Radical Discipleship

[0:00] We're back in Mark. That is the series that we have been in all throughout this year, and we're kind of picking up on the heels of the disciples asking Jesus, who's the greatest, right? That was the passage from last week. And it's an interesting question for them to ask. It's a bit misguided, right? Jesus is saying, this is what it looks like to put others first. And that's their question.

[0:22] And yet I think we're probably, if we're honest with ourselves, not much different than they are. We all want to know who are the good guys, who are the bad guys, right? And yet our passage today is another example of Jesus challenging those ways of thinking. And he does so with some of his most provocative, violent, and challenging words. So welcome to Sunday. So we're going to read Mark 9 is where we're at. Verse 42 is where we're going to start. So if you've got a Bible, open up to there.

[0:53] It's kind of like middle of the second half on the right. And if you don't have a Bible, that's okay. The passage will be on the screen, but let's read. This is Jesus speaking to his disciples.

[1:06] Whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him if a great millstone were hung around his neck and he were thrown into the sea. If your hand causes you to sin, cut it off. It's better for you to enter life crippled than with two hands to go to hell to the unquenchable fire. And if your foot causes you to sin, cut it off. It's better for you to enter life lame than with two feet to be thrown into hell. And if your eye causes you to sin, tear it out.

[1:36] It's better for you to enter the kingdom of God with one eye than with two eyes to be thrown into hell where their worm does not die and the fire is not quenched. For everyone will be salted with fire.

[1:47] Well, salt is good, but if the salt has lost its saltiness, how will you make it salty again? So, One Harbor, have salt in yourselves and be at peace with one another. We pray.

[2:01] Jesus, thank you for all you've already done this morning. We want to grow in our love for you and for each other. And so we pray that you would help us learn, keep our hearts soft, our ears open.

[2:14] And we know that you love us and what you say in this passage is hard, but it's for our good. So we pray you would change us today. In your name we pray. Amen. This is and has always been one of the most haunting passages in the Bible for me.

[2:30] Cut this off and cut that off. And when I hear things like that, tear those out. Man, I want to avoid passages like this, but I'm a broken dude. I'm a sinner. And so I need to hear words just like this.

[2:43] And yet it's tempting when I read things like this, and maybe it is for you too, to kind of get into a bit of a negotiation with Jesus. Jesus, what about just like, what if we just clip the nails? You know, not the whole foot, right?

[2:56] Maybe just the nails, not the whole hand. And to be clear, Jesus isn't literally saying for them to cut their feet off. And the disciples would have known that. But he's trying to get their attention around this whole thing of what does it look like to follow me?

[3:12] And so he's using hyperbole to sort of lay out how severe sin is. Right? He's saying, you must stop at nothing to eliminate it, or it will destroy you.

[3:24] Imagine as you were leaving the house this morning, you look into your living room, and one of the pillows on your couch is on fire. You wouldn't be like, oh, that's no big deal. It's just a pillow, right? It's not the whole house.

[3:36] No, you would stop and you'd put that fire out, because it wouldn't be but before a matter of time, before your whole house was destroyed, if you didn't. And that's the whole point of this passage. Jesus is saying sin, however small it can start, it can destroy you if you don't deal with it, right?

[3:55] You see, sin is more serious than we think. That's what Jesus is saying. I think people can assume that Christians are a bit uptight about behavior, right? What's wrong, what's right.

[4:06] But in reality, everybody's a bit uptight about what's right and what's wrong. Everyone has strong feelings about that. Strong feelings about what sins are serious and maybe some that aren't.

[4:17] But Jesus is not picking some sins to address in this passage. He is saying all sin is deadly. What exactly is sin, though? So the Bible gives us some helpful language to define that.

[4:31] So here's some words. Iniquity. Iniquity refers to behavior that is crooked or immoral. Marv and Harry, home alone. The wet bandits breaking into people's houses while they try to go to Paris, right?

[4:47] It's crooked behavior. Immoral. Wrong. That is what iniquity is. Transgression is another one of those words. And that refers to behavior that violates our interpersonal trust with each other.

[5:00] So David, in Psalm 51, he uses some of these words. Let me just read it. Kind of see it in context. He says, God, have mercy on me. Oh God, according to your steadfast love, according to your abundant mercy, blot out my transgressions.

[5:17] Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity. Cleanse me from my sin. See, David is confronted with his own brokenness because he's been engaged in an adulterous affair with Bathsheba.

[5:32] And sees to it that her husband is killed. Good gracious transgression. He's created all sorts of relational issues there. And he's aware of it. And his heart is broken.

[5:42] And he's saying, Lord, forgive me. Cover me in your mercy. And then sin, which is maybe the most familiar of these words, comes from the Hebrew word katah, which means to miss the mark.

[5:55] Like if you were going out on a boat today and you were going to meet some friends at the Cape, they gave you some coordinates, but those coordinates were wrong. They would be at the Cape. You might end up in Bermuda. And that's a bad day.

[6:06] You would have katah. You would have missed your mark. Right? You would have missed the goal. But what's the goal? Well, beginning of the Bible, we read all about God's design for Project Planet Earth.

[6:20] His creation. We learn that everything that he has made is thoughtfully and wonderfully crafted. And we're no different. Us, humans. Handcrafted.

[6:31] Unique. Loved. We are made for relationship with each other. But he's also put into us a ton of incredible gifts. I mean, just people in this room. I know some of you.

[6:41] And how God has put gifts into you. You know, Otis, who did our call to worship. That dude can like put up some big weight. But then he can also eat the barbell. And it manifests into his biceps.

[6:53] And that's a real gift that Otis has. I'm kidding. Don't eat barbells. God's given New Bern some incredible gifts through you guys.

[7:05] Right? And he loves each of us more than I think you can ever imagine. And yet when we fail to love each other like he loves us, when we fail to put each other first, we kata.

[7:16] We miss the mark. And it can lead us to sin. And when we sin against others, we're also therefore sinning against God. And he hates sin. And Jesus is showing us in this passage just how much he hates it.

[7:31] Look again at verse 43. And if your hand causes you to sin, cut it off. Jesus is saying sin is so serious it requires amputation.

[7:43] Right? And in certain cases I think we can get on board with that. We can agree. Yeah, sin does require amputation, abuse, robbery, murder. You think of this guy down in South Carolina, prominent lawyer named Alec Murdaugh.

[7:59] Comes from a family of lawyers. And then he begins to kata. Right? He steals a dollar here or there from his law firm. And then he begins to steal from his clients.

[8:10] And recently he was convicted of murdering his own son and wife. Kata. Good day. He has missed the mark. And amputation for a guy like that. Absolutely. Christians, non-Christians, I think we can all agree that requires amputation.

[8:24] But Jesus' challenge in this passage is different because his view of sin is different than ours. It's not just for Alec Murdaugh. Let's look at Matthew 5 real quick.

[8:35] Jesus' early days of his ministry is saying, this is what my view of sin is. Chapter 5, verse 21. You have heard that it was said to those of old, you shall not murder.

[8:48] And whoever murders will be liable to judgment. But I say to you, there's a different way of thinking about this. That everyone who is angry with his brother will be liable to judgment.

[8:58] Whoever insults his brother will be liable to the council. And whoever says, you fool, will be liable to the hell of fire. So what's the point of this whole thing? What's the point of Mark 9?

[9:10] That little passage there in Matthew 5. The point is that our list of sins requiring amputation is too short. It's very easy to see why Jesus would judge murderers.

[9:22] But it's a whole lot harder to reckon with the fact that the thought of it is on par with that. He's like, you think what's bad is murder. I'm telling you, even the thought. The things that we do to people in our minds without them ever even knowing.

[9:36] Those thoughts. That's sin too. I'm not saying that the act of murder and then thinking about it have the same implications. Obviously, they're very different in the implications.

[9:48] But Jesus is saying all actions, seen or unseen, that katah, that missed the mark. My goal for you as a people, all those things are sin.

[10:00] And again, what's the mark? Well, it's to love each other. It's to honor God completely with our whole heart, with our whole mind, with our bodies. So how do we miss the mark? Well, there's some different ways. You guys doing okay?

[10:10] Just a light little talk about sin today. Here's some ways. Sins of commission. These are the things that we do. We take action to commit.

[10:22] We know they're wrong and we do them anyways. He says it. Verse 45. And if your foot causes you to sin, cut it off. Feet. What are the sins that we know are wrong and yet we walk toward them?

[10:35] Then there's our sinful desires. Verse 47. If your eye causes you to sin, tear it out. It's better for you to enter the kingdom of God with one eye than with two to be thrown into hell.

[10:49] Eyes. It's more subtle, right? The battlefield is our mind. It's our desires. That insatiable craving for more and more and more.

[11:03] Right? It's your neighbor's boat. It's wanting their house. Maybe their spouse. Their paycheck. That quest. It's never ending. I've been on a bit of a quest myself for nice Bibles.

[11:21] You know, calf skin, goat skin, black covers. Maybe two columns or one column. ESV, NLT, these different translations. French milled paper.

[11:32] It's really soft. I've been on this quest for some nice Bibles. But I've also had a tough few weeks for a bunch of different reasons. And the good desire to grow in understanding of who God is through his word has turned to a bit of a distraction.

[11:47] I get home. I've had a hard day at work. And I like recede into YouTube Village. I'm watching videos about Bibles and blog posts. And I'm beginning to sort of run to other things because my heart's not okay.

[12:01] I'm anxious about things. And I think we can all do that, right? We can all run to things that will never satisfy us. And Jesus is saying, though, you need to deal with this sin that is crouching at your door.

[12:16] And he uses present tense language to do it. He says, disciples, fight. If it causes you to sin, cut it off. Ryan, turn off YouTube. Don't open the Amazon app.

[12:27] Get a flip phone. I'm serious. Genuinely, I have friends who have done that. They've got a flip phone. It took forever to get all their contacts back.

[12:39] But that was... That was... They needed to cut that thing off. Our phones are dangerous, y'all.

[12:49] I mean that. So it's not just our desires, our thoughts. It's not just our actions, the things that we walk towards. But it's also the things that we don't do.

[13:01] Matthew 23. Jesus addresses sins of omission. He says, woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, for you neglected justice and mercy and faithfulness.

[13:11] You had opportunities to bless people and to care for them and to pray for them and to weep with them or to rejoice with them, to be present when they're going through something difficult. And you walked right on by it. And I'm guilty as anyone of doing this.

[13:24] I got things to do, right? I'm important. Did you hear what Elliot said about me? I am like a pastor. I'm a worship leader of all the sites. And yet, someone will be grieving about something and I'll just walk right past it because I'm so caught up in my own things.

[13:41] And Jesus is saying, that's sin too. Those opportunities to care for people, Ryan, that you pass by, that's sin as well. But what do those things deserve?

[13:52] What do the desires, the thoughts that we have, what do those deserve? I mean, we think amputation for the bad people. Absolutely, but the whole point of this passage is that our list of sins requiring amputation is too short.

[14:06] We're all a bit more guilty than we probably think. This isn't just for Alec Murdaugh. This passage is for us too. Alexander S., whose last name I can't pronounce, so he gets the...

[14:25] I'm not even going to try. So, within a moment of levity, though, he says this. You know, he was the first to chronicle the crushing brutality of daily life in Soviet prison camps.

[14:39] He says, the line between good and evil runs not through states, nor between classes, nor between political parties, but right through every, let's say these last two words together, human heart.

[14:52] It's all of us. See, part of our problem is we don't maybe always realize how pervasive sin is and how destructive it can be. And maybe even worse, we're tempted to think that, well, when I sin, it's just impacting me, right?

[15:07] I just want to have a little bit of fun. It's not hurting anybody else. But that's not how sin works. It always goes beyond us. If you've been around here for any length of time, you've probably heard us say, Sin is far more like a bomb than a bullet.

[15:21] When we sin, it has shrapnel. And that shrapnel can hit other people. And Jesus is saying shrapnel hurts others in more ways than we can think. See, our sin can make weaker people stumble.

[15:33] Verse 42 starts the whole passage. Whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him if a great millstone were hung around his neck and he were thrown into the sea.

[15:51] Jesus does not like his people being messed with. That's not a new idea either. He's always been protective of little ones. And not just young in age.

[16:02] It's that. It's definitely children. But it's young in following Jesus. And frankly, it's all of us who are his disciples. He loves us completely. We've talked about that already. And he wants for us to be protected and to be protective of each other.

[16:17] And yet we can miss it. And he hates that. We see it in Genesis. He curses the serpent for tempting Adam and Eve. We see it a little bit later in the same book in his commissioning of Abraham.

[16:27] He says this to him. He says, I will make you a great nation. I will bless you. Even more, I'll bless those who bless you. But I will curse those who curse you.

[16:39] God does not like his people being messed with. We don't like when the vulnerable are taken advantage of. We all hate when bad things happen to little ones. I mean, one of the top grossing movies in the box office today, Sound of Freedom, shines a light on the darkness of human trafficking.

[16:59] It's about this very thing. We hate when kids are impacted by sin. But Jesus hates it more. So we've got an obligation to care for each other. I have two 13-year-old daughters named Emma and Hannah.

[17:13] They're right there. 13. It's an electric season in the Marshall household. For me and their mom, Megan.

[17:24] And as we lead them through these opening moments of the teenage years. But they're watching. They're watching the way that dad acts and speaks.

[17:35] And not just on a stage. In front of all you with the microphone on. Or if I'm playing a guitar. They're watching. How do I treat mom? Right? How do I care for mom?

[17:46] How do I speak? How do I respond? If the air conditioning goes out. And it's 80 degrees in the house. And the guest room feels like a sauna. And my in-laws are coming in town from California.

[17:59] And I have to prepare my first sermon ever. And there's 27 people coming over for Fourth of July party. Hypothetically. Emma and Hannah and Megan are watching.

[18:12] They're watching. How's dad going to respond in this? In this situation. And that's what Jesus is getting at with that opening verse. How we live. How we act. Has impacts on other people. Wouldn't it be awesome.

[18:23] If for the sake of New Bern. And Kurdistan. But because God has you here. The way that you lived. Was lived out in such a way. That you cause other people to love Jesus more. Not led them to stumble.

[18:36] And I know that's a weight. Living in such a way that our whole lives point to Jesus. Is not easy. I know it's hard. But God's with us. It is costly though.

[18:47] Especially when in our culture today. Everything is shouting at us. It's about you. This is all about you. Do whatever you want. Right?

[18:58] We want to be free. We want to be happy. Hey man. Let me just work hard. Play hard. Let me just be free. Right? Don't put that weight on me. The problem is though.

[19:08] Our modern definition of freedom. Has some flaws. Our culture likes to define freedom. As the removal of all constraints. Right? You do you. Do whatever you want to do.

[19:19] But that's not actually how freedom works. Stay with me here for a second. Right? Imagine a grandfather who is in his 70s. Who loves to eat what he wants to eat when he wants to eat it.

[19:31] Right? Smoked ribeye on the Traeger. Little Gouda macaroni and cheese. Grilled asparagus. Balsamic. Flourless chocolate cake.

[19:42] That's what I want for my birthday meal. Right? He likes to eat what he wants to eat. But he also has some grandkids. And he wants to spend more and more time with his grandkids as he grows older.

[19:54] Then he goes to his yearly doctor checkup. And his doctor says, Hey bud. Unless you change the things that you're eating. Those lingering heart effects. They're going to get worse.

[20:04] You will have a heart attack. And you will die. Grandpa has a choice to make. Right? More food. Or more family time. See he's not actually free to have both.

[20:17] There are constraints on his life. But they're for his good. Constraints are for our good. See it's impossible to get everything that we want. All the time. We have to sacrifice certain things for the sake of other things.

[20:29] So then the question for him to answer is not. How can you live in complete freedom? Grandpa. The more realistic question is which freedoms are more important to you? What does it actually mean to be free?

[20:43] And Jesus is. In Jesus' eyes freedom looks a little different. His eyes. Freedom comes when we turn from our sin. When we follow him.

[20:54] And we live for the benefit of other. And a call comes from Kurdistan. And we say. I could stay here with all my friends. My apartment. My car. That works. And if I do get stranded.

[21:04] I know where to go. Could be that. Or it's just saying yes. Jesus. I'm going to put my yes on the table. Like you're doing. Watch what he's going to do. We're going to hear stories.

[21:15] Swat. It's already probably happening. Freedom comes when we turn from sin. And we follow Jesus. And we say yes. Galatians 5 verse 13.

[21:26] Paul says this. For you were called to freedom. Brothers only. Do not use your freedom. As an opportunity for the flesh. But through love. Serve the heck out of one another.

[21:37] See true freedom in Christ. Is not getting everything we want. All the time. But rather. As we follow him. It's sacrificing certain things. Even the passions of our flesh. For the sake of better.

[21:48] More life giving things. And not just for our sake. But for the benefit of others. Right? Right? There's three whole chapters. In the middle of this book. Called 1 Corinthians. It's written by that same guy.

[21:59] Paul. To some believers in Corinth. All about. What he's doing with his freedom. And how he's laying it down. For the sake of the gospel. 1 Corinthians.

[22:10] Chapter 9. Verse 19. He says this. For though I am free from all. I have made myself a servant to all. That I might win more of them. That they'd know Jesus.

[22:20] Right? To the Jews. I became a Jew. In order to win the Jews. To those under the law. I became as one under the law. Though not being myself under the law. That I might win those under the law.

[22:31] To those outside the law. I became as one outside the law. Not being outside the law of God. But under the law of Christ. That I might win those outside the law. To the weak. I became weak.

[22:43] That I might win the weak. I have become all things to all people in my neighborhood, my work, my family, that by all means we might save some.

[22:56] I do it all for the sake of the gospel. That's why we do it. That's how we close most every service here. All for the sake of the gospel. What? I lay down my freedom to bless other people and to keep them from stumbling, to open up my home for them.

[23:09] And I just want to say, because I know some of you, you're doing this really well. You serve people. You're cutting your neighbor's lawn because he's got too much on his plate right now to bless him.

[23:21] You're caring for people, bringing food to people who need food. Keep doing it. Keep going on Arbor New Bern. Keep blessing your neighbors. But Jesus is saying that following him is more than just being a nice person.

[23:37] He's saying live in such a way you don't cause others to stumble. And we need each other for that, right? We need brothers who can hold us accountable have hard conversations. That guy, Jesse, right there has had a bunch of hard conversations with me.

[23:48] Hey, Ryan, the way you handled that, that wasn't great. I need that. I'm a better man because he's in my life. That guy over there, Tom Tapping, he's had some honest words with me.

[24:02] Like profoundly challenging, difficult, fire-type words. We all need that. But again, following Jesus is more than just being kind, right?

[24:16] Because if you don't lay down your life, you're not actually free. The millstone, in a sense, is already around your neck. And you're in bondage to selfishness and to pride and to yourself.

[24:29] And living for yourself will impact others and it will make you a useless disciple. Not dealing with our sin makes us useless disciples.

[24:41] This guy in Moorhead can go back to Moorhead. I know it's hard, but it's in the text. Verse 49, for everyone will be salted with fire.

[24:54] Salt is good, but if the salt has lost its saltiness, how are you going to make yourself salty again? So, have salt in yourselves and be at peace with one another.

[25:06] What does that mean? That feels a little cryptic. Jesus, what is the salt thing? Okay, we're going to hit this. We're almost done. But in Leviticus, we hear about what this salt thing is all about.

[25:18] And I'm not going to get into all of the Levitical laws in this sermon. Okay, I'm sorry about that. Just kidding. But in Leviticus 2, we learn that as the people of God would make sacrifices to God, as they would bring their offerings to Him, God instructed them to include salt in every offering.

[25:40] What's that about? See, the salt symbolized God's covenant love for them. His promise. His enduring faithfulness, even when they were not faithful to Him.

[25:52] And yet, even something good like an offering, a grain sacrifice in this case was nothing without God's covenant applied to it. Without His work and their offering, it was useless.

[26:03] Just their effort. I'm going to do this, make it good. Without Him, it was useless. What does that have to do with us? Isn't the sacrificial thing kind of dealt with? That's true.

[26:14] We no longer have to sacrifice goats and bulls and turtle doves. Our sacrifice now is our whole life. It's everything. So the salt that Jesus is referring to is His ongoing covenant to His disciples.

[26:33] The sacrifice now is our whole life. Therefore, our sacrifice without the salt is useless. Without the transformative work of Jesus in our hearts, our efforts are meaningless.

[26:44] The salt is the gospel. His promises to us. His faithfulness to us. Even when we sin again and again and again and we're unfaithful to Him, we need the salt.

[26:58] We need the good news. Those chemists in the room would know that salt, sodium chloride, is a pure compound. However, the salt that was drawn from the Dead Sea in those days, some of it likely used for these very sacrifices, was not pure.

[27:18] That salt wasn't pure and the disciples would have known that. It would have had other minerals in it like gypsum, which if left in the salt, rendered the salt useless. So unless the impurities were dealt with, it had no use.

[27:32] Couldn't be disposed of. Couldn't be used to wrap to preserve anything. Couldn't be used to season food because the gypsum made it inedible.

[27:42] See, the salt had to be purified and without the process of purification, it was useless. And in the same way, Jesus is saying, one harbor disciple, let fire make you salty.

[27:57] Fight sin. Don't run from it. Get people in your life who are going to speak truth to you. Get honest about the things that are causing you to stumble. Tell people about it.

[28:09] Keep it in the light. Don't hide it. Don't avoid that difficult process of Jesus being formed inside of you because one day we're going to have to stand before the Lord and judgment is coming for all of us.

[28:24] The point of this passage is that when you sin, it does have consequences. The consequences are for you, but it can also impact others. And I think we all know that, right?

[28:35] We know that there are consequences to our actions because people have let you down. Someone has said something to you that's hurt you. Someone has done something to you that has been profoundly painful, more painful than I can probably ever imagine.

[28:51] And in those moments, we understand the judgment thing, right? Oh, if I could get two minutes with the guy who did that thing to my loved one, right? When it gets personal, when we're sinned against, we understand judgment.

[29:07] And God is no different because a holy God requires justice and judgment for sin. And Jesus is making it abundantly clear. He doesn't sugarcoat it. You will die. It will be terrible.

[29:17] There is fire. There's a place where worms will never die. Judgment is coming. You're going to have to deal with it. I think the problem is, though, we handle it in a couple ways wrong.

[29:30] One, we just don't do it. Jesus holds out this truth to us, fights sin. And we go, nah, I'm good. I'm going to do what I want to do. Live the way that I want to live.

[29:41] I'm really not all that preoccupied with how what I do impacts other people. I'm going to just willingly live how I want to live. Judgment is coming for you. And I say that with real trembling as a friend and a brother in Christ.

[29:59] Judgment will come. The second way that we try to do this and we get it wrong is we do it in our own strength. Okay? I'm going to fix this. I'm going to make myself salty.

[30:10] I'll cut it out. I'll do good. I'll go to church. I'll go to community group. I'll wear the welcome shirt from time to time. I'll give them the money thing that they want the money thing for. I'll do it.

[30:21] I'll strive. And I'll make myself holy again. I'll make myself salty again. And the problem is we can't do it. We can't go five minutes without stumbling.

[30:32] I'm one of you. I can't go five minutes without getting it wrong. Right? Trying to face judgment in our own strength is worthless. but there's a third and better and final way to face judgment and that's to come humbly to be washed to be forgiven to be healed to repent and stand under the deluge of salt that is the love of a good God.

[30:59] His covenant his faithfulness to each of us when we're not faithful. We can lay down our striving to be good and do good because we can't do it anyways. Second Corinthians 5 this is such good hope to us.

[31:13] Verse 21 for our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin. Jesus was a perfect sacrifice. He made him who knew no sin to be sin so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

[31:31] Our brokenness is the reason for the cross and Jesus is the reason that you and I have hope right now. Jesus crushed for us.

[31:44] Jesus in a sense with the millstone around his neck sent to the horrible death in our place Jesus ripped apart for our sin and if he could be ripped apart for our sin maybe we can cut some things out of our lives.

[31:58] Not to earn his love but because of it. I'm going to say it again. If he could be torn apart for me I can cut some things out for him. Not to earn his love but because of his kindness and grace to us.

[32:14] Because that's the question right? What is it Ryan? Is it the good news? Do I get to just be free? Or do I have to put effort into this thing? Yep. The answer is both. Live in light of the fact that you are loved and you are forgiven.

[32:29] And then because of that give a sacrifice of your whole life as a sign of your thanks and your gratitude and your praise. And yeah see what God can do.

[32:44] To understand good news we have to know the bad and the bad news is there is judgment. The good news is Jesus already endured it in our place so that we could be free. If you are here and you're not yet a Christian today may have been a constant barrage of reminders of everything you already knew about Christianity.

[33:01] Hell and sin and fire and judgment or it could have been the reopening of a wound from a time that a someone who called himself a Christian that they hurt you that they katah they missed the mark they sinned against you and I want to say to you today I'm sorry that you've dealt with that.

[33:23] Jesus does not delight in your pain. but that said I pray that you also heard the last couple minutes that yeah sin's horrible judgment real judgment is real but so too is the grace and the love of Jesus who can heal our hearts and the wounds inside of them.

[33:43] You know maybe today was a reminder for some of you who don't yet follow Jesus about some of the mistakes that you've made. Maybe you're thinking like I am a lost cause. Hey dude your cute little Bible temptation like I've done so much worse.

[33:59] It's worth noting I'm tempted by way more than just looking at Bibles. But you're like man I'm a lost cause. I've sinned way worse than you can imagine.

[34:09] You know there was a thief that was situated arms open on a cross right next to Jesus the day that Jesus was being crucified. And that guy was a bit of a lost cause to the people in his town.

[34:22] He was on the cross. And yet he looks at Jesus and he's like hey even though all these people are mocking you right now I see who you are. You're the savior.

[34:33] You're the hope of the world. And he says to Jesus will you remember me when you get to your kingdom when you get to heaven? And Jesus without even missing a beat he says well did you tithe on Sunday?

[34:49] Are you serving? No. He just says you will be with me in paradise. Believe that. How good is that news friends?

[35:00] This is a room full of lost causes who have been covered by the blood of Jesus. He's our hope. And it's it's it's that swift. Jesus forgive me forgiven.

[35:14] And he loves you. If you want to follow him and you've never said yes to following him there's going to be a prayer on the screen behind me. Man I'm stoked you're here.

[35:25] If you want to pray that prayer we would love to know. We'd love to put a bible in your hands and answer any additional questions that you may have about what's my next step following this Jesus. If you're here and you're already a Christian some of you may be be thinking like about something.

[35:44] Some sin. The enemy has been taunting you. Something that you have done in the past is gnawing at you. Jesus is saying come.

[35:58] We say this birds fly fish swim sinners repent. Maybe the response today maybe you've never said Jesus forgive me for that thing.

[36:09] Do it today. Ask for his forgiveness and he is he is faithful to forgive you. Or if you have and you keep beating yourself up about it leave that thing at the cross today.

[36:23] Visualize it that's been dealt with. It's finished. My sin my shame it's been covered once and for all and my standing before a holy God is son or daughter of the most high.

[36:35] Not addict that's a thing that you may be dealing with is some addiction but what he says over you is you're mine you're my son you're my daughter live free. Let's take a moment before we take communion maybe close your eyes and could just say something like Jesus thank you that you love me thank you for that.

[37:04] Could be that you want to follow him could be that you need to leave something at the feet of the cross. Jesus you are the fountain of life full of mercy and grace and we want to as a people as friends on this narrow path of pointing ourselves toward you and following you with our whole lives we want to plunge ourselves together this morning underneath your mercy and your grace and just say thank you thank you that you love us because you love us because you love us.

[37:44] Thank you that we can come to you. Lord we don't even know our own hearts we don't know the ways that we katah and so we want to ask genuinely that you would forgive us Lord for ways that we've missed it.

[38:02] We thank you that you love us we thank you that you forgive us we thank you that you wash us white as snow and we can stand today knowing in our heads that there's peace but also experiencing it in our hearts.

[38:16] King Jesus praise you in your name we pray Amen.