Reigning Grace (Romans 5:16-21) | Louis Azuma

Speaker: Um, and Mr.

Taco in the celebrity All-Star game had 20 points, 21 rebounds, five blocks.

This dude is an NFL player that his first quarter, and that's how

tall he is compared to NFL wide receiver Kenan Allen right there.

Um, so he did not get the MVP award for this game.

The dude who got the MVP award had 17 points and four assists.

I don't know how that happened, but, um.

People were very upset about this, right?

The internet was, was not happy that, uh, taco got snubbed from getting the MVP.

Um, but as a society, right, we hate when people don't get

the credit they deserve, right?

We hate when the wrong people get the credit, right?

There's all these reaction things to, you know, whether it's the

Oscars or whether it's the.

Awards at the end of the season or whatever, right?

We hate when the wrong people get the credit and you hate when the

wrong people get the credit, right?

Like when your parents, you know, give the credit to your sibling, that

really should have gone to you, or your teacher gets the credit to the

other person instead of you, right?

Or when you really did all the work in the group project, but someone else

gets the same grade as you, right?

We all hate when people get credit that they don't deserve, right?

When people steal credit from other people, we hate it.

Now sometimes when we talk about being saved, we do that same thing.

We, for lack of a better term, we snub God from the credit

that he deserves in salvation.

And, and we kind of turn that spotlight and put it on ourselves.

So when you, when you think about being saved, a lot of times what we think

about is how good it is for us, right?

And maybe if you heard last week surrender, you think, man, our

situation was so bad before.

We're stuck in sin.

All we can do is, is.

Do the follow our own sinful desires.

And maybe you're out there and you're thinking, man, salvation's so good for me.

Salvation is great for me.

I don't have to go to hell.

I get to go to heaven.

And all of your thoughts about salvation are oriented about you.

Well, tonight I want us to turn the spotlight around and we talk

about salvation and look at God.

And I want us to see what salvation shows us about God,

not just what it means for us.

Now you'll find that what we learn about God is actually really good news for us.

But I don't want us to only, when we think about salvation,

only think about ourselves.

I want us to think about God too.

So don't take salvation and make it all about you.

We wanna take it and make it about God, right?

So Romans five, we're gonna start actually towards the end of our passage.

We're gonna start in verses 20 and 21.

So in case you, you're new here, just to catch you up on where we've been

last week, we talked about a really bad situation that we're all in.

We're all stuck.

In this slavery almost we're stuck, um, under the reign of sin.

So rain, right?

That's not like the rain that's outside, right?

This is like a king.

He's reigning, he's ruling.

So we're all stuck under the, the ruling power of sin.

And we see that because everyone dies.

We're you can't escape it.

Every single person is going to die.

We are, we're stuck in this big problem.

All we can do is sin.

We're born into it and we can't fix it ourselves.

We can't keep God's law to get ourselves out of it.

Right.

Actually, verse 20 says that God's law actually really

just shows us how bad we are.

It doesn't help us get out of our sin.

It actually just shows, Hey, actually you can't even do this.

Right?

Um, it's almost like I was at, um, we went to Ninja Nation last

year in March, you know, the Ninja Warrior, the salmon bar thing.

So it's like a ladder, but there's just that one bar and you gotta like

pull the bar up to get up the ladder.

Right.

The law is kind of like that.

It's because you, you try it and you're like, oh yeah, I'm supposed to use this

to climb, and you realize I can't do it.

Right.

I can't do it.

I was too short.

I could barely get up one.

But, um, then the guy, the worker, he like showed me how to do it.

He's like literally like six four.

And I was like, dude, this is not helpful.

Right?

You showed me how to do this.

Your arms are way longer than me.

It's not helpful.

So anyway, all to say is the law actually shows us how far short

we fall from God's standard.

It actually shows us how bad we are.

It doesn't show us that we can make it to God.

It shows us that we actually deserve God's wrath.

Um, so that doesn't help us.

So we're stuck.

We're stuck in this situation.

Sin is in control of us, right?

We can do nothing but sin.

And now what we're gonna see is that Jesus overthrows that ruling power.

It's almost like sin is like a dictator.

Sin took over the world and Jesus is gonna come in and overthrow.

The, the rule of sin.

There's a really old book, um, by the guy who, same guy who wrote Pilgrim's

Progress, if you know what that is.

But it's called Holy War.

And basically what the book is about, it's about how this

works, but it's like a story.

So all the characters have names.

Um, and what happens is sin comes in and takes over the city, and

the city represents me and you.

So we're this city and the sin came in and took over the city, and then

God comes, Jesus comes with all of his armies and he takes the city back.

That's what we're gonna learn about today, right?

Sin came and took over the world, right?

We're all under the the power of sin.

And now Jesus comes and he takes it back.

He reclaims what sin conquered in the first place.

So that's what we see right here.

Sin reigned in death.

And this is kind of tough to read, but grace might also reign.

So grace takes over and now grace is in control.

That's what happens when Jesus saves people.

He overthrows sin and he takes over.

And so what I want us to see tonight are three things that Jesus conquering,

sin and death Tell us about God.

We're gonna see three things that Jesus conquering, sin

and death tell us about God.

All right, so we're gonna start in verse 17.

So look with me, chapter five, verse 17.

For if because of one person's trespass.

Who's that person?

Shout it out.

Adam.

Adam, right?

One person, Adam in the garden Sin.

B, because of that, it messed everything up.

Now the consequences of sin happened to everyone because of Adam.

Sin entered the world death reigned through that one man much more will.

Those who receive the abundance.

That means like overflow.

I always think of like a cornucopia, you know, cornucopia.

It's always like overflowing.

You never see like half empty cornucopia.

The Thanksgiving thing with all the fruit in it, you know, you always see

like, it's like spilling out, right?

That's what abundance is.

It's always overflowing.

Much more will those who receive the abundance of grace and the free

gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man Jesus Christ.

So one man, Adam, he messed up one man, Jesus.

He's the only one who can fix it.

That's what Paul's saying right here in verse 17.

So God shows that in saving us, he is powerful.

He's powerful because.

He defeated death, right?

Death is raining, and then Jesus comes and he replaces it with his reign.

So our first point tonight is see God's power in overthrowing sin and death.

See God's power in overthrowing sin and death,

and that might be a new way for you to look at.

Salvation.

Maybe you haven't looked at salvation that way before.

A lot of times we think of salvation as being forgiven, right?

Uh, a relational idea.

I'm reconciled to God.

There was hostility and now there's friendship.

Maybe that's the way you think of being saved, or maybe

you think of saved legally.

You think of being saved as I was justified, I was guilty

and now I'm made righteous.

Maybe that's the way you think of salvation, the way that.

It's being presented here.

Those things are both true.

The way it is being presented here is that being saved is like being freed.

It's like you were a slave and now you're free.

It's like Jesus won a battle and he's now in control of the city, right?

That's the way salvation is being portrayed here.

And again, what Paul's doing in these next two verses is he's

showing that contrast, right?

One person, one sin.

Messed everything up led to condemnation.

That means guilt for all people.

So one act of righteousness, Jesus, righteous, perfect life, right?

Jesus lived a perfect life.

That's why he didn't just parachute in on Palm Sunday and

then die the next week, right?

He lived a whole perfect life.

Um, leads to justification, righteousness, right?

Righteous aside, that's what being justified means, made

righteous and life for all people.

So we see that contrast here, right?

Adam messed up.

Jesus did the right thing.

Instead of being guilty, now we can be made righteous.

Same thing.

One man's disobedience.

Many were made sinners by the one man's obedience.

Many will be made righteous.

Right?

So what's happening here is only one person could do this.

And the story of the Bible that you'll see is that the history of

the world is no one can do this.

Especially in the Old Testament.

You see this a lot in the Old Testament.

You think, well, okay.

Adam messed up.

But you know, God said that one day there's gonna be this

descendant from the woman who's gonna crush the serpent's head.

Who's that gonna be?

Who's the person gonna be?

Who's gonna crush the serpent and fix the world?

Who's that gonna be?

You think?

Maybe it's Noah, right?

God started over, he, he did the flood.

Noah's back rainbow.

Everything's great.

And then Noah messes up, right?

And he has that, there's that weird story of him getting drunk, right?

And then you think, well, maybe it's Abraham.

You think maybe Abraham's the guy and then.

You read and you're like, oh, Abraham's not really perfect either, right?

He, he commits even the same sins over and over.

Maybe you were reading that in our DBR and you think, well, what if it's Jacob?

Well, actually, you learn pretty quickly.

It's not Jacob, right?

'cause Jacob is a pretty bad dude for most of Genesis.

And then you're like, well, maybe it's Joseph.

But then you realize, you know what?

It's not Joseph, because Joseph isn't the one who, who's, uh.

He's not the leader in his family.

Judah is the leader, but Judah's a horrible dude.

So it's not Judah.

And then you keep going.

Well, is it Moses?

Well, Moses isn't perfect either, is it David?

Is it, is it David is he's the king.

He's he's the man after God's own heart.

Then you realize, oh, David Bathsheba.

Right?

Not a good thing.

Lots of sin, right?

So the whole history of the world is people failing, right?

Including me and you.

We all fail.

None of us can fix this problem.

Only one person can do it.

And I hope that helps you see some of God's power in salvation.

I hope you see, man, I was helpless, right?

And, and if you're not a Christian, you still are right?

There's no amount of church activity you can do.

There's no amount of good things, good thoughts, good intentions that

you can do to fix your problem.

You are helpless if you are a Christian.

You were helpless.

It's not that God did most of the work, and you did a little bit.

He did a hundred percent of it, and you actually, the only thing you did was cause

the problem in the first place, right?

You sinned.

So God shows his power and that, you know, he's the one person who can fix this.

The one person, the only person, and that, that's just that he's strong, right?

You can't overcome your sinful desires.

You need God to do it.

You can't defeat death.

You need God to do it.

So God shows us his power in salvation.

He's the only person that can do that.

And the best way to acknowledge God's power, God doesn't just want you to

say, yeah, I agree that you're powerful.

'cause guess what?

Satan does that Satan knows that God is powerful.

The demons know that God is powerful.

A lot of atheists would say that, yeah, if there was a God, he would be powerful.

The Muslims think God is powerful.

Every, A lot of people think God is powerful in their, in their head.

Right.

What you need to do, the best way to really acknowledge God's power and

agree it with it, is to trust in his power to say, you know what, God,

you're the only person that can save me.

You're the only person that can, that can fix this.

You're the only person that can deal with my guilt.

You're the only person that can take away my sin.

You're the only person that can sanctify me.

You're the only person that can keep me saved.

That's how you trust God's power is you.

You actively.

You actively do that as you live.

When you have doubts, you trust God's power by saying, God,

you're the one who saves me.

I'm gonna pray to you.

I'm gonna search for answers in your word.

I'm gonna trust you.

That's what acknowledging God's power really looks like, or it

doesn't look like trying really hard in your own to kill your sin.

It looks like confessing it, and it looks like trusting God to kill

it by using His word, by using.

The help he provides through other people.

That's what it looks like to acknowledge God's power.

Trying to do things on your own does not acknowledge God's power.

Right?

It actually acknowledges your own power 'cause you think you

can do something about it, right?

When you're anxious, it's a great opportunity for you to acknowledge

God's power and say, you know what, God, you are powerful.

If you were strong enough to save me, surely you're strong enough to keep

me safe from this thing I'm scared of.

Right?

That's how we acknowledge God's power,

but also.

We can look at salvation as a, a victory, right?

Not just a transaction, right?

Not just a verdict.

It is right.

Justified made righteous, right?

That's a verdict.

Yes, but it's also a victory, right?

We sing a lot of songs about this around Easter time, right?

About Jesus defeating sin or conquering the grave, right?

That's why God gives us that visual of salvation in the exodus.

Exodus is all about salvation.

God saves his people.

They were enslaved.

They couldn't do anything about it and God came in and saved them.

And what's so cool about Exodus right, is, um, it's very like when you

think of all the Epic movies, right?

We, we love epic movies, we love Lord of the Rings, we love, right?

These movies that are, that are we like, man, that's so cool, right?

We love, you know, Marvel movies where there's this big battle and, and the good

guys win and they destroy people, right?

So we love that because we're, that's supposed to all point us to God.

'cause God did that.

God is epic, right?

He is a conquering king who's powerful and mighty and strong,

and you can be excited about that.

You can be excited that you, God, God crushed death in one.

Right?

We, we love seeing things like that, and that's how we worship God.

We get excited when we watch those movie scenes, you know, like we

watch 'em over and over and we're like, oh, that's so awesome.

Right?

Do you ever feel that way about God?

When you're singing on Sunday morning, do you feel that way?

Like, oh, like when you're watching a sports game or you, you know,

you see someone do this crazy dunk, you're like, oh man, that was so cool.

That was so epic.

When you're singing, right?

Do you feel that way about God?

Man, God is so epic when you're praying, then God is so awesome.

When you, when you read in the Bible, when you hear it in a sermon, are you,

do you feel that that's one way we acknowledge God's power and worship him?

Right.

He's the only person that can do something about it, right?

It's kind of like, um, imagine at winter camp, not winter camp.

Imagine at Spring Camp we're playing dodge ball, right?

And there's that one person left on your team, everyone's

out, one person left, right?

Um, but imagine you're the one on the sidelines.

You got out, you were like the first person out.

Um, you're relying on that person.

Let's say, you know, I got my megaphone and I'm like, Hey, if

they catch this, everyone's back in.

Right?

All of your hope is on that person, or you can't do anything.

You can't go out there and play.

I'd kick you outta the game, right?

You can't, you can't help your team out really at all.

You're totally reliant on that one person, right?

You're that, you know, you're like, man, I need that person to catch the ball.

Right?

And you, you know, you've been there, right?

You're on the sidelines and you're screaming.

Catch it, catch it, catch it.

And usually, you know, it's like some, you know, some lame middle

schooler and you're like, catch it.

Catch it.

Right?

And they're scared.

'cause you know, there's all these baseball playing high schoolers that

are like throwing nukes at them, right?

And you're like, catch it.

Catch it.

And then they're screaming back at you.

I can't, right.

This is what happens, right?

There's one person and you're like, all of your hope is on that one person, right?

And, and you're like on the edge of your seat, right?

Jesus is that one person, right?

You're on the sidelines.

You can't do anything about it.

You can't get in the game.

You're out of the game.

All your hope is on that, on Jesus to do it for you.

He's gotta catch the ball, right?

That's what we're talking about here.

But something really cool about God's.

Grace in salvation is he doesn't just fix the problem by conquering sin and death,

he actually makes life better than it was.

Look at verse 17 again with me here.

So when we talked about that word abundance, right, even the way

it transitions here much more.

The point here is that, okay, bad situation.

Then God fixed it.

Yes, but he didn't just fix it.

He did more than fix it.

That's what abundance of grace means, right?

God didn't just have mercy, he had grace.

He added to what happened.

Speaker 2: If you think about it,

Speaker: Christians are in a better position than Adam was

because Adam, he's in Eden.

God doesn't just take Christians back to Eden

because in Eden, Adam was innocent.

He wasn't righteous.

See the difference there?

Adam was innocent.

He was blank slate, right?

When someone becomes a Christian, they don't just get a second chance.

They don't just get a do-over, Hey, now you're innocent.

Let's do your life over and see if you can live God's way.

See if you can make it to heaven on your own.

That's not what, that's not what God does for Christians.

He doesn't give him a second chance.

He doesn't say, Hey, I'm gonna make you innocent and you're

gonna try again and see if you can make it to heaven this time.

That's not how salvation works.

Salvation is God making your situation better than Adam's was

because now you're not just innocent.

You're 100% righteous.

You've already earned it.

You all of the obedience you could ever do.

She's already did it for you.

You can't add to it.

You can't take away from it, right?

You're not starting over.

You're already done.

So it's actually better than it was before.

See, God's grace

doesn't just make your situation better either.

It also leads to true life.

And you're talking about this in your small groups, a little

about what that even means.

What?

What is?

When God says, you know, you can have eternal life, what does that even mean?

Does that just mean you're gonna live forever?

You're gonna talk about what that means.

But the whole point here is that God's grace gives you real life

the way it's supposed to be.

So 0.2

tonight, see God's goodness in his life giving grace.

When I, I used to work as a server, I worked at Applebee's.

I, 'cause we're fancy like that and, um, we, when I was a server

and you messed something up, um.

You don't just want to like fix it, right?

Imagine you're at a restaurant and uh, your server brings you

the totally wrong order, right?

You're out with your family to eat and your server brings you the meal and

you're like, this is not what I ordered.

Right?

It'd be great.

It's great.

Yeah.

Your server gives you the right order.

They fix it.

Cool, right?

But what your server really should do is they should, they

shouldn't just like fix it.

They should go over the top to make it better.

Right.

They don't just wanna give you the same thing you ordered.

They wanna make it better.

Right.

They, maybe they'll give you a free dessert.

Right.

Or maybe like, this happens at Chick-fil-A, right?

If they mess up your order, they don't just give you the right order.

They'll give you like one of those free, you know, those cards, like

you can scan or they'll email you like a, a free sandwich or something.

Right?

Um, that's when I worked at Chick-fil-A.

We did the same thing.

We also, we do, we give him a free sandwich or something like that.

We, we would try to make it better than it was before.

That's what God does, right?

He gives eternal life.

Not just a second chance.

He gives himself really, and I, I hope that helps you see how good he is.

We see that word abundance again here, right?

Overflow in verse 20, or sin increased.

Grace abounded all the more, God has more than enough grace to cover all of our sin.

And the point here.

Is that the grace gives us eternal life through Jesus.

It gives us eternal life.

And so there's this connection here between God's grace and eternal

life, and maybe in your head you're like, okay, grace, that's

just like being nice to someone.

It's like, well, no, grace is yes.

It's what's called unmerited favor, right?

Giving someone what you don't deserve.

If you ever heard someone explain it like this, mercy is

not getting what you do deserve.

Right.

We're guilty.

We deserve God's wrath.

God is merciful and doesn't send you to hell after your first sin, right?

That's mercy.

Grace is God says, I'm gonna save you and I'm gonna adopt you as my

child, even though you sinned against me, and I'm gonna treat you as if

you never sinned in the first place.

And actually, I'm gonna treat you as if you lived a perfect life just like Jesus.

That's grace, right?

God gives you what you don't deserve, but grace is also power.

I dunno if you've ever thought about it like this, but the way the Bible talks

about grace, grace isn't just an attitude.

Grace is power that God gives to live the way he wants you to live.

Grace is God's power for living eternal life, for living a truly

happy, satisfied, full abundant life.

So when you're thinking about God saving people, right?

He shows his power, but he also shows his goodness because he gives you so much.

When he saves you, he doesn't just say, okay, you're justified.

See you later.

He doesn't just say, okay, yeah, I'll see you in heaven.

Peace out.

See you when you get there.

Right?

He gives you so much.

And first of all, the, what we talked about.

A couple weeks back.

The best part about being saved is that you get God, right?

The best part about being saved is you get to enjoy God.

You finally get to enjoy God the way you're meant to enjoy him,

and that's part of God's grace.

God's grace gives you the ability to enjoy him the way you're supposed to.

God's grace gives you the desire to want to be with him.

That's why for some of you, you're not Christians, and

you think being a Christian is the lamest thing in the world.

You think it's so boring.

You think it's.

You're like, why would I ever wanna do that?

Why would I want God?

Why would I ever want to read the Bible?

Why would I ever want to pray?

Why would I ever want to sing?

Because God hasn't shown you the grace to give you the desire to

actually want him the way you should.

God made us to live for him and enjoy him.

For Christians have been saying that for hundreds of years,

thousands of years, right?

God made us to glorify him and enjoy him forever.

And grace is what God does to, gives us to help us do that, to give us the

ability and the desire to do that.

God's grace, um, is the what God does to help us enjoy him.

All right, and then, so there's this.

There's this thing, this phrase in Christianity that people might talk about.

It's called means of grace, and it's called, what that means is like how

we experience God's grace, right?

That how do I get connected with God's grace?

I'll explain it.

I'll illustrate it for you 'cause I know it's kind of confusing.

I asked Chad GPT to make me a picture of the most delicious

milkshake you've ever seen.

This is what it came up with.

This?

Yeah, this looks like diabetes in a cup.

Um, so allegedly this is the most delicious milkshake you've ever seen.

Speaker 2: What's wrong with the donut?

Why is there two straws?

Speaker: Because you need two straws to, um,

I want you to pretend, I want you to pretend that this milkshake is, is God.

That's, that's kind of heretical, but I want you to pretend

this milkshake is God, right?

How do you, how do you enjoy this milkshake

Speaker 2: with others?

Speaker: You drink it, right?

You drink it.

That's how you enjoy it.

You drink it.

You can look at it, you can take pictures of it.

You can take a selfie with it.

You can post it on Instagram, right?

But you're supposed to enjoy the milkshake by drinking it, right?

Cool.

How do you drink the milkshake?

Speaker 2: The straw.

The straw suck.

Speaker: You take the straw, right?

You use the straw that taste too.

So the, the straw is the means that you use to enjoy the milkshake, right?

The straw is what you use to enjoy the milkshake.

Okay.

Are we tracking?

Yes.

If you're not, you can shake your head.

That's okay.

Alright, cool.

So.

The straw is what you use to enjoy the milkshake.

It's the means.

So what God does is he gives us, means straws to enjoy him.

And that's why as Christians, we care so much about you reading your Bible.

That's why we care so much about you praying.

That's why we want you to be at church.

That's why we want you to have Christians, friends.

That's why we want you to have good conversations with, with other believers.

That's why we want you to sing to God.

That's why we want you to confess your sin.

That's why we want you to do these type of things.

'cause those are the ways you experience God.

Because that's where God makes himself available to you in his word, right?

That's where you, that's where you meet God in his word,

right?

The Bible is the straw you enjoy God with.

That's how you take in God, right?

It's not about the Bible, it's about God.

Right?

We're not just telling you, oh, read the Bible because he

want you to read the Bible.

We want you to read the Bible 'cause we want you to meet God.

And where you meet God, you meet God.

Where he reveals himself in the Bible, right?

He says all this stuff about himself.

Right.

That's the point, right?

The Bible is the straw.

God is the milkshake.

Right?

But if you don't use the straw,

it gets tricky right To, to enjoy the milkshake.

That's the point.

Right.

Or like, you know, you ever had one of those paper straws that

like you end up drinking the straw with the milkshake, right?

That's like the worst thing ever.

That was a total California thing, probably.

But, um, right.

The, the, even the type of straw you use, right, matters how

much you enjoy the drink, right?

That's why there's two straws in here.

You can have twice as much of the milkshake at once.

That's the point, right?

Um, all that to say right, is how do you experience god's goodness.

You pursue God through the the straws that he's given you, right?

God has given you ways to enjoy him.

He's given you his word.

He's given you his people.

He's given you prayer to talk to him.

He's given you songs to sing about him, right?

He's given you these things that Christians do to enjoy God.

And so those are what's called right means of grace.

That's how God conveys his grace to you.

Through these straws of things.

But the point is, I get God, right?

The point of reading the Bible is I get to see God.

The point of praying is I get to talk to God.

The point of singing is I get to express my happiness in God or

my excitement about God, right?

That's the point of all these things.

That's why we care about these things.

We don't care about 'em 'cause we want you to do all these things.

So you look like a Christian.

We want you to do these things because we want to connect you to God.

We want you to get as much of God as possible.

That's why these things matter.

The last thing I want you to see about God is that salvation is God's idea.

And that's here in verses 20 and 21.

So, or actually that's later.

Hang on, let's just start with the third point.

I'll give you the third point.

Third thing I want you to see about God.

God, see God's love in initiating salvation.

So we've got God's power, God's goodness.

God's love.

I want you to see that salvation.

When I say initiating right, you, you know, like those like initiation,

like when someone's first time in a club, they initiate them.

Like if our small group had an initiation, you know, maybe we'd make you like, I

don't know, eat a goldfish or something.

Um, live, no, I'm just kidding.

Um, initiation, right?

Salvation.

God started it.

That's all I'm trying to say.

God started it.

Um, something that I noticed when I was reading, we're

gonna go back up to verse 15.

I noticed something came up over and over and over again in this passage,

and if something's repeated in the Bible, it means it's a big deal.

So we've got three verses here.

We've got free gift five times in three verses, right?

If something shows up five times in three verses, you know, it's important.

You know, it's a big deal.

I think what's happening here is that what God is trying to show us is that

salvation is his idea and he did it all, and he offers it to you and you.

You just receive it, right?

It's not something that you do really well, and then you get it right.

It's free.

You can't earn it, and it's a gift.

It's God's gift to you, right?

You don't buy a gift.

Nowadays people do this, but you don't buy a gift for yourself.

It's not a gift.

That's just you buying something.

People say, oh, I bought a Christmas present for myself.

It's like, well, no, you just bought something.

It's not a gift.

Um,

but the point is that this helps us see God's love because when it's someone

else's idea, it shows that they care.

Right.

So around Christmas time.

Um, the way that my family operates is we're the, we're the,

Hey, just tell me what you want.

Family.

Right.

We're that family.

Um, the way that, that's, that's how it's been since I was little.

My, my parents, my brother were just like, Hey, what do you want for Christmas?

Okay, cool.

They send me like the Amazon link and I'm like, all right, I'll buy that for you.

Merry Christmas.

Right.

It's super lame.

Um, that's what we do.

'cause maybe 'cause we don't love each other, I don't know.

Maybe that'll be your takeaway from the point, but, um, bless you.

We don't, we, we just say, Hey, what do you want?

Okay, great.

Now something that I think is really cool, um, with, with Shea and I is we don't do

that, which I love because it lets me show her, oh man, I know this stuff about you.

I know that you like this, so I'm gonna get this for you.

Right?

Like, you ever know those people that they plan their own birthday

party and it's like, okay, this was mostly just an excuse for like you

to just do things you wanted to do.

None of this is really a gift.

This is just kind of you saying, I wanna do this and I want

other people to pay for it.

Right.

But when other people plan it for you, it means a lot more.

Like if you planned your own birthday party, it'd be fun, but

it wouldn't be as meaningful.

Right.

Because you were just like, well, everyone's just here because they're

supposed to be here 'cause it's my birthday and I force them to be here.

But if other people, right, like she's birthday is in like a month, so Right.

When we plan something for her.

It shows her like, Hey, we love her.

We wanna do this for her.

This is our idea.

She didn't ask us to do this.

She didn't say, it's my birthday.

You better do something for me.

Right?

We wanna do this.

We decided to do this, and we're like, Hey, let's do this.

This is gonna be great.

She didn't ask for it.

She didn't threaten us.

She didn't, you know, do anything.

Right?

That's how salvation works.

You didn't ask to be saved when you think about this, right?

Jesus died way before you existed.

You didn't ask God, Hey, um, I'm gonna be a sinner and I need

you to send Jesus to die for me.

God already knew that was gonna happen.

God already decided to do that.

Salvation is God's idea.

That's how much he loves people.

So he said, I'm gonna save them before I, I'm gonna decide to save

them before I make them right.

In some sense, if you're a Christian, God made you so he could save you.

God made you so he could love you.

God made you so he could show you how loving he's, how much he cares about you.

He made you so that he could show this about himself.

'cause he wants you to know that he loves you, right?

He wants to show how, how awesome he is.

He wants you to be able to enjoy that

the salvation.

A great way to see God's love.

And what that does for us is it helps us see, man, if, if we can see God's

love in salvation, surely we can see God's love in other things, right?

If God did the big thing, he can do the the other things right, the easier things.

If you're not sure about God's love for you, and if thinking if you're going

through a really hard time, you're like, I don't know if God loves me.

If God loves me, why would he let this happen to me?

If God loves me, why would this happen to my parents?

If God loves me, why would I not make that team?

If God loves me, why do I look the way I do?

If God loves me, why am I not smarter?

Right?

Maybe you think about that.

If God saved you, you can look at that and say, man, he loved me enough

to save me when I was a sinner.

Surely he will also love me now.

Or maybe you sin, you mess up really badly.

You're a Christian and you say, man, I don't know if God will forgive me.

Well, you can look back at the cross.

You can say, man, God loved me so much that he killed Jesus.

Put all of his anger towards my sin on Jesus.

That's how much he loves me.

So surely he will still love me now.

And so you can look back at salvation to give you fuel, to trust God in

the future that he still loves you, that he still will forgive you.

He still cares for you, that he still wants you.

So let's pray and we'll go to small groups.

God, we are grateful that salvation is something that you've done.

It's already over.

Um, nothing can.

Be taken away from it.

Nothing can be added to it.

And that's such a comforting thing, God, because if we could sin our

way out of being saved, we would.

And so I pray right now that we would be honest about how sinful we are,

that we'd be honest about how hopeless we are apart from you, and that we

would be able to truly see you and enjoy you the way we are meant to.

I pray that you give us the grace to do that, even right now as we

talk about you in our small groups.

I pray that you help us to.

Be amazed at your power and not be embarrassed to be excited about you.

I pray that we would be, um, excited about your goodness and um, that

we would be secure in your love.

And I pray for people in the room who aren't safe that they would see

that that's no in between here, but they're either experiencing your

love or they're under your wrath.

And I pray that they would be honest about where they are.

And they would see that you want them to turn from their sin and trust in Jesus.

We pray this all in Jesus name.

Amen.