Hosea: By Grace, Not By Grasping

But I am the Lord your God from the land of Egypt.

You know no God but me, and besides me there is no Savior.

It was I who knew you in the wilderness in the land of drought.

But when they had grazed, they became full.

They were filled and their hearts were lifted up.

Therefore they forgot me.

So I am like a lion, like a leopard, I will lurk beside the way.

I will fall upon them like a bear robbed of her cubs.

I will tear down their beasts, and there I will devour them like a lion, and as a wild beast would rip them open.

He destroys you, O Israel, for you are against me, against your helper.

Where now where now is your king to save you in your in all your cities?

Where are your rulers?

Those whom you lay you said, give me a king and princes.

I gave you a king in my anger.

And I took him away in my wrath.

This is the word of the Lord.

And the question underneath this picture that is gonna be highlighted this morning is that what are you still trying to grasp that can only be received by grace?

What are you trying to grasp that can only be received by what, friends?

By grace.

And that's the question we're gonna be looking at as we say it is not by grasping, it is by what?

Grace.

God's unmerited favor, God's uh loyal kindness to undeserving people.

And as I've been thinking about that, I went back to my chronicles where I thought about a couple of incidences where there was a swimming pool involved.

And I'm like, uh thinking back, I'm like, I was actually my daughter's age at the time, where there was a swimming pool involved.

And in that story, basically, that involves a swimming pool and maybe a flood once is a story where I genuinely thought I was about to drown.

Where I genuinely thought, man, this is over for me.

There was panic, there was water, there was this desperate instinct to grab onto something.

In fact, anything at all at that time.

And friends, it made me think that actually when you are drowning, the the instinct is to grasp at what?

At the water itself.

You just want to latch on to something.

That's where the phrase grasping at straws comes from.

You you latch on to something that can't hold you up, that can't bear your weight.

And that's what we do, friends, when life feels uncertain.

We grasp at straws.

We latch on to money, to success, to relationships, to control, for something, for anything that says you are safe, you will live, you will make it.

That's what we do, friends.

And and here's what I've realized about these childhood moments.

I survived.

I'm here, of course, duh.

I survived not because I found something strong enough to hold on to, but because someone was strong enough to grab hold of me.

Someone was brave enough to dive in, someone dived in to rescue me, who was able and strong enough.

And that, friends, is what the picture of grace is that we're gonna see this morning.

We're gonna look at three points.

Number one, identity by grace, number two, provision by grace, and number three, the end of our grasping.

Number one, identity by grace, number two, provision by grace, and lastly, the end of our grasping.

So uh because of the length of the text, we didn't actually read all of it.

So we we will be highlighting a couple of verses as we move along the text.

Uh basically, what we're looking at is chapter 11, verse 12, all the way to chapter 13, verse 16.

Isaiah 11:12

So take some time and read.

I'm gonna be referring a lot to Jacob, to Genesis.

Oh, yeah, the Genesis, the irony of that.

We're gonna be giving some references that you can then go home and read for yourself.

Uh again to highlight the points I'll be making.

Now, let's let's kick it off with um actually verse 11 of verse 12.

Um, beg your pardon.

Ephraim was surrounded has surrounded me with lies, but Judah still walks with God and is faithful to the Holy One.

Ephraim feeds on the wind and pursues the east wind all the day.

They multiply falsehood and violence, they make a covenant with Assyria, and oil is carried to Egypt.

And then look at verse 3.

In the womb he took his brother by the heel, and in his manhood he strove with God.

Wow.

There's something that kind of jumps at us here that maybe it could be easy to miss, actually, in verse 3, that the man Hosea, as I said, is describing next uh what isn't merely an ancestor, but he's describing uh Jacob.

And Jacob's other name is Israel.

He's he's as it were, as I said, pulling up a mirror and setting it before them.

He says, in the womb he took his brother by the what?

The heel.

And and Hosea here, he has the first reference, takes us back to Genesis 25, where there are these twin brothers, Esau and Jacob.

And Esau comes out first, but as Jacob comes out, he's holding on to his heel before Jacob could walk.

His story begins with him grasping at something.

Uh, again, if you have questions on that, maybe you can go down the road on Jansmarts to Genesis Center and ask a midwife what it looks like for a twin baby to be grasping at the heel of another twin.

And friends, this instinct of um Jacob follows him all his life.

In Genesis 27, that's the second reference here.

Jacob disguises himself as Esau.

In fact, his mother is involved in the ploy and like uh puts on some some wool on his skin because Esau was a hairy man.

And as he disguises himself, he wants to deceive at the time his uh father's failing eyes, a blind father, his aging father to to actually secure the family blessing.

Though God, friends, contextually had already promised that the covenant line would fall and would continue through Jacob.

The tragedy here, friends, is that Jacob is manipulating his way toward what God had already promised by grace.

And friends, Hosea doesn't stop there.

In verse 2, as I said, the Lord has an indictment against who?

Against Judah and will punish Jacob according to his ways.

You see, friends, what God is saying here is that you cannot hide behind your ancestor, oh people of Israel.

You cannot hide behind Jacob.

Because they had this proclivity to summon, as it were, their name.

As a way of false security, we are the people of who?

Of Israel.

We we are Esau, we are we are the chosen ones of God.

They were presumptuous.

But God says here, the very person you grasping at, you're holding on to, Jacob, also needed grace.

He also wasn't deserving.

And Hosea also, fans, shows us what God did with him, with with Jacob.

Um, Jacob then in Genesis 25, 28, I beg your pardon, he flees, as it were, he flees his brother, he flees Esau, who, because he accused him of stealing the blessing.

And we find him there in Genesis 28, sleeping and resting his head on a rock.

He used the rock as a what?

As a pillow.

Some strange things are happening here.

I'd be so uncomfortable.

But God meets Jacob at Bethel there and promises to be with him and keep him.

And all this time, as Jacob continues to be a person who is searching, who wants to be uh grasping at anything, to to uh, as it were, in our language, you say, We are slanganis, so we are patanis, so we are panda, he's hustling.

But but God says, I I promised you and blessed you and called you my people, my Israel, Jacob, while you were fast asleep.

You were sleeping and I showed you grace.

Years later, friends, in Genesis 32, again, if you're taking notes, uh just note that as well.

Um, he's facing this brother he had cheated.

Jacob then in Genesis 32 spends again a night wrestling with God at Pinial.

And there, friends, Genesis says, Jacob prevailed.

And it sounds like he won, as it were.

But Hosea, friends, in verse 4, look at it.

He strove with the angel and prevailed.

He wept and sought his favor.

He met God at Bethel, and there God spoke with us.

What is Hosea interpreting here?

How is Hosea interpreting Genesis 32?

He's he's he's showing us that the victory is actually looking like a man who's what?

Who is weeping and seeking favor.

The grasper here is becoming a what?

A beggar.

He discovers that the blessing he needs cannot be taken, it can only be what, friends, received.

Don't miss the order, friends.

Before Jacob wrestled, God had already met him while he was sleeping.

Before Jacob sought after God's favor at Pinial, God had already shown him favor at Bethel.

And that's the point, friends, grace came first.

It's always grace, friends.

It's always grace before works, it's always grace enabling works.

The seeking came after.

And that's the instruction, that's the imperative that he's gonna give to Israel later on.

Hey, seek me, seek justice.

Love justice, love mercy, seek all of this, but as you seek, as you return, you must know that what enables all of that is God's grace.

We're not there yet, friends.

One theologian that uh I think is Irish, I wish I had that voice now to quote him.

Sinclair Ferguson in the book The Whole of Christ, he makes this point.

Jacob spent his whole life trying to secure by his own wits what God had already promised to give him by grace.

He had to be crippled before he could understand that God's blessing is received by empty hands and not forced by strong arms.

And friends, we live in Joe, we know walala wasala here.

Janusberg knows how to grasp, as it were.

We we you meet someone, first impression is hey, what do you do?

You you you measure people by their title, their address, their salary scale.

Oh, what is it?

Salary salary scale, yes.

You you measure people by by what they do and how they are, and and and and that's how then you're gonna uh perceive and respect them.

But the deeper question here is it's not what do you do, is who am I?

Who am I?

You see, friends, the hustle of Joburg is people chasing for who am I?

And friends, here's the point here.

There's nothing wrong with ambition.

That's not the problem in the text.

The problem is believing my identity has to be achieved before it can be received.

And that's exhausting.

Maybe you are here this morning and you feel exhausted.

You've been chasing the what do you do and calling it who am I?

You you're still comparing yourself to other people, still trying to perform your way to being accepted by people.

You still perform your way for likes and validation, for the next achievement, as it were, to confirm that you matter.

And Jacob's story, friends, says you cannot manufacture by grasping what God can only give you by grace.

He gives identity.

That's why this section lands on verse 6.

Look at it.

So you, by the help of your God, return.

Hold fast to love and justice and wait continually for your God.

What do you mean wait?

Walla wasala.

You snooze, you lose.

I I can't wait.

God is saying return, hold fast.

Love peace, love, love justice.

Wait continually.

In other words, continue to depend on the enabling grace of God.

Notice Hosea doesn't tell them to stop holding on.

He says redirect that.

He tells them what to hold on to, as it were.

See, friends, initially when uh Jacob was born, he was grasping at a man, his brother.

But the wrestle that he he he eventually climaxes into, that is enabled by the grace of God, is God allowing him to what, friends, to win.

As the wrestle happened, God allowed him.

Although he crippled him, he allowed him to prevail, as it were.

Friends, our identity is only secure in this God, and the God who calls us to return to him, who calls us to hold fast, who calls us to wait for him.

And and even the return happens, friends, because it's by God's help.

Do you see it in verse 6?

He says, so you by the help of your God.

You need God's help.

You need help.

We all do.

You see, friends, grace doesn't mean there's nothing for you to do, grace means even your response begins with what God has already done.

You need help.

And friends, if you're not secure here, maybe you're a believer and you're not secure about this Christianity thing as well.

Notice where Jacob's story begins.

Jacob doesn't climb his way up to God, God comes down to Jacob.

Christianity does not begin with your ability to reach God, as it were.

It begins with God who comes for people who cannot reach him, in fact, who are unable to.

More on that later.

Once you begin, friends, to believe the truth that uh you have made yourself, you are self-made, then it is it isn't long before you forget who has actually made you.

You you look at everything and say, man, kin nao, kickanna.

This this is all of me.

And and that's where Hosea takes us next, friends, that there's a sense in which we have misdirected provision from God to us providing for ourselves.

Look at it in point number two, the provision by grace.

Look at verse 7.

A merchant in whose hands are false balances.

He loves to oppress.

A trader in whose hands are false balances.

He he loves to what to oppress.

This is economic expectation.

Others say no, we are we are maneuvering the the economy and the industry.

But but here is a merchant, a businessman, a an entrepreneur, a a person of means, uh uh kind of like rigging the system.

He he he he is exploiting every transaction favors him.

So so somebody uh who is profiting out of what, friends, the the demise of other people.

He profits and someone else pays for it.

He he the notice the language, as as he do this, as he does this, he he loves to what, friends, to oppress.

He doesn't tolerate it, he loves it.

Exploiting others for provision.

You you see, friends, you don't need ancient scales to recognize this, friends.

It's that invoice that is uh inflated, as it were, because nobody's checking.

It's that tender, hey, Madlanga Commission.

That that goes to whoever paid for it.

It's that employee who's underpaid because they can't afford to walk away.

Jose isn't asking you to feel vaguely guilty about prosperity.

If you've exploited someone who couldn't afford to argue, he's calling that sin.

Saying you're sinning against that person.

Maybe bring it home to your gardener, to the person who does your washing and ironing.

How are you balancing those scales?

Verse 8 friends reveals something even deeper underneath.

Look at what they're saying here.

Pragmatism.

Look at it, verse 8 says, Ephraim has said, Ah, but I am rich.

I have found wealth for myself.

In in all my labors, they cannot find in me iniquity or sin.

I am rich, I found for myself.

No iniquity can be found in me.

See what this person is saying is success is my alibi.

It worked, so therefore it is right.

He he doesn't care the about the people he's trampled on.

He's he's measuring his relationship with God, his his his his morality or morality to what friends, to success.

Have you ever heard of that before?

When people say, no, I'm I'm fine.

Yeah, I I evade taxes.

I I I I I play the game.

Along the way I oppress others, along the way I underpay people, but I'm successful, I hurt nobody.

I mean I'm employing people.

Isn't that the need?

I I am rich.

I I I created this world for myself.

Who do you think you are?

And friends, God's argument here is not about economics.

He's actually introducing himself or reintroducing himself.

Look at verse 9.

I am the Lord your God.

From the land of Egypt, I will again make you dwell in tents.

As in the days of the appointed feasts.

The very place where they themselves had been exploited.

That's where he takes them back to.

He says, Don't you remember you were slaves?

You you you were exploited?

Don't you remember that you needed a rescue?

That you you are actually a rescued people.

You you didn't rescue yourselves.

I did it.

God did it before they had anything to boast about friends, which is what they're doing in verse 8.

God says, Look, I made you, I saved you.

You you had received everything by grace.

And verse 10 can.

Of makes the point again.

It says, I spoke to the prophets, it was I who multiplied visions and through the prophets gave parables.

I continually warned you against your arrogance, against your sense of being self-made.

I continue to speak, but you have stopped listening.

God was hadn't gone silent.

People had stopped listening.

And they had started exploiting the poor.

You can do that without becoming an atheist.

Do you get this, friends?

You can know the songs, you can attend church, you can use God's name and quietly organize your actual life as though you don't really need God.

And you maneuver people.

See, friends, by chapter 13, we realize that the self-sufficiency has uh even hardened them into their worship.

Let's look at chapter 13 quickly.

Look at verse 2, it says, and now they sin more and more and make for themselves metal images.

Idols skillfully made of their silver.

They're making idols of their means.

They are they are they are prophets, prophet, prophets, yes.

All of them, the work of the craftsmen, it is said of them, those who offer human sacrifices kiss calves.

They're sacrificing humans.

Skilled craftsmen manufacturing these idols and kissing them.

They have loved their silver.

They have cherished and adored their silver.

In other words, friends, there's a sense of like I'm I'm kissing, I'm I'm I'm cherishing, I'm I'm I'm worshipping my career.

I'm worshipping my progress, I'm worshiping my silver, I'm worshiping my my the thing that I've made, that I've built through the exploitation of others.

I am now kissing it.

And what is this kissing saying, friends?

It's saying they are asking of this silver to do what only God can do and to be what only God is.

They are telling this the silver, this idol to to give them security, to to tell them that they matter.

It's like, man, I I I'm cherishing, I'm there's nothing wrong with loving your job.

There's everything wrong with worshiping it.

I'm worshiping my career, I'm worshiping this relationship because I'm seeking from it significance and meaning.

I'm seeking from it to tell me that I matter.

I'm not just going I'm going beyond the provision into this thing defining me.

That's the problem here, friends.

That's the problem that we're gonna just see now.

Look at uh verse 3 again.

Look at verse 3 again.

Therefore they shall be like the morning mist, or like the Jew that goes early away, like the chaff that swells from the threshing floor, or like smoke from a window.

Oh, poetry.

The point in verse 3 is this, friends, that all this thing that I'm looking for to matter or for them to matter will dissipate.

You may kiss it, but in the morning it will be no more.

It will be like swirls from the threshing floor, taken and driven away by the wind.

Everything that you look to for being substantial friends, it can soon be gone.

It takes an email.

You regret to inform you.

Against everything that you you may have manufactured as a point or a reference for security, it can all be gone.

And verse 4, friends, highlights that for us.

Besides me, there is no savior.

That's that's what God is saying.

But I am the Lord your God from the land of Egypt.

You you you know no God but me, and besides me, there is no savior.

Is this pastor an angry pastor?

No, he's he's we are pointing you to the reality of God saying, look, the thing that you are looking to find significance and meaning from and matter from cannot save you.

It dissipates.

There's inflation.

I bought gota with five rand.

Now gota is I don't know, fifty rand.

Things there's inflation, your your cars depreciate.

Friends, the companies close down.

We get diagnoses.

God says, I those things can't save you.

They have no capacity to give you meaning.

Your idols cannot save you.

And then he moves on and says, Neither can your kings.

Elections are coming, they probably not probably they are here.

You'll hear the promises.

Look at verse 5.

It was I who knew you in the wilderness, in the land of drought.

But when they had grazed, they became full.

In Zulusitu Sutarabi.

Like they are full now.

They have eaten and they they've forgotten God.

Look, look, they were filled and their heart was lifted up, therefore they forgot me.

So so I am uh I am to them.

Okay, we'll go we'll get that just now.

There's a point he's he's he's he's getting at here when he when he says, uh, it was I who knew you in the wilderness, in the land of drought.

In verse 6, when they grazed, they had become full, they they forgot God.

And and and the the order here is this God is saying, I provided for you, I made you full.

But your hearts grew proud.

You you forgot me.

You see, friends, the irony here is that they didn't forget God because he failed to provide, they forgot God, and they forgot him because he actually did.

The abundance produced amnesia.

And and friends, we have a saying for it.

Sisuta Gabi.

Loosely translated for my brothers from the West.

We we get full and then our fullness makes us forget.

We assume the the dangerous moment, friends, is is always in the struggle.

But hey, here's something to be cautious of.

Sometimes the danger is in the abundance.

That that promotion that comes, and then you're like, finally.

That that anxiety that that finally loosens its grip on you.

That that prosperity that that that that that is not a sin, it's a blessing, but has potential to produce in you forgetfulness.

And my question to you this morning is what has your fullness produced in you in relation to God?

Has has thank you quietly become I did it?

I made me.

And friends, if the wilderness feels closer to your life than fullness does, don't hear this as though God only speaks to people doing well.

Scarcity is not spiritually safer than abundance.

Fear can make us just as self-reliant.

Abundance says, I don't need God, I have enough.

Fear says I can't wait for God.

I have to secure myself.

Melan Yenzi plan.

That's where people then steal.

So the question isn't how much have you made?

It's what are you trusting in to hold you up?

It's one thing, friends, to trust something while life is working.

But eventually, whatever you trust has the power to prove whether it actually can save you or not.

You see, friends, that's the posture that kind of says, what are you trusting in?

In lag or in much.

It has the power to give you a posture to tell you exactly what are you trusting in.

Let's close it off with the end of our grasping.

Lest you be like, yo, ouch, ouch, ouch, ouch.

Look at verse 7 of chapter 13.

So I am to them like a lion.

Like a leopard, I will lurk beside their way.

I will fall upon them like a bear, rubbed of her cubs.

I will tear open their breast, and there I will devour them like a lion, as a wild beast would rip them open.

Wow.

I thought it was over, but hey.

Notice who's speaking here, friends.

It's not Assyria, the enemy that is on its way to uh plunge um Israel into uh exile and desolation.

It is God Himself speaking.

That's scary, friends.

The shepherd who carried Israel now describes himself not as a shepherd, but a predator, a predator, a predator.

Hey, they cannot escape.

He says, Man, in verse 9, you are against me, against your helper.

It's one thing to be against your enemy, it's another thing to be against the very one who can help you.

The only one for that matter who can help you.

He says, You are against your very helper.

In other words, you have nowhere else to turn.

And then it taunts them in verse 10.

Where are your politicians?

Okay, it doesn't say that.

It says, Where now is your king to save you in your cities?

Where are all your rulers?

Those of whom you said, give me a king and princes.

And God says, I gave you a king in my anger, and I took took him away in my wrath.

And friends, as I said, we are in that time now.

I highlighted here blue for a reason.

We're in that time where people are contesting for mayor being mayors of cities, contesting of over-governing our municipalities.

It's a time of promises of new leadership, a new party, as it were, or uh an old party being uh removed from power and the same old story.

And and what they are saying here, they they the promises are what?

It's that you are going to, I'm going to fix your life.

I'm going to give you uh something else to grasp onto.

And friends, the eventuality of those promises is this that they run into something that they cannot fix.

And Hosea is not cynical here about leadership.

So please go vote.

He good governance, friends, is a gift from God.

As we read our Bibles, we should understand that.

But a king can pass laws, command armies, build institutions, but he cannot reach into the grave and pull you out from there.

Whatever political party is there cannot rescue you from the ultimate enemy.

Verse 12 says, Ephraim's sin has been bound up, kept in store.

God says, I'm not going to overlook it.

Back in verse 8, Israel said, No guilt can be found in me.

God says, Hey, I found guilt.

Nothing was forgotten, it was stored up for judgment.

And verse 13 gives us a picture of an unwise child who, when the moment of birth comes, will not present himself at the opening of the womb.

She won't come out, or he won't come out.

And friends, the point is this the opportunity for life is there.

He will not move toward it.

That's the child.

Do you see the startling picture here?

The contractions are done.

Again, I said go down the street to the midwives, they'll they'll they'll explain that.

The contractions are happening, whatever diaframe is open, the the the the the baby is ready to be catched.

But the baby won't come out.

The baby refuses to find life.

And the baby who doesn't come out eventually what?

Loses the life.

I say that with with with with with compassion and sensitivity.

What God is painting with this picture is this is what Israel is.

God is saying, I'm offering you a life.

Would you be born?

Would you be born again?

The opportunity for life is here.

The moment to return has come.

And Israel is is is still insisting on not returning.

And then, friends, the one the hardest verses that we'll come across is in verse 14.

Do you see it, friends?

I shall ransom them from the power of Sheol.

I shall redeem them from death.

Oh death, where are your plagues?

Oh Shaol, where's your sting?

And here's the point: compassion is hidden from my eyes.

Oh man.

Death, where's your sting?

Death, where's your Shaol, where death, where are your plagues?

Sheol, where's your sting?

And God says, compassion is hidden from my what?

My eyes.

I won't show compassion.

They refuse to be born.

Born again.

They refuse to be born, and so because I'm the commander of the ultimate power, which is death, death shall consume them.

Israel was persistently refusing, friends, to return, and now God is saying, I'm judging you.

Hosea won't sanitize this immediate uh interpretation of this text, friends, contextually.

The natural reading of this verse is terrifying.

But I'm sure some of you are like, oh, hang on, this looks very familiar.

I mean, I mean, verse 16 gives the horrifying end of the picture that Assyria is about to come with warfare.

They shall fall by their sword, their little ones shall be dashed in pieces, babies and pregnant women are gonna be dying.

It's it's it's horrifying, friends.

And even this picture is not the most horrifying picture in the Bible.

The horrifying picture in the Bible is eternal condemnation.

John 3 verse 16 for God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son, that whosoever believes in him shall not perish.

John 3:16

Perishing is is is that eternal damnation.

That's the most horrifying picture.

And the context there is, you need to be what, friends?

Born again.

You need to be born again.

You can't stay in in that state of condemnation.

You need to return.

Sadly, friends, in the history of Israel, 722 BC, Assyria came upon these people and they were judged.

The conquest, friends, was was brutal.

And if we hurry past this, friends, we we're not gonna understand the the point here.

We cannot rest in our comforts.

This was a horrifying thing that happened in history.

And we can't hurry past it because, friends, we won't understand the depth of the gospel.

If we don't understand the depth of our sinfulness, if we don't understand the depth of our horrific status before a holy God if we don't return, if we don't repent.

Because friends Hosea brings us to this place where every human grasp finally fails.

What happens when you face something you cannot grasp your way out of?

What happens to you when you cannot save yourself?

You see, friends, the picture here is this that the diagnosis is saying that you are eternally condemned, you are sinking.

In fact, you are not you're not you're not the seven-year-old me grasping at straws, you are dead in your sins and your trespasses.

You need someone to dive in, pull you out, and bring you back to life.

That's that's what the gospel is, friends.

Jesus diving into the depths of your mess, in in the you are dead in your sins and your trespasses.

That's what Ephesians 2 says.

And he dives in, he rescues you and gives you life, he gives you a new heart, he causes you to be born again by faith.

When there's nothing more you can do, when that diagnosis has come, she's not gonna make it.

Death is the very last enemy, friends, that that cannot you cannot grasp at anything to save you from that.

And we need to admit that none of our hustle can save us from that, none of our zamazaming and drawback can save us from that.

Anyway, centuries later, friends, Paul writing in 1 Corinthians 15 about the resurrection of Jesus Christ, he's he's reaching back into Hosea's language that we find death is swallowed up in what?

In victory.

Then, oh death, where is your victory?

Oh death, where is your staying in Hosea friends?

Death is is being summoned by God.

But in Paul's language in 1 Corinthians, friends, death is being mocked.

What has changed?

Jesus Christ rose from the dead.

The question Hosea was raising is can can can God ransom from Sheob?

Can God redeem from death?

And and the answer is in Jesus Christ, yes, God has power over death, and he has demonstrated it by raising his son from the dead.

So, friends, Jesus didn't stand safely at the edge of the waters shouting instructions to drowning people like you and me.

He entered the waters of death itself, he bore the judgment of sinners that we deserve.

He bore it on himself, friends.

He he died, he was buried on the third day, friends, he rose again.

What am I saying, friends?

That's the Christian claim.

Not the Christians become good enough to avoid dying.

That's not that's not the claim, friends.

It's not it's not that our grip on God becomes strong enough to survive the grave, it's it's not the Christian claim, friends, but that the one holding us up has already gone through death and come out the other side.

The one holding us up, friends, is is the one who gives us hope to stand in the midst of the turmoils of life.

Your hope, friends, is not in the strength of your grasping, your hope is in the crucified Savior Jesus Christ, who's already holding you.

That's the Christian story, friends.

Perhaps you are here this morning and you're struggling to believe this.

You always consistently want to swim your way out of trouble.

But the point here is this friends.

You know black people, you can't swim.

But our inability to swim here is because we are dead.

Even if we tried, we are we are dead.

You need to be rescued.

You you need to be rescued, you need you need someone to dive in and hold you up.

And and that's that's the gospel here, friends.

That it's all of grace, God's riches at Christ's expense.

All we have to do is come with our empty hands and simply to that rugged cross we claim.

Let me pray first, dear Lord.