The Helper (2)

What an amazing, probably if I had to guess, one of the most

famous hymns of all time, Amazing Grace.

And no matter what tech issues we have, that song resounds in

our hearts and tech is great until it doesn't work.

But that grace will lead us home.

Like I said, this is one of two more sermons we have in the book

of Hebrews.

We have this week and then we have next week because Advent

starts later than normal this year.

It starts in December.

Usually it would be normally next weekend.

But I was told once of a story at this church and I don't

remember the name and I don't want to say it to get it wrong,

but that years and years and years ago there was a child that

was misbehaving in the church.

And as the parent was bringing them to the back of church, they

yelled out for all to hear, pray for me, because they knew that

they were going to be disciplined in some way, shape or form when

they got out of the sanctuary.

Okay?

Now, if that were to ever happen here, that would be amazing

because it's just hilarious of the understanding that a child

really knows when discipline is coming.

And that's another reason why we understand that we as children,

right, though we are called to have faith like a child, which

is unquestioning, right, that is a faith that is assured that mom

and dad love us, that as we though we as we are younger and

we get disciplined, we still want to make sure that mom and

dad are there, that we may have a child that when you go out

maybe on a date night or on a vacation, they want to know when

you're going to be back to the minute or the date of when

you're going to be back and that there's a comfort in our parents

even though they might be disciplinarians.

Now I understand that me saying that not everybody here had that

and that not everybody when they think back about their

relationship with their mom and dad is a positive one.

And so I don't want to continue with that sermon illustration

knowing that for some of you that might bring pain, the

discipline in your life has happened nonetheless.

Though like the child that understands whatever kind of

beating that child was going to get, he wanted the church to

pray for them, there's an understanding of discipline in

the Bible that really starts from the very, very beginning.

If we go all the way back to the Garden of Eden, I would think

that after the fall when Adam and Eve bit the apple and sin

entered the world that God was pretty upset, that God

disciplined and he did that via a curse, right?

That he cursed the ground, all of those things that the fall

happened, sin now had entered the world, that there is

something now in our DNA, there's something in Hudson,

there's something in Addison that wants to always fight

against discipline, that wants to fight against a father or a

mother or a parent who disciplines them.

And even like us, when we were kids, we didn't like to be

disciplined.

I don't know anybody that was like, no, I enjoyed being

disciplined by my parents.

That discipline is hard, but it's a principle and really an

attribute in the Scriptures that we see from the very beginning.

Our confessions even speak about it now, our confessions that

we hold the three forms of unity here in the church, the

Heideberg Catechism, the Belgian Confession, the Canons of

Dorian.

These are historical writings that are there to help us

understand God's Word.

That as a Christian-informed church, we hold to those, that

myself included, none of us are endowed with all wisdom of all

things in the Bible, that there were people before us that had

deep, amazing thoughts of how to make sense of the Scriptures.

And so we look at Article 32 in the Belgian Confession this

morning.

We've been in the Heideberg a lot and the Canons of Dorian,

the sermon series.

But the Belgian Confession, Article 32 says, we also

believe that although it is useful and good for those who

govern the churches to establish and set up a certain

order among themselves for maintaining the body of the

church, they ought always to guard against deviation from

what Christ, our only master, has ordained for us.

Therefore, we reject all human innovations and all laws

imposed on us in our worship of God, which bind and force our

consciousness in any way.

We also accept whatever it is proper to maintain harmony and

unity to keep all in obedience to God.

To that end, excommunication, it involves according to the word

of God, is required.

So you can leave that, that's a really harsh last paragraph.

But when we talk about discipline in the church, it is

there for order, that God is a God of order, right?

That we as a church, we order ourselves in the way of Jesus.

And that if any of us deviate from that without repentance,

that's key, that discipline ought to be enacted.

Just like we are to be disciplined as children by our

parents and even as adults, we break a rule, there are

consequences, right?

There are times that we as adults get disciplined.

Does it look different?

Sure.

Does it feel different?

Sure.

But the same thing is happening.

We are being corrected in life.

The church has the obligation and in some ways the honor,

though that's a weird way of saying it, to discipline those

that deviate from the truth.

Because it's a truth that as a Christ-reformed church and a,

what I would call a church of God, a true church, the Belgian

Confession also talks about that.

That there are three tenets of the true church.

The pure preaching of the gospel, right?

The pure administration of the sacraments and church

discipline.

That church discipline is being used in a Godly, God-honoring

biblical way.

It's not a three-strike rule and you're out.

It's not you mess up and you're gone.

No, it's an understanding that there is grace, a grace that is

greater than all of our sin.

The church should reflect that as well.

However, the church should also correct.

The church should also maintain unity.

Now, are we all, each and every person, going to agree 100% on

everything in the Bible?

No, we're not.

Hopefully we agree on the, what I would call the essentials of

the faith, faith Christ, Christ crucified and was raised from the

dead.

It's in Christ that we are saved.

That is the most important thing.

But there are other theological things as well that I hope we

have agreement on.

Things that are necessary for the faith.

And when that's not there, that discipline and accountability

have to happen.

This isn't an easy topic.

It's not super comfortable to preach up here on the stage,

especially as a sinner.

And so these are the journeys of discipline that we see in the

book of Hebrews.

And I find it interesting, I actually find it fascinating that

in a book that's telling us Jesus is better than everything,

Jesus is supreme over everything, he is the best,

he is simply irresistible in life,

that following Jesus is the greatest thing you could ever do

in your life, he's ending with discipline.

This is after the faith sections.

So he wants us to have defined what faith is, right?

It is the belief in what we cannot see,

the assurance that God is there, that we have new life in Christ

though we are tempted and attacked day in and day out,

that God is with us.

Then he even goes on last week and says we're surrounded by

those that have gone in the faith.

We can look to Moses, we can look to Elijah,

we can look to David, to all of these people in Scripture,

but our ultimate view should be Jesus,

the author and perfecter, the artist of your faith is Jesus.

And what I love about that is he doesn't paint with the same

brush for all of us.

That I could sit with, I don't know, 250 people here,

you've all come to faith differently.

But I find it fascinating, it's faith in Christ alone.

That if there is another entity, another person,

another belief that you're putting on par with Jesus,

then you can't say that.

You can't say that you have faith in Christ alone if you put

something else, an ideology, a political system,

a other belief, a world religion with that.

Right?

We believe that you can't say that I believe in Jesus but I'm

a Buddhist.

Right?

That doesn't make sense that we understand that in Christ alone

our hope is found, our definition is given.

That there is a difference.

He is the author and the perfecter of our faith.

If you think you are, then you're putting yourself on the

same level as Jesus.

It's a real dangerous place to be.

But we know in time and in life we may be tempted to do that.

For some of you it may be in there right now.

Your love for a certain potential sin is on par with

Jesus.

And pastor, what do you mean by that?

That you engage that sin week in and week out more than you

engage Jesus.

Right?

If all of a sudden, how do I kind of understand that analogy

if my wife Carrie and I, if I went a week without talking to

her, actually you may like that.

So if I go a month without talking to her and she's going

to want to know, well then who are you talking with?

I know you need to talk.

Babe, you talk to the wall.

Like what else have you given this affection for talking to?

That at some point I'm desiring to talk to this or do this or

whatever this is on par with my wife.

And all of us say that's completely messed up.

That is not right.

Yet we do that with faith and we do that with Jesus all too

often.

Our ideology, our sense of identity, ourselves, we can put

on par with Jesus to the point where we may even say, well,

I'm going to actually put that, because I believe this, I'm

going to, Jesus, you have to believe in me like this.

Any stance you're going to have over Jesus is not a stance, not

a Christian stance.

Just like we say a Christian stance is not to have a stance

over anybody else but to come alongside them in life.

To come alongside them in unity, even in discipline.

Now we see there's that statement of excommunication

and that's a scary word.

Friends, that is a process.

Right?

No elder in a church, well, you know what, I'm just going to

speak for our church.

No elder in this church is going to look, A, we don't take

attendance, but if so and so is not at church on a Sunday, they

don't come to me or they don't come to the rest of the elders

who go, it's time to excommunicate.

We don't do that.

That excommunication in Matthew 18, Jesus makes it very clear,

there needs to be a process of offering repentance and

forgiveness to make relationship with an airing way of somebody,

a deviation of the gospel.

And I love how the Belgian Confession uses that word

deviate, that there's a deviation.

A deviation isn't, I accidentally did that or, oh,

man, I just completely messed up and I fell that way.

A deviation is a premeditated thing that we are going to go

away from the truth.

That if there's someone in the church that is trying to bring

people away from the truth of God, that that is a deviation.

And it doesn't mean, and you're done.

No.

That there is a process of walking alongside them, of

correcting them.

And yes, I understand that that puts the elders and myself in a

very high position, but that is our governance structure.

There's sinners just like I am, just like you are, but that we

are called to hold each other accountable for when we deviate

because it says in the book of Hebrews, chapter 12, if you're

Hebrews 12 · chapter mention

new, we read from the ESV, but you have whatever translation of

the Bible you might have on your phone or with you.

Starting with verse 12, we're going to go 12 through 14.

Again, this is after he is saying, do not despise the Lord's

discipline because the Lord chides or disciplines those that

he loves.

I use the example of my boys.

I discipline them because I love them.

Now, they may not feel that way, right?

Do you guys feel that way all the time?

No.

And I'm sure if you asked your kids, they would say the same

thing, but we discipline because we love.

We see an error or a deviation in some way, right?

Like we learned this past week, you don't throw a poop bag on

the roof and then tell nobody that it's up there.

Now, you don't even know my kids, but you're looking right

at them, and I appreciate that.

I do, yeah.

Went up on the roof today, found a poop bag.

How did that get there, right?

I had one of my sons say, I tried to throw it over the

house.

That's not a thing, right?

How many people is that a thing in your house?

Like we're going to try to throw poop bags over the house

and see what sticks.

No, that's disgusting, right?

So we learn, we correct.

That one's fairly easy.

Hey, don't do that, right?

Not okay.

But whatever that is, whatever the deviation from what your and

your spouse or your family agrees upon that is right in the

society, right?

You want to correct that.

You can go to like law and justice and all of that.

Now, again, I understand that we all may feel different things

about different laws being put in place, but the laws are there

to help correct, right?

You're doing 80 in a school zone and you get a pretty hefty

ticket.

Please don't come to me and go, this is not right.

You're doing 80 in a school zone.

At least do it on ridge, not a school zone.

You know, you will find no compassion from me if you get

pulled over doing 80 in a school zone.

But the police officer has every right to correct you and say,

don't do that.

That correction and discipline in life is what the writer of

Hebrews brings up in the beginning of chapter 12.

He continues with verse 12.

Therefore, lift your drooping hands and strengthen your weak

knees and make straight paths for your feet so that what is

lame may not be put out of joint but rather be healed.

Strive for peace with everyone and for the holiness without

which no one will see the Lord.

So he's continuing, this writer is continuing with this

understanding that discipline is put in place as a mature

believer to make things right.

But what this says is that discipline should strengthen

you.

Though in the moment you may feel weak, right, on my mom's

side of the family, my papa didn't slap with his hand.

He hit with his belt, right.

And I was a frequent recipient of that form of discipline.

Now, you get hit once with a belt and you're thinking, why

would I ever do that again?

Like nothing about that felt good.

And I would love to be able to give testimony that papa only

had to do it once.

But that's not true.

Or, and you all, and maybe you remember my grandma, right,

Grandma Bonnie Wells, my mom's mom, right, who I get my

glorious height from as she died at 4'8", 5'7 tall to 4'8",

Rick, don't look at me like that.

She was a ninja when it came to discipline, right.

The two times that I remember vividly being disciplined is

when we were at the table and my elbows were on the table and

then out of nowhere what seemed like a samurai sword, it was

only her fork, was jabbed into my elbow.

Grandma, what in the world?

No elbows on the table.

Grandma, words work, right, but she understood me and understood

that maybe a little poke in the elbow would get the point

across and then I will remember, and a lot of you will remember

this as well.

I remember in junior high, I would say that in junior high

the verbal disrespect in my mouth was probably somewhat at

an all-time high and I remember I said something sarcastic to my

grandma as I'm standing over her at 5'7", because I haven't

grown since junior high, at least vertically, all of a

sudden my mouth's hurting.

That without me even seeing it, she whacked this part of my

mouth, this upper lip, and so fast that I really didn't even

see it coming.

And I looked at her and I said, grandma, what did you do that

for?

And she looked at me dead up and said, because it won't leave

a mark.

You say that in 2023, where's grandma going?

To jail.

But that was her form of discipline and she's doing it to

correct that you don't sass your grandma.

Now, again, grandma, words work, but she chose that form of

discipline.

It strengthened me.

Right?

It's the people we know in life that when they get disciplined,

they just flop on the floor.

They think it's the worst thing ever.

Right?

I don't know if you guys ever saw the video or the meme of

there's a dog chewing, I think it's a bone on a couch and it

falls off.

And so funny, the dog looks at the bone and just falls

backwards.

Super dramatic, like I cannot believe this bone fell on the

floor.

That's not what discipline is supposed to be.

We're not supposed to wallow in discipline and go, whoa, it's

me.

The writer of Hebrews is saying, no, it strengthens your legs.

It strengthens your arms.

It strengthens your person.

Because regardless of your discipline, you have a job to

do.

Right?

You may always joke that if you get in early on a Monday morning

to work and something bad happens, you're like, I just

want to quit today.

No, grow up.

That sometimes things happen.

We get disciplined and we are to continue moving on.

We don't, oh, we're disciplined, so that's it.

I'm going back to bed.

No, it's there to strengthen us because we still have a job to

do.

I think of the manufacturer, right, who's on the line in a

factory.

They do something wrong and they get disciplined for it.

Maybe they get written up, verbal warning or whatever, and

they go, that's it, I'm out.

No, the cars still have to get made.

There's still a job to do.

Discipline does not destroy your life.

Discipline strengthens your life.

Now, maybe you've had this moment where as you got older,

you've reflected on your relationship with your mom or

your dad or whoever was kind of the disciplinarian in your

family, and one day you went to them and just said, thank you.

I know I was a handful.

Hopefully you don't wait until that person's gone, but you

have that connection moment that you recognize that the

discipline you had in your life worked, at least in some way,

because you stopped doing that thing.

You stopped making that mistake.

You grew up and you grew out of it.

That is part of this discipline process of faith.

That, believe me, the Lord is everlasting and everlasting, and

the Lord plays the long game with you as he does with me.

He is willing to discipline you about the same thing over and

over and over again, but I guess the question I would ask then is

you're the common denominator.

What are you going to do differently?

As a dog returns to his vomit, so we return to our sin.

And if we're being corrected about something, we should

really be mature enough to look inward and go, oh, maybe I

shouldn't do that.

Yet for some of us that's hard, because the other thing that

discipline does, discipline exposes.

That when we are disciplined, when we're called out, when

we're held accountable, when we didn't make the right choice or

we hurt somebody or whatever, discipline can expose the sin

in our life.

It strengthens us, but it also exposes.

Verse 15.

Starts with, see to it that no one fails to obtain the grace of

God, that no root of bitterness springs up and causes trouble,

and by it many become defiled, that no one is sexually immoral

or unholy like Esau who sold his birthright for a single meal.

For you know that afterward when he desired to inherit the

blessing, he was rejected, for he found no chance to repent,

though he sought it with tears.

You go back to Jacob and Esau, that there is, you know, there

are problems on both sides.

Jacob, he tricks his mom, right?

He tricks the understanding of his parents and he steals Esau's

blessing, that Esau for a mere thing of soup gives his

birthright and his blessing away.

Talk about a giant wah-wah in Esau's life.

I guarantee he probably would have wanted that back, and maybe

you have been there in life.

Maybe you have given away a part of yourself.

Maybe you have made decisions that has completely changed your

course of life in your mind.

And maybe you are sitting here weeks, days, weeks, months,

years later, and you go, oh, I wish I wouldn't have done that.

You guys all know the saying, woulda, woulda, coulda, shoulda.

We look back and we go, man, I shoulda done that.

I coulda done something different.

And this is different than thinking you could make it in

baseball or whatever it was.

These are decisions that change the course of your life because

of maybe a mistake you made or something you chose to do.

And you go back and you go, ugh.

But the mature believer doesn't go back and go, ugh.

The mature believer goes back and goes, man, but God still

found me.

God's still there.

God did not give up on me.

God did not say, and you are out.

That God still not only desires a relationship with you, but he

wants to guide your life.

God is the number one person in the world that could say to each

and every one of us, told you so, but he doesn't.

That's grace.

He doesn't give us what we do deserve, wrath, death, but he

gives us grace when we don't deserve it.

None of us have earned it.

None of us has gone to church as much to earn his grace.

All of you that are gonna sign up for nursery and actually do

it, you're not gonna earn the grace of God.

He gives it to you so you can say, oh, I did sign up a year

ago.

I forgot that I did.

Or whatever it is.

That he's correcting that in your life.

Do not despise the Lord's discipline.

And there he makes it actually very specific.

He knows that in our society, sexual sin and sexual immorality

is going to run rampant.

I think he's right.

We look at 2023 and it is all over the place.

That God understands that that is going to be something that

his followers and his people fall in time and time again in

a myriad of sins, right?

And understanding that he's saying stop.

Come back to me.

This is what my desire is for you.

And understanding that forgiveness.

But it's one thing to understand the forgiveness.

It's another thing to correct the behavior.

God, I get it, but I still want to do it.

Oh, but I know that the hundredth time I do it, you'll

forgive me that too.

Dieter Bonhoeffer calls that cheap grace.

We talked about that weeks ago.

That's probably an ideology that's going to sting of a false

conversion.

That if you think God is just this immoral or moral ATM

machine that I'm going to step in the sin but I'm going to get

grace so I keep stepping in the sin so I'm going to get grace,

that is a very ugly understanding of Jesus.

Of the grace he actually affords you.

That he went to the cross to die and then perfect it in you.

That's not a perfected faith.

That's taking advantage of faith.

And so we understand, see it was a good idea.

We understand that not only does this strengthen us when we get

discipline, it exposes our need for discipline, especially for

all those that think we can hide our sin from God.

Spoiler alert, you can't.

And the understanding that he's with you every step of the way.

I remember growing up in youth group when youth group people

would date and all of that because that happens in the youth

group.

Our youth leaders, our youth pastor would always say, hey,

leave room for Jesus.

Super awkward.

And I may or may not have responded but I have him in my

heart so this is okay as my way of saying no, I want to do these

things.

We can't justify it out.

God is not going to, he understands.

Jesus doesn't go, God doesn't go, oh, I didn't know Jim was

going to say that.

And I know there are a lot of parts of my testimony, my life

where all, I think what Jesus is doing is the hand and face emoji.

I get it.

But he's shown me that and says, hey, grow from this.

He puts people in by life.

I remember when internet filters became a thing and I was a

sophomore in high school and part of my journey was to find

areas of the internet I probably shouldn't be and I would get

access denied, right?

Because that was the, or like, and it was like, okay, I'm going

to try to fly past this one.

I remember one night after youth group, and this, guys, a lot of

you have met my dad.

He didn't come in to parent, he came in to disciple because I

was about ready to start high school and my sister was already

in high school.

No one was home and it was very strange because I was like, this

is Sunday night, why isn't anybody home?

My little brother has to go to bed.

And he's down by my room in the basement.

And every time the computer went, eh, access denied, he made

a copy of it and he printed it out.

And there was this little mini phone book of access denied.

And all he said to me was, you've been in places you

shouldn't be.

You got to talk about this.

Oh, believe me, I was grounded.

Yeah, there's a definitely grounding part of that story.

I don't think I was able to touch a computer for six months.

But it was understanding that we have to correct this behavior.

Because if you go off now as a sophomore in high school and you

go, let's say, five years, you're going to be here.

And his worry is that that place on the internet was going to

become second nature to me.

And he knew that can't be the case.

And maybe that's your story.

Whatever your internet filter is, maybe God is trying to get

you to understand that you keep going and trying to do that

thing.

God is going to give you those messages, those, eh, access

denied.

And a mature believer takes that and says, all right, I'll stop.

But the immature believer says, nope, I'm going to try to go

right around it.

Maybe if I spell it this way, we're going to try to justify

sin.

And that is a foolishness.

That's not a maturity in Christ.

So God's discipline not only does it strengthen, it exposes

and that hurts.

When our sin is exposed, right, when that wound of sin is

exposed, it doesn't feel good.

We want to get rid of it.

So we need to accept the Lord's discipline.

We need to correct that error in our life.

We need to be held accountable for those things.

Because the final thing that discipline, the end game, I

believe of discipline is that discipline emboldens.

I had a different word for that.

You can put the slide up.

And Mike helped me and found a way better word for this.

That discipline emboldens.

Verse 18.

For you have not come to what may be touched, a blazing fire

and a darkness and a gloom and a tempest and the sound of a

trumpet and a voice whose words made the hearers beg that no

further messages be spoken to them.

For they could not endure the order that was given.

If even a beast touches the mountain, it shall be stoned.

Indeed, so terrifying was the sight that Moses said, I

tremble with fear that you have come to Mount Zion and to the

city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem and the

innumerable angels in festal gathering and to the assembly

of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven and to God,

the judge of all and to the spirits of the righteous made

perfect and to Jesus, the mediator of the new covenant and

to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the

blood of Abel.

That we are emboldened.

That when we are disciplined, not only are we strengthened by

the Lord's discipline because it's exposed what is going on

in our life and saying if you keep following this, not only

are you a fool, but you're not going to get anything from it.

You're not going to add this to your life.

This is going to bring you spiritual death.

The word I had was reverent fearlessness.

But I think emboldened makes it so much better that we know

and we are emboldened that we come to the Mount of Zion.

We come to the city of Jerusalem which is now Christ

and we lay down our sins.

A beginning person of faith, a new believer's faith isn't

tied up with if we confess our sin, he is faithful and just.

They don't realize that yet.

But it's the seasoned person of faith, the mature believer as

Hebrews says understands and recognizes that when we confess

our faith, he is faithful and just.

The new believer may think if I confess my faith, not only

are you going to be disciplined, God is going to be done with me.

I likened that to maybe when you were dating, right, and you

didn't want to bring out your inner crazy or whatever it was

because you wanted that person to like you for the version of

the person you wanted to give them.

But the relationship takes a whole new turn when you feel

like you can be yourself.

When you don't feel like the date mask has to be put on.

When they see you, really see you in the good, the bad,

and the ugly.

How do I know?

Not that I've ever been on a dating site because those weren't

a thing when Carrie and I got engaged and got married but I

hear stories of people on dating sites and there's a myriad of

them, I'm not going to say them because I'll probably say the

wrong one and you're all thinking of me very differently.

But what do people put on?

Do they put all of their failures on there?

Come date me because I keep trying to find those places on

the internet, I keep traveling 80 down school zones, I keep

doing all of these things, please date me.

No.

And what person is going to be like, oh, yeah, give me some of

that?

No.

And the boss, they're like, oh, they're a project, I'm going to

fix them.

Danger, do not go, do not collect $200.

Don't do that.

People put what they think those people want to see.

Right?

If you're on some kind of fitness dating app, you're not

going to, first thing you're going to say is I'm a couch

potato.

I love chili and I hate working out.

Oh, pastor, why do you have to throw chili under the bus?

I don't know why that came into my, are we having chili

today?

I don't know why.

I have chili in my head.

But to me couch potatoes eat chili.

You're welcome.

But understand, like, we're going to try to put our best

foot forward in those dating apps, I assume.

Yeah, I went, I tried out for a triathlon.

Didn't finish but I did it.

Right?

I go to the gym all the time.

I go to the snack bar but I go to the gym all the time.

We try to put our best foot forward.

The immature person tries to do that with God.

That's what the writer of Hebrews is saying.

Don't be a failure in your faith.

Don't try to be what you think people want you to be.

Be you.

And if you are encouraged, if you are emboldened, if you are

exposed and you've learned and now strengthened in the follies

of your life, lead with that because that's the power of your

testimony.

That's what a mature believer does.

That's why Jesus is the greatest because Jesus says, no, no, no,

no, no, I'm going to use your good and your bad and your

ugly to help bring my word of the gospel to the world.

So you may be coming here this morning and go, God can't use

me because I do this.

Oh, no, he can because guess what?

He already knows you do it.

So as we turn and we finish this book of Hebrews with chapter 13,

he's going to tie it up in a nice bow, but I think the ending

is really here.

And if Jesus is the greatest thing in your life, live that

out.

Because so often we're tempted to live another version of that.

We're tempted to say, oh, no, I get that.

Me and Jesus, yeah, we're tight.

We're BFFs.

But in the world, I don't want to be seen like this.

I want people to see the way I want them to see me.

But the real believer says this is me.

This is the good, the bad, and the ugly, and Christ died for me.

I think that makes a lot more sense in a fallen world because

people are going to, wait, if Jesus can love a Jim Holland

owner, I'm not nearly as bad as him.

He can love me or it could be if Jesus can save a Jim, he can

save a me.

I'm so sorry that sounded like Mario.

I am so sorry for that.

But it's the same holds true.

That he can save you and he wants to save you and if he has

saved you, walk that out.

Not your own version of it.

Walk out the fact that you are saved by Jesus in your muck, in

your mire.

You are saved by Jesus.

Your sin has been exposed.

You've been strengthened and you've been emboldened to walk

that out.

And he has one more encouragement for us next week.

Let's pray.