Distorted | Week 4 | Message

If you have your bibles, we're gonna be in Jeremiah chapter 18 to start out with and this series is really interesting to me because what it does is it kind of pulls back the curtain on some things that have seeped into the church. What I mean by seeped into the church is,

in the seventeenth and eighteenth, moving into the early nineteenth century, there was this phenomenon happening particularly around England where when you traversed from city to city in the area, you had your blacksmiths, your goldsmiths, your silversmiths,

your Fletcher's, your Coopers, your barrel makers, all those people. And then there was this pattern that took place that everyone who was in charge of making hats was a little bit nutty, a little bit weird, a little bit crazy.

There actually became a common phrase, they were mad as the hatter. The hatter of every town, the one who made the hats seemed to be kind of off. They had slurred speech, they hallucinated, they said very strange things. And there was the question was like, do crazy people make hats or does making hats make people go crazy? And here's what they found out,

to solidify felt hats and make them waterproof, you needed to use a certain material called mercury nitrate And so as the as the hatters were making hats waterproof, they were getting this mercury nitrate all over their hands and if you know anything about mercury,

if you work with it a lot, it starts to seep into your skin and it's actually a poison and what does it cause? Tremors, hallucinations and psychosis

and so this has been picked up in culture. They were mad as a hatter or Alice in Wonderland, the mad hatter with his big hat on that has an improper fraction on the top of it. They make fun of this idea but they didn't really know until the 1940s

why there was this connection. They just thought, I guess people making hats makes people go crazy but they didn't realize the more they interacted with this material, the more that the material got inside of them. Luther loved this idea. Martin Luther is a monk from the fifteenth century

and he would talk about the church and the world as a Christian, we live in this dynamic dual kingdom. Okay? So as an American, I'm from San Diego, California, maybe you've heard how things are going in California super well, everything's going well, everyone's lost their ever loving minds,

which is great job security for a pastor but it's still kind of weird. Do you just laugh, you just read the news from California and laugh to yourselves? That is my plight. Okay, so that's where I live. Anyway, that as a citizen of The United States, as a citizen of this culture,

I live in what Luther called the left hand kingdom. So as such you and I operate, we have a mayor, we have a governor, we have a president, we have a judicial system, we have stores and markets and schools and everything,

a very physical tangible seeable left hand kingdom that we live in and then Luther postulated which is totally true, we as believers and I know not everyone in here is a believer or watching online but maybe you're new to the Jesus conversation,

someone dragged you along or you're just checking it out but as believers the Bible makes it clear Jesus tells us that not only do we operate in the left hand kingdom, where we have roles and responsibilities and citizenships, but there's a much more powerful, bigger, larger,

transcendent, right? Like this is almost like we're inside the matrix,

but there's a bigger reality out there, which is God's kingdom, the right hand kingdom, where he rules and reigns, where he is the beginning and the end, the Alpha and the Omega and he actually tells us how the left hand kingdom comes to an end. It's a book of Revelation. God wins, the church wins,

he is control of everything and he brings everyone who knows him to himself. And so we operate in this dualistic idea. We are citizens of a left hand kingdom but our ultimate citizenship

is in God's kingdom. This is why when Jesus teaches us to pray in the book of Matthew says, when you go to the father in prayer, you pray our father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name, holy is your name, set apart is your name, your kingdom come, your will be done. So the prayer is, God make this left hand kingdom like your right hand kingdom.

Make our government and everything else in the way that we operate in the moralistic systems of this world congruent and the self same as your right hand kingdom. This is the idea. So what this this whole series attempts to do is to pinpoint and discover and then retract

the moments where the left hand kingdom culture has seeped into the right hand kingdom self. Where we as a church have started to buy into myths from the culture and why wouldn't we? There's a hundred and sixty eight hours in a week. If you're going to church on Sunday morning then you're spending one hundred and sixty seven hours a week being inundated

with cultural beliefs and expectations of the left hand kingdom and you're trying to combat that with one hour in the right hand kingdom. It's not gonna work.

If you're in a life group, you're connected, you're doing two hours of study a week, whatever it is, you're three hours, it's a hundred and sixty five out a hundred and sixty eight hours a week you're spent in the left hand kingdom. So what does that mean? That means that sometimes

the mercury of the left hand kingdom, the ideas, the motives, the mantras, the notions of that kingdom have seeped into the church and so this series attempts to go, woah, that's not native to the right hand kingdom. That thought process, that distortion, that doesn't belong here

and one of the ways that I am gonna be discussing this today is one that I think so many of us feel and that is as Christians we recognize the Bible tells us that God is sovereign over all things.

He is, Psalm chapter 34, the Psalmist tells us over and over again all throughout the text, The New Testament and Old Testament are in perfect accord. Everything is held together in his perfect will. The earth is the Lord's and everything in it. The earth and all who dwell in it. For the Father has cattle on a thousand hills and everything is his. Isaiah 50 five:eight-nine,

His ways are superior to our ways nor our thoughts the same as his thoughts. The heavens are higher than the earth so God is superior to all things. He is transcendent above time, outside of time, in control of all things

and as such when we enter into Christianity we can go, well, if he's that in control, I'll bet he has a very specific charting out of my life that I'm supposed to discover

gnosticly meaning like in some hidden knowledge, I've got to figure out what it is. I've got to get on that tight rope of His will for my life. And then I've got to walk like this until I die. Right? Like this is how some of us again, 70% of modern Christians believe

that they have failed in many categories of their life to follow God's hidden will for their life. 70% which means this isn't an out there distortion, it's an in here distortion and the idea is not a biblical one, it's a cultural one that when I start following Jesus, Jesus kind of has this notion of a very specified

set of timelines and do's and don'ts exactly how I should live my life. And if I mess up and I fall off that tight rope, it's kind of like at the DMV, God kind of pulls another ticket like, Oh, Brenda, nice, sorry.

Emily, is there an Emily in here? Emily, you're next, right? And Brenda's going, But what about me? God's like, Sorry, you went outside of my will, maybe next time. But there is no next time. I know, I know, I know, I know. Emily, right? So it's like just move on

and we can feel that way, we can feel a little bit discarded or I'm too far gone. You ever thought of that? Like, I just don't fit in God's kingdom anymore. God's done with me,

will for my life is over. I've I've I've biffed it so rarely and there's a few things that cause us to to fall off of this proverbial tightrope, is a distorted way of thinking And the first is some of the reason that we fall off God's secret

hidden very specified will is we think, well, I made a mistake. I made a really bad mistake and now I'm done. It's over. I have to resign myself to having messed up too far. And so it's my own sin, it gets me off course. This could be a major life decision, this could be

trouble with the law, this could be a big fallout or a huge betrayal or a lie that was told or a divorce that just kind of wrecked your life and it feels like it's everything and you go, well, at least God can move on to someone who's got better obedience than I do.

But you've kind of resigned yourself to that. And so sometimes it's our own sin, our own problems or shortcomings that make us feel like we've fallen out of God's will. Other times, it's the people around us. Right? This is what I'm gonna do. This is who I'm gonna become. This is what I'm going to accomplish.

And then you realize as a relational being, other people's mistakes and failures and sins have knocked you off course. Maybe it's something that was done to you, maybe it's a way that someone hurt you or someone betrayed you and you go, well now I'm off course and it wasn't even my fault, thanks to them, I'm outside of God's will now.

And other times it's not necessarily anyone's sin, it's just some storm around us feels to knock us off course. And I talked about this last time I was here but in

July 2021, I lost my wife to suicide and became a single father of five kids. And so sometimes in life, you think you have everything planned out and then life happens and it's not someone, it's not your own sin that caused it, it's not someone else doing something to you intentionally, it's just the storm that surrounded you.

But then we can kind of feel like we've been discarded, we've been rejected, we've been left, we've been forgotten. And so we just kind of sit around and think, I think God's done with me or we still liken ourselves on God's tight rope and so you live in this constant state of anxiety or

analysis paralysis where you're going, hold on, I don't do anything until I verify it with like 13 signs, right? Like so if this light turns green, I take a right and go to Popeyes chicken but if it's red, right? Like everything becomes hyper spiritual

and so then we'd kind of look like the pagan culture around us that sees like it's horoscopes and astrological and God's gonna tell me through some other means and it all comes from this deep seated idea

that God has this very specific idea for our life and plan for our life but then there's almost a notion in which God's playing like the shell game with us, know, like the shell game where you got three shells

and God's wills under one of them for you and you're like, well, where should I go to college? And God's like, are you ready?

Time to choose. And again, I live in San Diego and within 10 miles of my church called College Ave Church, it's on College Avenue, that's where the church gets its name from. We're not very creative but we are clear, There's a 100,000 college students within 10 miles of my church.

And so I get to pastor, our primary demographic is young adults.

And so they come in but they buy some of the idea of the world, some of the mercury of the world and they bring it into the church that if God is so powerful, he must have this very specified plan and when you say where does scripture teach that? They have no clue, it's just their assumption. I assume

that God has a this and a that and I go here and don't go there. And so they'll ask the question like the shell game, they're like, I got into these three universities. I'm gonna go Arizona State, Arizona, Grand Canyon University, I'm choosing

Arizona type places, okay? So and it's like the shell game that that that that that that that that

I don't think this is a game that the that spirit's that that asking you to play. When you open up the text,

second Corinthians chapter four, the Psalmist talks about this, Isaiah refers to this, God demonstrates his character in the Old Testament that our God is a God of clarity not confusion. How crazy would it be if God went, not only do you have obedience and laws and commands of God but there's also hidden things that you just have to guess at.

Who should I marry? I don't know. But this is a massive life altering decision.

Hope you make the right choice, right? Then on your wedding day God's like, you missed. Right? Like, no. Well, what do I do? You're stuck. Alright. Emily, where's Emily? You messed up. Who's next? Next up. So what Jeremiah does is Jeremiah invites us

into an analogy where God has spoken to the prophet. The prophet in the old testament is someone who is interacting with God and talking to God's people on God's behalf. And so God says, Jeremiah, I'm feeling this sense in which you as my people Israel

have rebelled against me but then you seem to insinuate that I'm done with you but I think you've missed my character. And here's what Jeremiah chapter 18 says, here's this word picture God gives us.

This is the word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord and here's what God says to Jeremiah, go down to the potter's house, okay, so that language right there, down, you're red is this Hebrew word and in Jerusalem, the place where you went down to was called the Valley Of Hinnom, In Greek it would be Gehenna.

Now Gehenna is interesting because in the New Testament it's synonymous with hell. So when Jesus says, if your eye causes you to sin gouge it out, if your right hand causes you to sin cut it off because it's better for you to walk into heaven with one eye and one hand than it is for you to suffer forever in Gehenna.

So we translate that to the word hell in the New Testament but the writers they use this idea so synonymously that this Valley Of Hinnom or this place down from Jerusalem, Gehenna was so synonymous with God's judgment and to discard and refuse and rubbish that way towards our more recent times,

this valley has been a big garbage pile in Jerusalem. That's where they would burn their trash, it's where they would burn their refuse and their waste. Whenever God would cleanse a foreign set of idols, he would burn them in the Valley Of Hinnom in Gehenna and so right here you would expect if you're Jeremiah

and Yahweh says, I want you to go down to the Valley Of Hinnom. Jeremiah is going, oh no, that's not good And he goes, And there you're gonna find a potter's house.

And so as Jeremiah you would think, this makes sense. A potter would live next to a big fire pit because once the piece of clay is broken or marred or cracked, he can just throw it straight into the refuse pile and get rid of it right there.

So Jeremiah goes, okay, this makes sense. I'm gonna go down to the potter's house and what I'm gonna see is pieces of pottery that are broken and then a potter who's already positioned himself for judgment just chucking the clay into the fire.

So God goes, that's what I thought you were gonna think, but I'm gonna show you something different about my character.

Go down to the potter's house and there I will give you my message. So Jeremiah says, I went down to the potter's house. That word for potter right there is the same word that's used in Genesis chapter two verse seven

where it says, God formed mankind out of the dust of the earth. It's the same word, it's artisanal pottery. God takes the dust and forms. So this is a divine synonym. God's saying, I am the potter

and if Adam is the clay, then we are his clay. We are the what he's making. The book of Ephesians chapter two verse eight and nine powerful salvific passage says this, it is by grace you have been saved. That's God's unmerited favor. For it is by grace you have been saved through faith not of yourselves, not by works,

not by duty, not by merit. It's by God and his grace for it is by grace you have been saved through faith not of yourselves not by works so that no man can boast. The next verse says, for we are God's craftsmanship. Handiwork is the word in Greek. We are his artistry

created in Christ Jesus to perform good works. So God likens himself an artisan, he likens himself an artist, he likens himself a potter, which means we play the role of the clay.

So the potter says, come on down and check this out. So he goes down to a valley of judgment expecting judgment and here's what he finds instead. I saw him working at the wheel

but the pot he was shaping from the clay was marred in his hands. So it started to flop around, okay? So if you ever watch a pot, this is so convenient, this thing spins, right? You've got clay on the center of a potter's wheel, it's spinning really fast and then sometimes clay seems to have a mind of its own. Without

any real reason as it's spinning around, the potter takes such good care to place it in the middle, to use an appropriate amount of water and then as he starts to spin it, sometimes the clay just starts to wobble and then it throws itself off of the wheel.

And so as Jeremiah is watching this he goes, okay, so God is the divine Potter, He's gracious, He's sovereignly in control. Look at him, He's shaping it, molding it and then the clay goes, you know what, I'm out and it just throws itself off the wheel. And so as Jeremiah is watching that he's going, oh, I get it.

God is the potter and I am the clay and sometimes I just go, you know what, I see what you want to make in me but I'm out. Just throws himself off the wheel. And so now what's the expectation? If the potter living in Gehenna

at the potter's house finds a chunk of clay and that clay kicks against the potter and throws itself off the wheel, where does it go? In the fire. And this is where God goes, this is where you've mistaken my character.

When he was forming the clay, verse four, it was marred in his hands. So the potter then picks it up and forms it into another pot shaping it as seemed best to him. This would be what was shocking to Jeremiah.

In the Valley Of Gehenna with the potter and the craftsman, you knew the potter was gonna be in charge, you knew the clay was gonna kick against, you knew it was gonna fall on the floor but what you didn't expect in a place where you would present judgment is redemption in its place.

Then the word of the Lord came to me and he said, can I not do with you Israel as the potter does? Declares the Lord. Like clay in the hand of the potter, so are you in my hand Israel. Now it's true that when God shows us to Jeremiah, he's specifically talking about the way that God interacts, redeems,

buys back and helps his people Israel but the Psalmist tells us in Psalm chapter 103 that the stories of Moses and the Israelite people are meant to demonstrate to us the character of God. He has made known his ways to Moses and his deeds to the people of Israel. This is what Psalm 103 verse seven tells us.

And since God says, the way that I interact with my people Israel is the way that interact with you my people

and that God is the same yesterday, today and forever. Hebrews chapter 13 verse eight tells us this, Numbers 23 verse 19, who is God that he should change his character? Who is he that he should lie? He does not do any of those things. He's always consistent in his character. Malachi tells us the exact same thing. It's a big fancy theological word that we understand about the God that we serve, he's immutable,

he never changes.

So if God dealt with wayward pieces of clay like that back then to pick them up, to reform them and redeem them, then we can expect that when we as the clay, this is the analogy that Paul uses in Romans chapter nine, it's the same analogy he uses in second Corinthians chapter four that we are these vessels of clay,

then we can expect in the same sense when we kick off the wheel of God's will, what does he do with us? It's not discarding, it's not rejection, it's redemption. But baked into that then, it actually disproves this distortion

that if any of us have thought to ourselves, God has this very specified plan for my life and if I kick back he moves on or if I don't create analysis paralysis around every big decision then God's gonna be done with me. God goes, come in to come into this potter's house. What happens when you jump off my wheel? I pick you up and I put you back on and I form you into something beautiful. This is what I do.

So when students especially come to me, but again, this is a pervasive idea. This is 70% of Christians, it's 65% of people inside of church today believe that a past mistake they have made has disqualified them from service inside of the church. 70%

believe that they have missed God's will for their life because of a big decision that they made incorrectly. And so if you were to walk up to me after this service, if I finished this sermon right now and you said, so wait, hold on, does God have a will for my life? I would say, yes.

You're like, the whole tight rope thing, you said that God does not have a will for my life. Sure. But you're saying, does he have a will for my life? Of course. But does he have a will for my life? No. So which one is it? We have to understand

definitionally what we mean when we say, does God have a will for your life? God has a will for your life and I don't know your name, I don't know your background, I don't know your past, I don't know your family, I don't know your origin, I don't know what's been done to you and I don't know what you've done.

But I don't have to. Because God is not gnostic. He's not secretive.

He's not hidden and this is how we like to think of him. This is controversy in the New Testament era that Paul rebels against so strongly. People walking around going, God's got a hidden will and he's not gonna tell us about it. God's got things he wants from us but only the elite few know and this is what we become hyper spiritual and think that we can't move unless we get some divine sign and yet I want to pitch to you this idea,

I get to teach theology, I'm a professor of theology and apologetics and in the middle of all that the more that you study, the more that you recognize God has a will for your life but it's far more relational than it is rational. It's much less like a blueprint. I think about a blueprint for a house.

This beam must be exactly this long or the whole house becomes catawampus, right? It all goes off. And God's will for our life is not like that. It's far more relational than it is rational. So if you said, well Chris, what is God's will for my life? I would tell you this, I would say lean in close.

This will cost you $10 okay? I'm gonna, let's just see what I can conjure up here. But I wouldn't have to because God's will for your life is this, Micah chapter six verse eight says, God has shown you a man what is good and what the Lord requires and wants for your life and it is this, it's threefold. Do justice,

love mercy and walk humbly with the Lord your God. You're like, but you don't understand. I'm gonna get married. What do I Do justice, love mercy and walk humbly. Okay, fancy,

pastoral. Did you throw a Bible at me? Oh, who would have thought that? A pastor throwing Bible. I've got a real issue Chris and here's what it is. I don't know if I should marry this person or that person. Right? First of all, you shouldn't, you probably, I don't know. You probably shouldn't be dating

two people considering marriage with both of them at the same time. It's not the Bible talking, that's just I'm also a marriage counselor, I wouldn't recommend. Okay, but what do I do? And we get caught, we go right back to this idea

that if I make the wrong choice, God's gonna be done with me. So I wanna give you these three points kind of as probably more or less a defense against God's character that was revealed in Jeremiah 18.

The first one is this, God's will for you is a rhythm, not a recital. Okay. And what does that mean? It conjures up this word picture. Okay. If any of you guys are the parents of kids who are involved in some kind of a recital or like my daughter does like a dance thing.

As a father of a kid inside of dance, you could recognize that you hear that same dumb song from their room for like three weeks, right? And they're sitting there like five, six, seven and one, right back step one, two, jazz hands, right? Like you and even as a dad, when you're They practice for weeks

and you know that someone, if you're watching a group of like five people choreographed something,

you know when they're doing well because they all are doing the same thing. You know when they're doing poorly because someone looks like the one shark from the Katy Perry video, remember that? She was just doing her own thing, okay?

Someone's off and you're like, oh, was off and as a dad you're watching your recording, you're like, smile honey, smile. Yeah, yeah, five, six, seven And what do you why are you nervous? You're nervous because she has steps to hit at times and motions and movements and correlated to what exactly the choreographer said.

And that's how you know she did a good job And she's got these things she has to hit at just the right times. And this is sometimes the distortion of the will of God. That this is how he thinks. And birth and prom and marriage and kid one and kid two. House one. Friend toll too expensive. Here we go.

Job loss, right? Like that's shouldn't have Job loss, shouldn't have meant jazz hands for job loss, but it's like kid two, twins. Okay.

We laugh to avoid crying. Okay. As a father of five kids, I'm with your friend. Okay. So the point being, I want you to picture instead, I think the Bible makes a much better I think a better argument would be, think of a father

who's watching his kids on the dance floor at a wedding. A family friend is getting married and I've got five kids but let's My nine year old daughter. If she's in a recital, I'm hoping that she hits these marks, but this is not the will of God. One, two, left foot, right foot and jazz hands, that's not it.

I want you to picture a father watching, like if I went to a wedding with my daughter and I watched on the dance floor, would I have rules for my daughter on the dance floor? Sure, I'll think of a couple. There's a lot of people at this wedding,

I don't know all of them, I need you to stay on the dance floor, okay? Don't go anywhere else. I don't want you to go traveling outside, wanna know where you are. So I might say, stay on the dance floor, that might be rule number one. My second rule might be, sometimes music is played that doesn't say very good things

and if you know a bad word's coming up and you shout it, the dance floor is not like an immune area, okay? You don't get to yell profanity or say weird stuff, that's not who we are as Hilkens, that's my last name, that's not who we are as believers and that's not who you wanna represent, okay? So stay in the dance floor, don't scream profanity

and let's watch it with the hip movements, know, like let's relax, okay? We're not gonna gyrate, any of that stuff. There are certain dance moves that are off limits and I'm gonna have these rules. I have big rules, right? And now those are more relational, right? Stand the dance floor, it's for your protection.

Don't swear, it's not who we are. And I want you to not jabber your hips because it gives off just the wrong idea. Okay, it's not what we're gonna do.

That's really different than me sitting there with my phone at the wedding going Harper, Harper, five, six, seven and one. What are you doing? Right? She doing the mock arena. I'm like, no, we don't mock arena. Right? I don't care. It's not a recital. I do give rules like do justice, love mercy, walk humbly.

Okay, I get it but should I be a teacher or a plumber or an IRS agent or a pastor? Hey, did you hear me? Can you do justice as a teacher?

Can you bring the kingdom of God to earth in the way in his morality and love the orphan and the widow and take care of the oppressed and do all those things? Can you do justice as a teacher? Can you do justice as a plumber? Can you do justice as a pastor? Can you do justice as a Of course you can.

Well then which one is it? Five, six, seven, no, it's not that. It's DJ hit that track. Do what you want. I gave you rules, do justice, love mercy, walk humbly. You wanna do it as a teacher? Great. Go be a teacher that does justice, that loves mercy and walks humbly.

You wanna be a plumber? Then be a plumber that does justice, love mercy and walk humbly. And cleans pipes. You wanna be an IRS agent, right? Do whatever. Some people want to do that, that's fun.

And in all of those things, God seems to have this open handed approach where he goes, friend, if you can go to ASU or Arizona or GCU and you can do justice, love, mercy and walk humbly, let me ask a bigger question just for all of you who are thinking certain things right now. Are there certain occupations

that by nature are against God's calling on your life? Sure thing. You can't deal drugs for Jesus, right? That's not gonna thing like, mom, I've been telling you. The Bible says whatever your hand finds you to do, do with all your might. I deal drugs so well and the best one at it.

There are occupations that by nature are outside of his will for sure. But 99% of them he's going, I stay on the dance floor, don't do this, don't do that.

It's like we become lobotomized when we become Christians and God's like, no more fun, no more joy and whatever you're good at, forget it. We're gonna do the opposite. Whatever you love, forget it. We're gonna do something that you hate. Sometimes we think that Christian piety

and that obedience means that we're all miserable. You know it's God's will because you hate your life, right? As long as you abhor what you're doing, it must be God's will for you and that's just not the case. This is what Jesus says, how many of you if your son asked for bread would give them a snake in its place?

There's a sense in which God includes the way that he built us, our natural things that we do, right? Like when I was a kid, I talked too much and loved to argue and now I'm a grown up and I do all that for Jesus, you know? I'm an apologist. I go on college campuses and talk about the reality of God's existence.

I did that when I was four, it was just about whether or not I wanted peanut butter and jelly or tuna like I just grew up and this is what Jesus does to people. When he goes and meets a fisherman named Peter and Peter is living for himself in his own world and Jesus says,

come follow me. What does he say he's gonna make him? A fisher of men. You do what I made you to do but now you do it for me. Follow your passions but now do that for me. And if Peter was not a fisherman, he wouldn't have been Peter, what do you do? You're an architect, come be a fisher of men. He would have said,

come build my kingdom. He would have used his language and so it's not this recital five, six, seven, it's much more of a do justice, love mercy, walk humbly dance. Enjoy.

There are boundaries to it for sure. There's a way to not do justice, to not love mercy and to not walk humbly, to walk in pride, to live in disobedience or to disregard what he's called us to do in our social spheres and in our families and to his law. You can absolutely go against his big revealed will, which is do justice, love mercy and walk humbly according to the commands that he's given us, according to love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength, love your neighbor as yourself. You can go against those things.

But you can go against those things as a teacher, as a plumber and as a pastor too. God's will for you is not a rhythm, it's a recital. The second one is this,

God redeems when we rebel. This is his character, God redeems when we rebel, he doesn't discard, which we saw this really clearly in the book of Jeremiah.

And if we don't recognize these first two things, we're gonna become paralyzed in our decision making and here's what the Psalmist tells us in Psalm 37, the Lord makes firm the steps of the one who delights in him. Though he may stumble, he will not fall for the Lord upholds him with his hands.

Romans 11 verse 29, for the God's gifts and his calling on your life are irrevocable. What does that mean? If he's called you to something, he's equipped you to accomplish it,

but to think that He has this very when He says calling that He's called you to part of His what has He called you to? Do justice to love mercy to walk humbly and there was no such thing as a sin that you've committed that has out sinned the grace of the cross. Kindly speaking, you're just not that powerful.

His great Where your sin is deep, His grace is deeper still. Chad Ashby writes it like this, which we talked about at beginning, the Christian life is not a tight rope. Life is a very wide, very forgiving road. I kind of wrote it like this, the cross doesn't secure a perfect plan, it secures a perfect savior.

Doesn't give us a detailed map, He invites us into a personal relationship. Proverbs three:five-six, Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him and He will do what? Make your path straight.

He will show you what it means to be a plumber for him. What it means to be a teacher for him. What it means to be an IRS agent for him. What it means to be a stay at home mom for him. What it means to be whatever it is for him. But it's really hard, maybe you found this, it's really hard to steer a parked car.

And when we become a church that just goes, I'm not moving until we can waste so much of time when God has called us to his great mission, Matthew 28, make disciples of all nations.

Some of us that were really content and really intent on saying, I know that God forgives me and that God redeems me but I'm not ready to be forgiven or to be redeemed. Here's a CS Lewis quote that has kind of really punched me in the face this last week and I'm gonna share it with you. Here's what he says, CS Lewis has a way of doing this. I think that if God forgives us, we must forgive ourselves.

Otherwise, it's almost like setting ourselves up as a higher tribunal than Him. What does that mean? That means don't you and I perceive sometimes that real Christian piety, real Christian goodness, if you're really hyper spiritual and you mess up, it's right for you to mope and complain

and to pout for like the next three weeks as some sort of like self flagellation you give yourself like, no, I'm not ready to be forgiven yet. No, I'm not. I'm not redeemed. I don't feel that I need to mope around for the next two months to show how sad I am over what I've done.

Is that God's heart for you? No, it's not. And here's what CS Lewis says, CS Lewis kindly punches you in the face and just goes, I'm just suggesting something. Clive says, that's his first name, Clive Staples Lewis, that's his full name. Weird name, Clive Staples Lewis. Here's what he says, if

God calls you forgiven and you say you're not, I'm not sure that's a great idea because what does that do? If God is the great judge of all things and he goes, Christopher, you're forgiven and then I go, I don't think I am.

What am I doing? I'm going, oh, nice judgment and now let me tell you about your judgment, it wasn't great. I've now set myself up as a better judge than God and I go, you know what, typically you're pretty good in this judging thing but when it comes to my forgiveness and my redemption

and you calling me your own and me getting to not walk in shame anymore, you were wrong about that one. That's blasphemy in the highest regard.

I know that God calls me new, he's called me to what does the scripture tell us? His mercies are new every morning. Second Corinthians five seventeen, if anyone is in Christ, he or she is a new creation, the old has gone, the new has come.

And when I go, yeah, but you don't understand how big my sin was. So I'm gonna need a few more months of moping in this, is like telling God, nice try. But you're wrong on this one. We set ourselves up as a higher tribunal. It is not religious zeal and vigor and perception and piety

that when God calls you forgiven that you say, no, I'm not. It's pride that says, when a man like me makes a mistake like that, I'm not like the rest of you. God expects mistakes from you people. And when I mess up, oh man, I really gotta give it to myself because I just don't do that very often, that's pride.

And that's something that I struggle with. I struggle with going, God, I wanna see me the way that you see me even if just for a minute. The third point as we wrap up here is this, my scars are not meant for shame, they're meant for his glory.

God would be a really good God, a really good God. If you made a massive mistake in your life that you were embarrassed by and that you felt shame for, He'd be a really good God. If He said, you really messed up but I'm gonna bury it and we're never gonna talk about it again. He'd be a good God.

But you know what would make him a better God? It's the God that he is, which is where he actually uses those mistakes and those blenders to use the clay analogy, those cracks and those fractures to bring other people to know him, that would be even better.

One thing that I found in my life is true Christian freedom, which is what the Bible is aiming for. I would say the central message of Jesus Christ is this, I want you to know the truth and if you know the truth, the truth will bring what? The truth will set you free. It's the central premise in his message is freedom.

Freedom from sin, freedom from death, freedom from hell, it's a central message. But where does it come through? Truth. When we recognize that every time the enemy brings up shame in our past, the most powerful thing that you can do as a part of his church is every time he reminds you of your past,

you look at him and you go, thank you so much, I forgot about that.

Remember that time Satan speaking into you, your flesh is speaking to you, your past, your shame is coming up and going, but remember the time that you did that really egregious thing where you betrayed your friend and remember how much that cost you? How could you be a tool in God's kingdom? Remember who you were? Remember what you did in that moment

when you can go, thank you so much for bringing that up. One time I betrayed someone so deeply and God forgave me anyway. What just happened? Everything that the enemy speaks to me if I turn it into God's glory, if I shine his glory through the cracks in my life, what's Satan gonna do after a while? He

stops bringing stuff up because now it's been a toolbox for me. I'm like anything else? Any other time that God came through when he redeemed me when nothing else could have? When he called me his own even though I should have been destined for Gehenna? Anything else that you wanna bring up that I can help God's people recognize the goodness of the God that I serve? What else do you wanna bring up?

Not only does He's not a God that's just good enough that He goes, let's just never talk about that again. He's so good that in the book of Revelation, when God wins everything, I don't again, I don't mean to spoil the story for you of humanity, but God wins.

And if you're on his team, so do you. We're in the third quarter, we're losing, right? For sure. But it's kinda like the Patriots Falcon Super Bowl a few years back, it's halftime. But I've seen the end of the game, God wins, okay? If you haven't read the book of Revelation, spoiler alert, God wins. Okay,

how does the church win? Here's what it says, We will overcome the brokenness of this world through what? Two fold action plan, by the blood of the lamb,

Jesus Christ sacrificed on the cross, He lived a perfect life that I couldn't live and then died a traitor's death in my place to free me from bondage of Gehenna and hell itself.

But he didn't stay dead, we don't have a dead hope, we have a living hope because on the third day he came back, proven that he has the power to make dead things live again and then he accomplishes that and then he offers it to anyone who lays down their life and admits that he paid the price of death in my place

and we follow him forever for the rest of our life. The church overcomes with this twofold action plan. The first is the blood of the lamb and the second is the power of our testimony.

God actually uses those fractures in our life where we feel like we've jumped off, even broken his do justice, love mercy while humbly will for our life. He redeemed us and brings us back and as he puts us back together, the light shines through those cracks and we bring other people to the knowledge of Jesus.

The church overcomes by the blood of the lamb and the power of our testimony and it's not complicated,

it's what the blind man says in the New Testament after he interacts with Jesus and he becomes a person of sight again. He simply says, I don't know how, I don't know exactly his name, I don't know, I know one thing, I once was blind and now I see. This is His call for our church. Do justice, love mercy,

walk humbly. Here's the dance floor, here's the rules and inside of that, you're not breaking it beyond repair. God is God of redemption putting us back on that stead. Would you pray with me? Father, we surrender these ideas to you, even this distorted thinking, God, even in my own life,

the struggle with forgiving myself or thinking that I'm too far gone to be used by you. Would your Holy Spirit just remind me once again of not just who I am, but whose I am, that I find my identity as a child of God first and foremost.

In Romans chapter eight thirty eight and thirty nine, nothing can take me away from your hands because I'm found in the love of Christ Jesus, our Lord. We pray all this in your name, amen. Hey, thanks for joining us for service online this weekend. Be sure to follow us on our Rock Point social media to stay connected.