Where Is Your Brother? With Pastor Ryan Braley

God, we give you thanks this morning for your presence here.

We thank you for, yeah, this amazing story, for all these stories, and we ask God that you would yet again make them come alive to us this morning.

Thank you for all of our young ones here who've been helping out we're so grateful to have young people in our midst and thank you for all the old wizards in the room for helping these young ones know what's going on.

I pray for all of us this morning and, god, would you, yeah, by your spirit, come to us, you reveal the deepest parts of us that often want to remain hidden, and would you heal us in all the ways we so desperately need it?

And by your spirit, yeah, would you do those things and liberate us this morning in Jesus' name.

Amen, and may you be seated Good morning.

Well, we are in the middle of our how Did we Get here?

Series.

Before I mention what that's all about, I do want to say coming up in the summertime, we have our next series, not for a while, but we're going to start taking suggestions, questions and ideas now.

Every summer, we do a series called you pick, or, yeah, you pick, and we want to just answer any questions that you have that are kind of arising for you theological questions, not about like cooking or something, but like bible and theology questions or topics you want us to talk about, or maybe a bible verse you want us to preach on you can submit.

Submit that you can email them to Rachel or to me, or you can drop a question in the offering globe and then we'll try to answer as many as we can.

We love doing it and it's kind of like a way for you to be involved in the sermon series that we do Now.

Today we're in, I think, week three of our how Did we Get here?

Series.

As I mentioned before, the primary story of the Hebrew Bible is the story of the Exodus, and it's when the people of Israel, the children of Israel, find themselves in Egypt and they're slaves under the Pharaoh, and the Pharaoh was not a good ruler at this time.

So they're a slave, they're worked to the bone and it's just a bad deal.

So they cry out to God and God comes and liberates them.

As we know, god is the God who hears the cries of the people and he sets them free, and so it's a great story.

It's referred to a ton in scripture, and then Jesus comes, as, by the way, god sends Moses, a man named Moses, and Miriam, his sister, and Aaron, his brother, and they're the ones that helped liberate the people, and later on, jesus is even called a new Moses, like.

It's like a new deliverance from slavery going on in Jesus, but but it's like the primary story which raises the question, though how did they get there?

How'd they get into Egypt enslaved?

How'd they become slaves?

What are they doing in Egypt anyway?

Like, why are they in Egypt?

That's not where they are supposed to be.

And what are?

What is Israel anyway?

Why do they call themselves the children of Israel?

What's what's going on there?

So to understand, you have to.

You have to.

How did we get here?

Well, you rewind and you read the book of Genesis.

I also think Genesis has profound insight into how we got where we are, how are we the way that we are, and what are the things these ancient texts might tell us or suggest to us?

So today is the Cain and Abel story, and today the sermon is called go ahead for me, sarah, where is your brother?

And it's this question that God comes to.

Cain asks him where is your brother, and it's oddly familiar, sounds a lot like a couple of chapters, actually one chapter earlier, when God, which is where we left off last week.

So Adam and Eve eat of the fruit, the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

They're not supposed to and they do it.

And then they're naked and they recognize it and they're ashamed and they go and hide.

Because that's often what we do when we feel ashamed is we hide.

And God comes to them and says hey, where are you?

He asks Adam and Eve, which I think is a hilarious question, like where are you?

Where have you gone?

What are you doing?

What are we going to do now?

So God asks Cain that same question, but it's sort of different when is your brother Now to pick up where we were last week?

So they're hiding and then God begins to provide for Adam and Eve and he provides clothing, animal skins.

This is the first time that we have a death in the Bible.

These animals had to give their life for Adam and Eve to be covered.

And also, this story never mentions the word sin.

We call it sin, but it's never mentioned in the Bible in this Genesis 1, 2, or 3.

Sin does not come onto the scene as a word, until the story today, which is the story of Cain and Abel, and we'll get to it in a minute, so try to spot it if you can.

But we call this a sin, or the fall or the rebellion of Adam and Eve.

And they are now clothed in animal skins.

They had sewn together fig leaves, they were trying to do their best and God provides for them animal skins.

Of course, there are other consequences to these kinds of things.

So they're removed from the garden and they're distanced from their homeland.

You might call this an exile.

Exile or being separated from your homeland, where you belong, where you feel called to, where God and you walk together.

This kind of a thing Freedom, abundance, resources that's what you might call home.

There's this theme in the Bible where we're often exiled from our home, and then the question is how do we get back there?

And so Adam and Eve are exiled it's the first exile in the story from the garden, and God puts these angels in front of the gateway back into Eden to protect them from going back inside.

And they have to make a way on their own outside of the garden.

And so you know, adam and Eve do what many families try to do when they lose everything, and they try to start their lives again and start over and they try to make a way forward for themselves, like many of us do.

When we lose everything, we just try to put one foot in front of the other and make a way forward.

And there's hope embedded in the story.

Remember, a lot of these stories are deeply symbolic.

I love it that it's after the fall or after the rebellion that Adam names his wife.

And you remember from two weeks ago, I'm sure it wife.

And you remember from two weeks ago, I'm sure it's burned in your memory, from two weeks ago Adam names her.

What Eve?

It wasn't a trick question.

Yeah, and you're like, I think it's Eve, maybe it's Josephine.

No, it was Eve, and Eve means the mother of all living or the mother of all life.

It's an indicator, I think, embedded in the story, that, hey, life will go on.

I know you're hiding because you're ashamed and you're naked.

You've been exiled from home, removed from the place where you walked with God in the cool of the day, where there was an abundance of resources, and now you're out there in God knows where.

But there's going to be life, life will go on.

There's hope.

There's hope embedded in this story.

Somebody in here this morning just needs to hear that life will indeed go on.

There can be a better life tomorrow than there was today.

In fact, I love this story in Hiroshima.

After the bombing in Hiroshima, scientists and experts predicted that it would take 75 years for anything to ever grow again in the city of Hiroshima, because the contamination was so bad in the soil.

It would take 75 years to grow anything, but just later that spring buds begin to form and plants begin to grow up out of the soil.

Yeah, life will go on yet again.

And so Adam calls his wife Eve the mother of all living, because there's life certainly to come Now.

It says in the text.

Adam knew Eve and they conceived and bore a child named Cain.

Now, I don't know if you took eighth grade biology class, but just knowing somebody, that's not how this works.

Okay, I don't know what's going on in the text here, but well, here's the reason the word new and you're going to have a bit of a heavy dose of Hebrew this morning the word new in the Hebrew is the word yadah.

Everyone say yadah and it means to know.

Oh, here I'll show you.

Here's the definition of yadah.

Yadah means to, it's boring or empty talk.

Listening to a lot of yada.

No, that's yada, yada, yada, sarah, that's the wrong definition.

There we go.

Okay, thank you, sarah.

What am I going to do with her?

Oh my gosh, just kidding, that was my fault.

I was trying to be funny, it was a joke.

Yada means to know or be known.

But it's not just an intellectual activity, it's not just a description of an objective reality.

It's something much deeper, much more experiential, much more emotional, an intimate connection, a relational connection between two things Adam knew his wife Eve, and they bore a child.

So knowledge, or to know something, to yada something in the Hebrew Bible, it means something more, like a relational, intimate, experiential connection.

This is why, when I ask my kids for the third time, please empty the dishwasher, they're like yeah, dad, we know.

I'm like do you know?

Because the dishes are still not emptied.

This is the third time I've had to ask you.

Just kidding, just kidding.

Kiddos Love you guys.

By the way, too many folks think that they know God or that they know the scripture.

But there's a difference between like an intellectual, like oh, I know about that thing, or I know that thing and like a deep, relational, intimate, experiential connection, to really know something.

So Adam knows his wife, eve, and they bear a son, or she does, rather, and they call him Cain, and Cain comes onto the scene and then Cain later on has a brother and his brother's name is Abel.

Everyone say Abel, good job.

Now, in the Hebrew the word is actually the word Havel.

Everyone say Havel.

Anyone recognize that word?

Well, I gave a deeply moving sermon a couple of years ago on it.

Apparently it's stuck in there somewhere.

Thank you for the three that recognize it.

Havel is this word in the Hebrew that's used later on, but here it means in all the places.

It means something like breath or fog or mist or vapor.

Oh, yeah, now you know.

Oh, now you got it.

Okay.

So there's this indication like.

The brilliance of this text is unbelievable.

There's an indication that Abel's life will be something like that.

There's an indication that Abel's life will be something like that and we know, looking back, it is brief, here and then gone.

Life for Abel, of course, the writer of Ecclesiastes, the sermon I gave many years ago, says that not just Abel's life is like this, but everything is like this.

Everything it's here and then it's gone.

This is your life too, by the way, your life.

Everything is, he says, meaningless in some of the English translations, but the original Greek or Hebrew is the word havel.

It's here and then gone.

And it raises the question yet again what will you do with your brief life that's here and then gone?

As you walk onto the stage of life and the spotlights are on and you begin to make your way off stage, what are you going to do with your life?

What will you do with it?

So Abel is born and has two brothers, and these two brothers have different occupations.

One of them is a shepherd.

Abel is the shepherd.

He takes care of goats or flock of some kind, and Cain grows things.

He's a farmer, and so they bring an offering to God.

They each bring an offering to God.

Cain brings an offering from the ground he's a farmer, after all.

He brings things like I don't know, the text doesn't say it, but I imagine maybe a pineapple.

Great fruit.

The text doesn't say it, but I imagine maybe a pineapple, a grapefruit with some sea salt.

Oh, it's perfection.

Maybe he brings some bananas Another wonderful fruit Comes with his own carrying case.

How fantastic is that?

Maybe some lemons, I don't know.

Throw those in your water in the morning.

Maybe a cutie or two?

They named these after my wife Aw, thank you.

It's.

Maybe a cutie or two.

They named these after my wife Aww, thank you.

And then Abel, forgive me, abel brings some of the flock and this is not a real goat, just in case you were nervous.

It's not real and there's no animals hurt in this sermon this morning but he brings the fat portions from his flock and he brings it as a sacrifice, as an offering to God.

And here's the crazy part about this story God prefers Abel's offering over Cain's.

And if you look at the text closely enough, it never tells you why.

It doesn't say All this is like yeah, god prefers or God approves of Abel's offering, of the flock, the fat part of the.

Maybe God's a fan of ribeye steak, I don't know the fatty part of the but God approves of Abel's offering and not of Cain's.

And we never know why.

Now many scholars or people just try to read back into it.

Maybe it's because God prefers shepherds to farmers and all the farmers in the house said boo, or is Penny, is Penny?

I saw Penny earlier.

Yeah, penny's like no boo, penny's a farmer Whole family.

But people, maybe that's like a profession of choice that God chooses like shepherds over farmers.

Some people think, oh no, god prefers maybe meat over vegetables.

Yeah, all right, yeah yeah.

And all the vegetarians in the room said boom, I'm just kidding.

This is Elk River.

There's no vegetarians in the house today.

I'm kidding.

I'm kidding.

There's maybe a couple.

We love you anyway.

I'm getting in trouble this morning.

Maybe that's it.

Maybe it's that some people think there's an indication that like what Cain brought was like a second best, like leftovers and if you're a child and have had leftovers, you know why God would be mad about that.

Like leftovers, are you kidding?

Come on, luke Beatty grabbed me and goes hey, I love leftovers at the 830.

Fine, but no one knows why.

God prefers the animal, the fatty portions of this flock, over Cain's offering of the ground.

We don't know why.

And so God tells them.

And then it says that Cain is not happy about it.

In fact, in the Hebrew the word is hurrah.

Everyone say hurrah, hurrah.

Now, this is an interesting word.

It's not exactly anger, it's actually more like this.

It means to glow or to grow warm.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, maybe you've been there, cain is beginning to glow or to grow warm.

He distressed, he's displeased, he's upset, maybe a bit depressed.

His head is hanging down low, he's despondent.

And God comes to him and says this says hey, dude, why are you so hurrah?

Why is your face so downcast?

What's the problem?

Buddy, and notice the context.

The context is not his offering.

He doesn't say why'd you bring me this crummy offering?

He doesn't.

That's not what he's talking about.

He says hey, why hold on for me, sarah?

Not.

Yet he says go back for me, sarah, please.

Yeah, he says why, hey, why are you so hurrah?

Why is your face so downcast?

I think it's an invitation here to reflect on what's going on deep inside of Cain, like God's like hey, dude, what's the problem?

What's going on down there?

You ever stop and ask yourself that question, like when you experience a certain emotion that you're like beginning to glow or grow warm.

You're like, wait a minute, why am I responding like this?

Just a couple of weeks ago, maybe a couple of days ago, I was talking to my wife.

I came home and I was telling her a story about this interaction with somebody I had had, and I was telling her and I meant to just tell her the story.

But as I'm telling the story, I start going like and then this, and then they said this I was getting like fired up.

I got like feeling like, and Katie's like like what's the problem, ryan?

And then I'm like, oh, I feel like I've got some energy around this.

Yeah, you do, you got some energy around it.

You ever have energy around something that you're like you're talking or you're like in the car, like why do I have like all this?

Like why am I glowing or growing warm?

What in the car?

Like, why do I have like all this?

Like, why am I glowing or growing warm?

What's the deal?

Then you just stop and ask yourself, like why?

Why?

I have a neighbor who was, or a friend sorry friend of mine who was mowing his lawn and his neighbor came over.

It's 8 30 at night, so not quite midnight.

Okay, 8 30 at night, summertime, july, which know, no one should go to bed in July before midnight.

Let's be honest, it's July in Minnesota.

Let's keep going, let's party all night long.

And the neighbor comes over and just screams at him what are you doing?

I can't believe you.

He just like lays into my friend as he's mowing the lawn and he's like whoa, what's the problem, dude?

Like this is what I always call.

I call like a level 12 reaction, like a level two infraction, like the anger is disproportionate from the crime, like he's like really angry.

What's the problem?

Why are you so hurrah?

Maybe you could ask, maybe it's you and you're like anytime a certain person comes into the room, you're like and you feel it.

Maybe you're at the gym and a certain person or group of people walk by and you're like or maybe that group of people will show up on the news.

That's something that you ought to pay attention to.

What's going on down there?

Why are you reacting that way?

Why are you so hurrah, upset, why are you glowing and growing warm?

What's the problem?

Carl Jung thought that everybody had what's called the shadow side.

There's a part of us that we just don't know about ourselves.

So it's a shadow.

It's the unconscious.

It's a little different, but there's a part of you that you don't know about it and because of that, there are things that are existing in that shadow that impact your daily life and the decisions.

You make, choices, you make things that you do, and you don't know it because it's in the shadow.

It's like what's down there, what's in the shadow?

Might do well to ask ourselves that.

I've got this bucket that I love it goes in my garage.

I literally didn't change anything about it, I just grabbed it out of my garage and put it in my car and drove it here this morning.

But this bucket collects all kinds of stuff and I have no idea what's in there and I love it.

Like once a year I'll kind of go through like what is going on in here, like what's in here.

So we got like a ripstick that nobody has ridden since like 1984.

I'm kidding.

Probably 10 years ago, though, we got an Easton baseball bat.

That can't be regulation.

This has got to be an illegal bat for somebody somewhere.

No one's probably used that in a long time.

A skateboard, but not just any skateboard, a white fang skateboard, let's go.

Then we got a single snowboard boot that doesn't fit anybody in the house, no kidding.

We got a basketball that's really not in good shape like my nuggets, and we got a wiffle ball.

We got all kinds of stuff down here.

I got a catcher's mitt, and here's the thing it's a Mizuno catcher's mitt.

None of my kids caught in baseball.

I don't know where it came from.

Oh, check this out, I got a bolt.

That's why my garage door doesn't work.

Probably I don't know what's going on.

That's why my garage door doesn't work.

Probably I don't know what's going on, like what's in there?

Like, yeah, that's like Cain, there's all this stuff down there.

I don't know if he knows what's going on in there.

This is maybe like you and I.

There's things going on deep inside of ourselves and our psyche, our soul.

And if God were to ask you, why are you so upset?

What's down there?

Because here's the deal these things down in there can begin to cause problems for you and they can manifest in symptoms, like behaviors, and so your behavior is impacted and affected by the things that are going on deep down in your soul, and oftentimes you don't even know it.

What's down there?

This is why alcoholics will say things like oh yeah, alcoholism is not the problem, it's the solution to the problem.

See, alcohol and drinking too much alcohol is not really the problem.

There's something else deeper beneath the surface, going on down in here somewhere.

That's the problem.

The alcohol is simply the solution to the problem.

So we would do well to ask what's the problem?

What's going on deep beneath the surface.

Things like drinking too much or numbing out with medication, or even anger or lust, or an incessant drive to work more, or Sex, or whatever your thing is eating too much, meditating these are all solutions to the problem.

What's the problem?

Here's the thing too, though these things, when they manifest these symptoms, they have a message embedded within them.

If you can find it, that point to the problem.

The thing in your life is just not working.

It's down there.

So we might ask ourselves what's not working in our lives.

I have a good friend of mine from Colorado.

I was on the phone with a couple of my buddies and we were talking and like I'm 44 now, so I'm like losing the capacity to kind of just, I don't know, not care about deep things anymore.

So like hey, dude, just I don't know, not care about deep things anymore.

So like hey, dude, I go, hey, how's your marriage?

And my friend you know the two of them we were talking one of them goes, man, it's just a struggle, man.

I said, well, talk to me about it.

So we're talking a bit about it.

And I'm no expert in marriage, I just wanted to talk to him about it.

So we're talking a bit about it and I'm no expert in marriage, I just wanted to talk to him about it.

And so after a while I go hey, maybe you guys could use some counseling, you could talk to a counselor.

And he says, ryan, I don't want to go to a counselor.

And his reason was not because he's actually from Minnesota.

I'm a Minnesotan and I can just do it.

Minnesota, right, man, I don't need no counsel, I can do it myself.

Let me go to the garage and get a hammer.

That doesn't always work.

But this is why he said it.

It wasn't because he didn't want to, he thought he'd fix it.

He said because if I go down there with her, I'll uncover things that I'm afraid we won't make it through it with her.

I'll uncover things that I'm afraid we won't make it through it.

Like there are things in our closet, there's skeletons in there, and if we start digging around in there it'll wreck the marriage.

What is he saying?

He's like Ryan, there's things down in here.

I don't want to deal with them and we can't.

If we do, if we encounter them and face them, it could wreck the marriage.

Let them lie.

There's skeletons or dragons or demons or something like down in there, like let's just leave it be, otherwise it'll kill the marriage.

I said, dude, I get it and that's heavy, but if you don't go down there, the marriage will die anyway.

What's down there?

What are the things in our lives and these, by the way, are not like oh, when I was 12, I got yelled at by a teacher.

It could be that I don't mean like past things, I mean things right now that you don't even know of, that you're repressing, that you aren't aware of, that you don't want to see, that are manifesting as symptoms in your life, that are wrecking life for you.

What's not working?

Maybe you get angry because your marriage isn't working.

Maybe what's down there is that you actually hate your job.

So when that guy cuts you off in traffic, you're like, oh, oh, oh, like, what did that guy do?

Maybe you just hate your job.

Maybe you're deeply lonely and that's why you drink too much, because you're lonely.

Yeah, what's down there?

And Cain, why are you so hurrah?

What's down there, cain?

And then God tells Cain, I love this.

He says this to him Go ahead for me, sarah.

He says if you do well, will you not be accepted Like dude.

Hey, just respond, cain, we can work through this.

You're not too far gone, let's make this, but if you don't, sin is at your door.

One translation says it's crouching at your door and it's a desire is to have you, it wants you and you must master it.

By the way, I love it.

This word desire, and the hebrew is the word tashuka.

Everyone say tashuka.

This is the root word, for it desires to have you.

Now, tashuka could mean the desire that a woman has for a man or that a man has for a woman, like the sexual desire.

It also can mean the desire that a craving, wild predator beast has for its prey.

Dude, be careful, cain.

Sin is crouching at your door.

It desires to have you, it wants to eat you.

King, this is no joke man.

This is a malevolent, malicious force.

In post-biblical um writings, like especially the dead sea scrolls, they write about sin less like individual deeds, like less about stealing a candy bar or middle fingering, the more about like this force that's at work in the world, that inspires people's behaviors and it desires to govern over people and it desires to have them.

Be careful, sin is no joke.

It's crouching at your door and it wants to have you.

And one verse later we read this he went to the field and Cain rose up against his brother and he killed him.

Man, it got him.

It got him.

And notice, too many times we think about sin like, oh, it's just me, I'm not gonna hurt anybody.

No, it's not true.

Unless you live on the moon, your sin will spill over into the lives of people around you.

His own brother dies because of what's down there.

He kills him.

Sin always spills over.

It's this craving, ravenous beast that desires to have you and he kills his brother, his own brother.

And then God comes to him and he asks him the question where's your brother Abel?

Where is he?

It's sort of like where are you, where's your brother?

God knows where he is.

What kind of a question is that?

Here's what Justin Martyr says.

I love about this text.

He says it wasn't for lack of understanding or knowledge on God's part when he asked Adam where he was or Cain where Abel was, but to convince each what kind of person they were.

It's like God's like dude, hey, hey, hey, what's down there, man?

What have you done?

And what are we gonna do now?

I need to heal some things in there, cain?

What's in there?

And then Cain's response.

If you read it, he says this.

He says am I my brother's keeper?

I don't know.

Am I my brother's keeper?

Cain says I don't know and he lies to him.

And he says am I my brother's keeper?

Cain says I don't know and he lies to him and he says am I my brother's keeper?

Turns out yes, he is his brother's keeper.

Wanted him to care for his brother.

Jesus, many years later, says something like hey, the summation of all the laws to love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, soul, mind and strength and love your neighbor as yourself.

You are your brother's keeper and your sister's keeper.

And then later on, of course, cain is terrified that he's gonna die.

There are some consequences, by the way, to this sin.

So open your Bibles in Genesis 4.

There are some consequences, by the way, to this sin.

So open your Bibles in Genesis 4.

And it says this or I can just read it to you if you don't have time to open it.

It says I don't know.

Am I my brother's keeper?

The Lord says and what have you done?

Listen, I love this.

The writer is so brilliant here.

Your brother's blood cries out to me from the ground.

Remember that God is the God who hears the cries of the oppressed, and God answers those cries.

He hears the cries it says your brother's blood cries out.

Now you're under a curse and driven from the ground, which opened its mouth to receive your brother's blood from your hand.

When you work the ground, it will no longer yield its crops for you.

You will be a restless wanderer on the earth.

So there's consequences.

He's like you're going to be, hey, you're going to be a restless wanderer.

When you go out there and Cain finds himself in exile, away from home, and Cain's terrified and he begs God hey, will you protect me?

And God says yes, I will.

And he marks his forehead to protect him.

Wait a minute.

God protects this murderous, selfish brother killer.

Yeah, he does.

He marks him, he protects him.

And, as Terence Fretheim suggests this very poetically, it turns out that God is in fact, abel's brother's keeper.

God takes care of Cain, even in his brokenness and his sin.

And Cain's response look at this in verse 13,.

I have it on the screen.

Cain says this my punishment, this punishment, is too great for me to bear.

My punishment, this punishment is too great for me to bear.

In fact, in the Hebrew you could also render it this way.

You could also say it that Cain says to God is my sin too great to be forgiven?

Maybe you've been there Like this, is it I finally have done enough?

Like, once my husband finds out, once my neighbor finds out, once my coworkers find out, once the pastor finds out, once God finds out I'm done Like, my sin is just, it's too great, it's too great.

And if that's you now, I want you to open your Bibles, page 989.

I'm going to grab your copy of the Bible.

So turn to 1 John.

And this is how we're going to end.

Page 989.

And actually, would you please stand?

That question resonates deeply, god, have I finally done enough that you're ready to be done with me?

Like, listen, no doubt sin has dramatic, devastating consequences.

I bet you could list them yourself, I bet your neighbor could list theirs, I could list mine.

I got it.

No doubt Sin is a destructive, venomous, vitriolic, murderous thing.

It can wreck lives.

It's wrecked many lives.

The question is is there any way to go through it?

Is there any way back from the edge?

What am I done for?

Well, I'm going to read from the Bible, 1 John much later.

This is after Jesus has come, has died, and we're told in the Gospels he does this as a response to sin.

So there's something there.

But then the author of 1 John writes this in verse nine uh, first john one nine actually, we'll start in verse eight says if we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us.

Does that sound familiar to anybody?

Yeah, it's from our confession liturgy.

But if we confess our sins, he who is faithful and just listen to me, look at me in the eyeballs If you are not faithful, there's somebody who is On days you're not faithful and there might be more of those days than otherwise.

You need to know there is somebody who is always faithful.

In Romans we're told that we are saved by faith in Christ.

It can also be rendered.

We're saved because of the faithfulness of Christ.

Christ remains faithful even when we're not.

I'm not saying celebrate your unfaithfulness.

I'm saying celebrate the faithfulness of Christ Because he's faithful.

And on days when you're asking yourself this question, read this If we confess our sins, he who is faithful and just and just in the Hebrew, by the way.

In the Hebrew mind to be just didn't mean you were a judge with scales.

It meant that you would do what you promised to do.

A person who's just, is someone who does what they say They'll show up on time, they'll give you their.

Is someone who does what they say.

They'll show up on time, they'll give you their.

Whatever they promise they'll follow through with that.

So this person Jesus he's talking about, is faithful when we're not.

He's just.

He'll keep his promises when we don't and he will forgive us of our sins and cleanse us from which unrighteousness.

What does it say?

God, you guys?

Yes, the answer is yes, he will forgive you.

Or rather, the answer is no, it's not too great to be forgiven, it's not.

Sin is destructive, no doubt, and don't forget that.

It's crouching at your door ready to devour you.

Take that seriously.

But, friends, also take seriously the cross of Christ that reaches deep into our brokenness, the most broken, shameful, forgotten, god-forsaken places ever.

That's where it goes, right into there.

And it's for free.

I mean, it costs something, but Jesus offers that to you while you were yet a sinner in Christ.

We're going to close in this way.

And then we got one more thing to do, but we're going to close.

We're going to do confession.

So I want to allow for like 60 seconds for you to close your eyes and just pray and ask the Spirit, god, what's down there?

What's down there?

And, by the way, you might need some help, because if it's the shadow, you can't see it, or if it's repressed, you won't even know you're repressing it.

You might need the help of a friend who can have eyes to see the things that you don't want to see.

Ask them.

You need a pastor to come and help you.

I'm available Sonia, kirsten, any of the staff, ben, someone in your house church.

You might need a therapist to do some stuff.

It's fine, what's down there?

Pray, even, just ask God, what is in there that I need to have healed?

Show me, because those things need to be healed.

God wants to heal you and liberate you.

And then also, we're going to ask God what sins do you want me to confess this morning and bring them to God, and, dare I say, boldly bring them to God, Not to brag about them, but like, hey, the cross of Christ reaches, even this, the cross reaches and bring them to God.

So if you're a guest guest, you've never done this before just close your eyes and kind of follow along and and just just pray and ask is there anything that you would want to confess?

You don't just say it out loud, just we're going to do it in silence here and then we'll do this at the end.

So let's just take 60 seconds in silence here to confess our sins.

Amen.

Let's confess our sins together.

We'll use the words on the screen Most merciful God.

We confess that we are in bondage to sin and cannot free ourselves.

We have sinned against you in thought, word and deed by what we have done and by what we have left undone.

We have not loved you with our whole heart.

We have not loved our neighbors as ourselves.

For the sake of your Son, jesus Christ, have mercy on us, forgive us, renew us and lead us so that we may delight in your will and walk in your ways to the glory of your holy name.

Amen.

So may you hear the good news this morning that God loves you, god forgives you of all of your sins and God wants to raise you from the dead.

In the name of the Father, son and Holy Spirit, amen.