 00:31:38,260 --> 00:31:43,340 lunch with a Republican. Last time I said a Democrat, 619 00:31:43,340 --> 00:31:44,660 right. So we're equal opportunity here. 620 00:31:44,860 --> 00:31:46,740 But here's what I mean. It got real quiet. 621 00:31:46,740 --> 00:31:48,580 And you're like when we said that I'll get the emails this 622 00:31:48,580 --> 00:31:50,800 week because here's. But here's the thing. 623 00:31:51,920 --> 00:31:55,400 You need to sit down and long enough till you realize that 624 00:31:55,400 --> 00:31:59,920 they're not monsters and whatever you agree or disagree. 625 00:31:59,920 --> 00:32:02,960 With their policies and their politics and their thoughts, you 626 00:32:02,960 --> 00:32:06,480 need to look at them and you can ask them directly, are you 627 00:32:06,480 --> 00:32:11,360 trying to destroy our nation? And then when they say no, 628 00:32:11,920 --> 00:32:18,160 believe them and listen real and honest and sincere differences. 629 00:32:19,040 --> 00:32:21,360 But. You need to sit down long enough 630 00:32:21,360 --> 00:32:23,560 to you can believe those people on the other side. 631 00:32:23,560 --> 00:32:27,120 They are not my enemy. They are people as prone to 632 00:32:27,120 --> 00:32:30,480 slavery and addiction and bondage as I am. 633 00:32:30,600 --> 00:32:43,760 And so I will not. Because he came to make me free. 634 00:32:31,920 --> 00:32:36,680 Because I'm created to be free. I will not tolerate separation 635 00:32:36,760 --> 00:32:39,680 and division and prejudice in my life. 636 00:32:40,560 --> 00:32:45,680 I will not. And so we repent and listen, if 637 00:32:45,680 --> 00:32:49,000 you're going to be free, get totally free. 638 00:32:50,090 --> 00:32:54,530 So what the Passover? Means for us is that we find and 639 00:32:54,530 --> 00:32:59,530 we root out every single trace of sin that we can. 640 00:32:59,530 --> 00:33:02,170 And listen, we don't root out sin so that Jesus loves us. 641 00:33:02,170 --> 00:33:06,250 We root out sin. Because Jesus loves us, we root 642 00:33:06,250 --> 00:33:08,370 out sin. Because every time that I 643 00:33:08,570 --> 00:33:11,810 separate from you for some difference, I'm not love. 644 00:33:11,810 --> 00:33:15,210 That's not love, that's hate. And so every time I go, no, I 645 00:33:15,210 --> 00:33:19,090 can't be with you because you you look a certain way or feel a 646 00:33:19,090 --> 00:33:20,290 certain way or think a certain way. 647 00:33:20,370 --> 00:33:23,290 Every time we do that, we're not experiencing the love of God. 648 00:33:23,290 --> 00:33:26,690 We're experiencing the fall. And we're free to not. 649 00:33:26,690 --> 00:33:29,890 We're free from that. And So what we do is we don't 650 00:33:29,890 --> 00:33:31,610 have to pretend. We don't have to have mass this 651 00:33:31,610 --> 00:33:32,570 is. And hey, I'm OK. 652 00:33:32,570 --> 00:33:34,130 You're OK than anything like that. 653 00:33:35,330 --> 00:33:38,250 But what it does, we just say we're going to root out every 654 00:33:38,250 --> 00:33:42,450 prejudice, every fear, every anxiety, every addiction, every 655 00:33:42,450 --> 00:33:45,530 uncoming thing that is in us. And we root it out. 656 00:33:46,490 --> 00:33:50,930 And that symbol of 11? It didn't stop with Jesus. 657 00:33:50,930 --> 00:33:53,490 Paul picks it up in the book of First Corinthians. 658 00:33:54,550 --> 00:33:56,590 The book of First Corinthians is the Apostle Paul, right? 659 00:33:56,590 --> 00:33:58,030 He's a church planner and he's a preacher. 660 00:33:58,030 --> 00:34:00,990 And he went around and he found this church in Corinth and he 661 00:34:00,990 --> 00:34:02,350 preached to him. They got and had a bunch of 662 00:34:02,350 --> 00:34:03,470 gifts. They had great preachers. 663 00:34:03,470 --> 00:34:05,790 They had all of this. But what happened is in their 664 00:34:05,790 --> 00:34:09,190 group, right in their, their church, they had tolerated this, 665 00:34:09,389 --> 00:34:12,389 this kind of big, huge, gross sexual sin. 666 00:34:12,389 --> 00:34:14,590 It was a guy, and I think it was his motherinlaw or something 667 00:34:14,590 --> 00:34:16,350 like that. And and what happened is the 668 00:34:16,469 --> 00:34:19,889 church in Corinth was like well. What are you going to do? 669 00:34:19,929 --> 00:34:22,449 I can't can't really say anything about that because 670 00:34:22,449 --> 00:34:24,090 everybody to each his own, everybody. 671 00:34:24,090 --> 00:34:25,530 You do you and you can do whatever. 672 00:34:25,530 --> 00:34:28,850 And Paul's like what? You're free. 673 00:34:28,889 --> 00:34:32,929 Listen, First Corinthians, chapter 5, verse six, you're 674 00:34:32,929 --> 00:34:34,330 boasting is not good, he's saying. 675 00:34:34,330 --> 00:34:36,650 Because they're boasting about, hey, well, we're free to do 676 00:34:36,650 --> 00:34:39,210 whatever we want. We can do whatever and whatever 677 00:34:39,210 --> 00:34:40,969 feels good. Whatever things are left, that's 678 00:34:40,969 --> 00:34:44,050 good enough, right? And he's like, that's not good. 679 00:34:44,050 --> 00:34:46,889 You're boasting isn't good. Do you not know that a little 680 00:34:46,889 --> 00:34:49,810 Levin, Levin's the whole lump. See, now he's not just talking 681 00:34:49,810 --> 00:34:51,050 individually. I mean, it's talking 682 00:34:51,050 --> 00:34:55,590 individually and corporately. He's like, your stuff affects 683 00:34:55,790 --> 00:34:58,070 all of us. Your goodness, your 684 00:34:58,070 --> 00:35:02,510 righteousness affects all of us, and your sin affects all of us. 685 00:35:02,510 --> 00:35:04,070 Don't you know that elevens a whole lump? 686 00:35:04,310 --> 00:35:07,990 He says cleanse out the old Levin, that you may be a new 687 00:35:07,990 --> 00:35:09,190 lump. He's talking corporately. 688 00:35:09,190 --> 00:35:12,150 Get rid of that so that you can be new for Christ. 689 00:35:12,150 --> 00:35:15,030 Our Passover lamb has been safe, has been sacrificed. 690 00:35:15,230 --> 00:35:17,390 So now we see, look, side note here. 691 00:35:17,390 --> 00:35:19,990 You remember what the Passover lamb was in the Old Testament? 692 00:35:20,470 --> 00:35:23,190 It was a lamb. What does Paul tell us now that 693 00:35:23,190 --> 00:35:28,350 the Passover lamb is for us? It's Jesus the lamb that was 694 00:35:28,350 --> 00:35:33,230 spotless, whose blood allows the Angel of death to pass over us. 695 00:35:33,230 --> 00:35:35,230 And you know what? The person who never experiences 696 00:35:35,230 --> 00:35:39,910 death has eternal life, right? And So what Paul says is, 697 00:35:39,910 --> 00:35:43,390 listen, get rid of the. And then some of you right now, 698 00:35:43,430 --> 00:35:47,670 like, yeah, time sinners, right? Listen, here's what it doesn't 699 00:35:47,710 --> 00:35:52,890 mean when it says get rid of 11. Get rid of all that. 700 00:35:52,890 --> 00:35:57,410 What it doesn't mean is you find people who sin, and you, they're 701 00:35:57,410 --> 00:36:01,170 not welcome here, because if that was the case, this would be 702 00:36:01,170 --> 00:36:05,730 an empty room. And what we do though, is when 703 00:36:05,730 --> 00:36:09,730 we find out people, we get really serious about the people 704 00:36:09,730 --> 00:36:13,810 who sin differently from us. That's the sin. 705 00:36:13,810 --> 00:36:18,930 That's not okay like. Listen, I will cover my shame 706 00:36:19,010 --> 00:36:22,130 with ham sandwiches till the sun comes out. 707 00:36:22,130 --> 00:36:24,850 And So what I'm going to do is I'm going to make much less of a 708 00:36:24,850 --> 00:36:30,490 deal about gluttony than I do about alcoholism, right? 709 00:36:30,490 --> 00:36:32,810 And what I'm going to do is I'm going to find people who believe 710 00:36:32,810 --> 00:36:35,410 like. Me who wrestle with the same 711 00:36:35,410 --> 00:36:38,770 thing so that we can go easy on ourselves and we can go hard on 712 00:36:38,890 --> 00:36:42,900 the other people. That's not what it means. 713 00:36:43,100 --> 00:36:45,700 What it doesn't mean is that we stand at the door and we check 714 00:36:45,700 --> 00:36:48,420 sin cards and make sure that only the right kind of sinful 715 00:36:48,420 --> 00:36:51,220 people get in. So the question that we ask as a 716 00:36:51,220 --> 00:36:54,380 church that we have to ask is what do we do with sinful 717 00:36:54,380 --> 00:36:56,820 people? Some of you right now feel just 718 00:36:56,820 --> 00:36:59,540 to tell them like bigots, I hate them at this. 719 00:36:59,540 --> 00:37:02,060 And the other thing that it doesn't mean is that we don't 720 00:37:02,060 --> 00:37:04,220 talk about sin generally or specifically. 721 00:37:05,330 --> 00:37:07,970 What it doesn't mean is that whatever you do is okay, as long 722 00:37:07,970 --> 00:37:10,210 as you do it privately, in the sin of your own home, in the 723 00:37:10,370 --> 00:37:13,170 comfort of your own home, or with a clean conscience or or 724 00:37:13,170 --> 00:37:15,450 anything like that. It doesn't mean that we ignore 725 00:37:15,490 --> 00:37:19,610 sin at all. It doesn't mean we ignore 726 00:37:19,610 --> 00:37:23,050 specific sins. What it does mean is this. 727 00:37:23,050 --> 00:37:25,210 Jesus explained it to us. He told us in Luke chapter 6. 728 00:37:25,410 --> 00:37:28,690 He's talking again to his disciples and he says this Luke 729 00:37:28,690 --> 00:37:31,890 chapter 6, verse 42, he says, how can you say to your brother, 730 00:37:32,090 --> 00:37:34,890 brother, let me take the speck out that is in your eye when you 731 00:37:34,890 --> 00:37:37,530 yourself do not see the log that is in your own eye. 732 00:37:37,690 --> 00:37:40,170 You hypocrite. Remember that word, the teaching 733 00:37:40,170 --> 00:37:41,410 of the Sadnessies and the Pharisees. 734 00:37:41,610 --> 00:37:45,930 This is where it always leads up when your acceptance before God, 735 00:37:45,930 --> 00:37:49,090 or your acceptance or your place in this church is how clean your 736 00:37:49,130 --> 00:37:51,810 eyeballs are, how few specks you have. 737 00:37:51,890 --> 00:37:55,440 We've missed it. Take the log out of your own eye 738 00:37:55,480 --> 00:37:58,840 and then you will see clearly to take the spec that is in your 739 00:37:59,040 --> 00:38:00,800 brother's eye. What it doesn't say is that we 740 00:38:00,800 --> 00:38:02,840 don't ever talk about each other specs. 741 00:38:04,080 --> 00:38:07,320 What it means is we talk about our own spec first. 742 00:38:07,440 --> 00:38:09,920 So what that looks like is I go to my friend Joe here and I can 743 00:38:09,920 --> 00:38:11,840 go instead of going to Joe. You suck, man. 744 00:38:11,840 --> 00:38:14,640 You're the worst dude ever. Like how could you possibly be 745 00:38:14,640 --> 00:38:16,200 here with that kind of said Joe, you're great. 746 00:38:16,200 --> 00:38:17,800 I love you bro. Like no, what it means? 747 00:38:17,800 --> 00:38:22,670 Is I go to Joe and go Joe? This week I my imposter syndrome 748 00:38:22,670 --> 00:38:27,230 was so huge bro and I I like and I just felt worthless in a crowd 749 00:38:27,230 --> 00:38:31,030 of people and and instead of just challenging that imposter 750 00:38:31,030 --> 00:38:34,750 syndrome what I did was I told a lie about somebody else that 751 00:38:34,750 --> 00:38:39,150 would make me feel better and I confess that sin to Joe so that 752 00:38:39,150 --> 00:38:43,150 Joe can go, man. Jason you have to get out of 753 00:38:43,150 --> 00:38:45,550 church now because we don't have sinful people here, right? 754 00:38:45,590 --> 00:38:48,150 No, he doesn't say that. You know what Joe says is he 755 00:38:48,150 --> 00:38:49,350 looks at me in the eye and he goes. 756 00:38:49,860 --> 00:38:56,140 I forgive you and Jason. I had a rough week too when this 757 00:38:56,140 --> 00:38:57,060 happened. I did this. 758 00:38:57,060 --> 00:38:59,660 And that's not the response. And what happens is me and Joe 759 00:38:59,660 --> 00:39:03,020 now we begin to pray for each other and now and it's me and 760 00:39:03,020 --> 00:39:04,540 Joe. And we've confessed to each 761 00:39:04,540 --> 00:39:06,900 other and we like, we confessed our sins to each other. 762 00:39:07,060 --> 00:39:08,660 Hey, and some of your just like, oh, you've never had. 763 00:39:08,660 --> 00:39:14,220 Do you know where that happens? Recovery groups go to a A1 time 764 00:39:14,220 --> 00:39:16,940 and you'll watch people talking down and dirty about all the 765 00:39:16,940 --> 00:39:20,040 stuff. But then what happens is me and 766 00:39:20,040 --> 00:39:22,360 Joe, we've gotten this together and my friend Shane comes over 767 00:39:22,360 --> 00:39:23,880 and talks about we see Shane and we go. 768 00:39:24,000 --> 00:39:26,040 We're in a conversation with Shane and Shane afterwards. 769 00:39:26,040 --> 00:39:28,520 Like Shane. Listen man, when you said that 770 00:39:28,520 --> 00:39:32,200 to your kid, I watched his eyes, man. 771 00:39:32,200 --> 00:39:34,080 I think you can be more gentle, right? 772 00:39:34,320 --> 00:39:37,390 But because we have we. We do it differently. 773 00:39:37,390 --> 00:39:39,950 When I've taken the log out of my own eye and I've wrestled 774 00:39:39,950 --> 00:39:43,070 with my own sinfulness and my own pain and my own hurt, I'm 775 00:39:43,070 --> 00:39:46,190 much more aware. I know that I am badly broken. 776 00:39:46,190 --> 00:39:48,470 And so when I go to Shane and it's different we. 777 00:39:48,470 --> 00:39:53,030 Go differently, right? Because we know that we're all 778 00:39:53,030 --> 00:39:56,270 in this together, That it's not us and them, it's not them and 779 00:39:56,270 --> 00:39:59,470 me. It's all of us together. 780 00:39:59,870 --> 00:40:05,110 First we get right. 1st we confess and then. 781 00:40:06,230 --> 00:40:09,470 We begin to deal gently and lovingly with what's in our 782 00:40:09,470 --> 00:40:12,710 midst, right, Because a little leaven works through the whole 783 00:40:12,710 --> 00:40:14,030 dough. Whether that leaven is 784 00:40:14,310 --> 00:40:18,710 confession or just radical, unconfessed, unrepentant sin 785 00:40:19,350 --> 00:40:21,670 will be defined by what we tolerate. 786 00:40:21,870 --> 00:40:26,870 And the reality is, in Jesus you are free, but you cannot live 787 00:40:26,870 --> 00:40:32,590 free unless you eradicate every trace of slavery. 788 00:40:33,270 --> 00:40:35,510 So let's go back to that First Corinthians 5 passage, verse 789 00:40:35,550 --> 00:40:38,410 eight, he says, Let us therefore celebrate the festival. 790 00:40:38,730 --> 00:40:40,370 Talk about the unleavened bread, right? 791 00:40:40,370 --> 00:40:42,130 Like that you don't have to actually have to celebrate. 792 00:40:42,250 --> 00:40:45,410 But getting rid of the yeast? Getting rid of the leaven, Let 793 00:40:45,410 --> 00:40:49,050 us celebrate the festival, not with the old leaven of malice 794 00:40:49,490 --> 00:40:51,930 and evil. We're not mean to each other. 795 00:40:52,420 --> 00:40:54,380 We don't hold. Grudges against each other. 796 00:40:54,500 --> 00:40:56,500 We don't keep lists against each other. 797 00:40:56,580 --> 00:40:59,340 We don't measure each other against some standard that we 798 00:40:59,340 --> 00:41:02,300 have set up, and we don't. It's get rid of the evil too. 799 00:41:02,300 --> 00:41:04,260 We don't just go. Well, my behavior is fine 800 00:41:04,260 --> 00:41:06,420 because it's mine. And who are you to judge me? 801 00:41:07,220 --> 00:41:11,540 Get rid of that. And instead, with the unleavened 802 00:41:11,540 --> 00:41:17,900 bread of sincerity and truth, we tell the truth at River City. 803 00:41:18,510 --> 00:41:21,430 We tell the truth about our weakness and about our failures 804 00:41:21,510 --> 00:41:25,030 and about our insecurities and about our dishonesty and all of 805 00:41:25,110 --> 00:41:28,190 those things. We replace legalism. 806 00:41:28,270 --> 00:41:33,270 We replace masks with love for God by loving our neighbors. 807 00:41:33,630 --> 00:41:37,070 All, all of them. We hunt it out and we root it. 808 00:41:37,350 --> 00:41:40,910 We ruthlessly evaluate our own motives. 809 00:41:41,350 --> 00:41:44,870 We ruthlessly evaluate our own responses. 810 00:41:44,990 --> 00:41:48,550 If I'm harsh with you, that's not OK. 811 00:41:49,150 --> 00:41:52,150 I am accountable and responsible to the Lord. 812 00:41:52,150 --> 00:41:54,590 And So what we're going to do today is we're going to remember 813 00:41:54,750 --> 00:41:56,430 the Passover. We're going to remember the 814 00:41:56,430 --> 00:41:58,790 Passover the same way that Jesus did. 815 00:42:00,310 --> 00:42:01,350 And here's how this is going to work. 816 00:42:01,350 --> 00:42:03,190 It's going to be a little bit different in just a second. 817 00:42:03,190 --> 00:42:05,860 I'm going to talk through Passover celebration. 818 00:42:06,020 --> 00:42:08,340 We're not going to take the elements right now, but the team 819 00:42:08,340 --> 00:42:10,940 is going to come and lead us. And here's why, what I always 820 00:42:10,940 --> 00:42:13,660 say Every time I get together, every time we get together, we 821 00:42:13,660 --> 00:42:16,100 take them. You know, I always say this out 822 00:42:16,100 --> 00:42:18,580 of First Corinthians Chapter 11, the apostle rites where I 823 00:42:18,580 --> 00:42:21,820 received from the Lord who I also passed on to you the Lord 824 00:42:21,820 --> 00:42:23,020 Jesus on the night he was betrayed. 825 00:42:23,020 --> 00:42:24,780 Listener, are you listening? He took bread. 826 00:42:24,900 --> 00:42:26,420 Now you know what? This bread is right. 827 00:42:26,860 --> 00:42:30,580 Gross. It's like Styrofoam, right? 828 00:42:30,860 --> 00:42:34,790 It's unleavened and we know 11 is right. 829 00:42:35,310 --> 00:42:40,750 Sin. Jesus said this is my body, 830 00:42:41,990 --> 00:42:45,990 which is for you. See, we've got piles of sin in 831 00:42:45,990 --> 00:42:48,590 our life and we use that to separate from each other for our 832 00:42:48,590 --> 00:42:51,230 own kind of saving wellbeing. Jesus came and said, I don't 833 00:42:51,230 --> 00:42:53,350 have any sin, but I give it for you. 834 00:42:53,830 --> 00:42:55,190 This is my body, which is for you. 835 00:42:55,190 --> 00:42:57,190 And he said do this as often as you drink it. 836 00:42:57,190 --> 00:43:00,310 In what? In remembrance of me. 837 00:43:00,950 --> 00:43:02,470 And same way after supper took the cup. 838 00:43:02,470 --> 00:43:04,750 And he said, This cup is the new covenant in my blood. 839 00:43:05,470 --> 00:43:09,110 Do this as often as you drink it in remembrance of me. 840 00:43:09,110 --> 00:43:12,750 See, the old covenant was the lamb, right? 841 00:43:12,870 --> 00:43:16,910 So how we Here we have this picture of Jesus's sinless body, 842 00:43:16,910 --> 00:43:20,550 his sinless life, and we have this blood, the blood of the 843 00:43:20,550 --> 00:43:25,970 spotless lamb, that allows the. Change of death to pass over us 844 00:43:25,970 --> 00:43:28,330 so that we can have eternal life. 845 00:43:28,410 --> 00:43:30,970 And typically we stop there when we take communion. 846 00:43:30,970 --> 00:43:33,850 But I want to read Message out of the Out of the Message, 847 00:43:34,970 --> 00:43:37,130 Eugene Peterson's kind of commentary, and I want to read 848 00:43:37,690 --> 00:43:40,410 Out of the Message what comes next, because it's relevant for 849 00:43:40,410 --> 00:43:42,730 us too. First Corinthians Chapter 11, 850 00:43:42,730 --> 00:43:46,530 verse 27 and 28. Anyone who eats the bread or 851 00:43:46,530 --> 00:43:49,970 drinks the cup of the master irreverently. 852 00:43:51,450 --> 00:43:54,090 If you come to this table because you think you deserve 853 00:43:54,090 --> 00:43:58,290 it, that is your reverend. If you take this bread like it's 854 00:43:58,290 --> 00:44:03,290 your sinless body, like your sin is less responsible for sending 855 00:44:03,530 --> 00:44:06,810 Jesus to the cross, like you are less in need of this cup. 856 00:44:07,010 --> 00:44:09,690 Anyone who drinks it irreverently is like part of the 857 00:44:09,690 --> 00:44:13,330 crowd that jeered and spit on him at his death. 858 00:44:14,170 --> 00:44:21,380 Let it sink in. Is that the kind of remembrance 859 00:44:21,380 --> 00:44:25,900 you want to be a part of? So Paul gives us instructions 860 00:44:25,900 --> 00:44:31,220 for preparation, for communion. Examine your motives, test your 861 00:44:31,220 --> 00:44:35,860 heart, and come to this meal in holy awe. 862 00:44:36,620 --> 00:44:40,860 Make sure as you hold this bread and as you hold this cup. 863 00:44:41,740 --> 00:44:45,380 You remember our need for it. You don't just remember that we 864 00:44:45,380 --> 00:44:47,180 need it. You remember that it's provided. 865 00:44:48,180 --> 00:44:51,220 And this, this reminder of grace. 866 00:44:51,700 --> 00:44:56,620 This is our invitation to repentance, to turn around and 867 00:44:56,620 --> 00:44:59,500 do it differently. Jesus. 868 00:44:59,500 --> 00:45:05,780 We take this bread, the symbolic reminder of your sinlessness, of 869 00:45:05,780 --> 00:45:13,260 your moral perfection. And we remember that that moral 870 00:45:13,260 --> 00:45:16,140 perfection caused you to give your life for us. 871 00:45:17,920 --> 00:45:21,120 Your moral perfection didn't cause you to stay away from us. 872 00:45:21,920 --> 00:45:24,880 It didn't cause you to separate from us. 873 00:45:26,640 --> 00:45:31,000 Because of your perfection, because of your righteousness, 874 00:45:31,240 --> 00:45:36,360 you came to identify with us. You came to give your life to 875 00:45:36,560 --> 00:45:40,960 us. So as we take this bread, as we 876 00:45:40,960 --> 00:45:45,840 take this reminder of what absolute righteousness looks 877 00:45:45,840 --> 00:45:51,160 like, as we remember You empower us to do likewise. 878 00:45:52,240 --> 00:45:55,680 Jesus, we take this bread and remembrance of you. 879 00:45:55,680 --> 00:46:02,680 Let's take the bread, Jesus. As we hold this reminder and 880 00:46:02,680 --> 00:46:06,200 this remembrance of your covenant, of the way that you 881 00:46:06,200 --> 00:46:11,200 purchase us freedom, we remember that it cost you everything you 882 00:46:11,200 --> 00:46:13,680 gave your life so that we could be free. 883 00:46:14,800 --> 00:46:18,640 And as we hold this cup, we're reminded If we're going to have 884 00:46:18,880 --> 00:46:24,160 a life of freedom, that means we have to utterly abandon our life 885 00:46:24,160 --> 00:46:26,200 of sin. And that doesn't mean that we 886 00:46:26,200 --> 00:46:30,000 won't sin, not just from time to time, but moment by moment. 887 00:46:30,520 --> 00:46:33,800 But it means that as often as we remember it, as often as we 888 00:46:33,800 --> 00:46:38,680 think of it, as often as we are convicted by it, we repent. 889 00:46:39,970 --> 00:46:44,170 We turn away from every idol that would woo us, from every 890 00:46:44,330 --> 00:46:48,890 addiction that would comfort us. Lord, I would rather be anxious 891 00:46:49,010 --> 00:46:53,450 independence on you than falsely comforted by an addiction. 892 00:46:56,930 --> 00:47:02,610 Jesus, you gave your life to us so that we could be free. 893 00:47:03,730 --> 00:47:06,170 So as we take this cup, we remember the freedom that you 894 00:47:06,170 --> 00:47:09,780 purchased for us. And it doesn't make us feel 895 00:47:09,780 --> 00:47:14,500 guilty. It makes us want to live free. 896 00:47:15,700 --> 00:47:19,260 So, Jesus, we take this cup in remembrance of you. 897 00:47:19,460 --> 00:47:25,700 Let's take the cup together. For as often as you eat this 898 00:47:25,700 --> 00:47:28,540 bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until 899 00:47:28,540 --> 00:47:31,900 it comes. Jesus, you died so we don't have 900 00:47:31,900 --> 00:47:34,540 to. You died so that we could have 901 00:47:34,540 --> 00:47:37,400 eternal life. You died so that we could 902 00:47:37,400 --> 00:47:40,720 confess without fear of condemnation from you. 903 00:47:41,960 --> 00:47:44,360 Jesus. Let us be a church that models 904 00:47:44,360 --> 00:47:47,360 that to the world. And let us not just model non 905 00:47:47,360 --> 00:47:49,680 condemnation, let us model confession. 906 00:47:50,880 --> 00:47:54,840 Let us model the kind of community where it is safe to be 907 00:47:54,840 --> 00:47:58,680 imperfect, but it is not safe to stay that way. 908 00:47:58,840 --> 00:48:03,000 May we be a place that grows and that experiences redemption 909 00:48:03,000 --> 00:48:08,470 moment by moment in you. May our prejudices vanish. 910 00:48:09,350 --> 00:48:13,630 May our fears vanish. May our insecurities and 911 00:48:13,630 --> 00:48:17,710 addictions vanish under the weight of your grace. 912 00:48:18,870 --> 00:48:23,150 And may we be an example of freedom in this world that so 913 00:48:23,150 --> 00:48:26,190 desperately needs and tries every other way. 914 00:48:27,190 --> 00:48:29,670 May we not settle for less than you. 915 00:48:30,550 --> 00:48:33,950 We thank you, Jesus, for the way that you make us free. 916 00:48:34,750 --> 00:48:37,990 We accept it and we receive it today in your name and for your 917 00:48:37,990 --> 00:48:42,750 boring Amen. Thank you for joining us today. 918 00:48:43,270 --> 00:48:46,070 River City Church is all about experiencing and expressing 919 00:48:46,070 --> 00:48:48,750 God's love in our lives and community, and we hope that 920 00:48:48,750 --> 00:48:50,710 you've been able to experience that today. 921 00:48:51,390 --> 00:48:53,950 As grateful as I am that you've spent this time listening in 922 00:48:53,950 --> 00:48:56,990 this morning, this podcast is no substitute for full 923 00:48:56,990 --> 00:49:00,890 participation in a local church. I love it when River City people 924 00:49:00,890 --> 00:49:04,250 listen to other pastors, but it is those who show up week after 925 00:49:04,250 --> 00:49:07,170 week faithfully giving their support and time and resources 926 00:49:07,170 --> 00:49:10,530 that make all of this possible. If we can help you get connected 927 00:49:10,530 --> 00:49:14,570 to a local church, pray for you or support you in any way, click 928 00:49:14,570 --> 00:49:16,210 the link in the description and let us know. 929 00:49:16,650 --> 00:49:18,850 If you'd like to financially support the Ministry of River 930 00:49:18,850 --> 00:49:21,730 City, click the give link on our website in the description. 931 00:49:22,400 --> 00:49:24,920 Don't forget to subscribe and don't forget to share this with 932 00:49:24,920 --> 00:49:26,920 your friends. Thanks so much for listening. 933 00:49:27,160 --> 00:49:30,160 May the Lord bless and keep you in all grace and peace.