Joshua 8: Moving Forward Into God's Blessing

You guys go ahead and turn in your Bibles to Joshua chapter 8.

Joshua 8 · chapter mention

Joshua chapter 8.

Joshua 8 · chapter mention

And while you're doing that, I just want to call your attention to the previous chapter.

So last week, you guys, we we uh I mean, well, this week we see a massive uh juxtaposition from what we saw last week.

Last week we saw um, well, just some really challenging things that we've been approaching here in scripture, is what we've been seeing.

We've been seeing uh the Hebrew people being used by God to execute judgment on the people of Canaan.

We've seen Achan, one man, break faith and cause the death of many others.

You know, last week we saw that, right?

We saw the Hebrew people go and to fight at I and they lose.

And it says 36, 36 men, fighting men, lose their life, and Joshua is just broken before the Lord.

He he he he just falls on his face, and the Lord reveals that there's sin in the camp.

Compromise.

And so after a night of opportunity to repent, the Lord uncovers Achan's sin in front of everyone.

He does it publicly, massively, and he shows that Achan is, he's he's taken things from their victory in Jericho, and he's he's dug a hole in his tent, and he's buried the things over, devoted things that they were not supposed to take.

And I mean, I think for me, it's actually easy to read that passage as a story and not really read myself into it in the right way.

I read it and I think of Achan as uh the village idiot, or maybe the villain, and he just didn't get it right.

But I think what we really saw last week is that the sin nature, the very nature that was in Achan, is in each one of us.

That's not very comforting.

We want to say we're better than that.

Right?

We want to say that was Achan.

I'm an American.

Right?

I'm born in America.

We are a Christian nation.

I'm way better than that.

I believe in freedom and whatever else.

And so we're we're better than Achan.

But the sin nature that is in Achan is in us.

And death comes to us all because of sin.

Not just Achen.

I mean, we do.

We prefer our selfish pursuits, right?

We spend so much time on it.

I was laughing and joking with somebody else this morning.

How much time we spend to think about like what color we want our curtains in our house.

You know, we we hold up like three pieces of tile and we sit them in the corner and we shine different lights on them.

And we're like, uh, definitely not that one.

It's got too much gray in it.

Really?

It looks brown to me.

You know, we we spend a lot of time doing that.

We prefer prefer self all the time.

And it is, it's it's comical, it is, but it's so sad.

It points to our depravity in a real way, you guys.

We do that.

Our hair is so, you know.

I'm that I'm like that, okay?

I do.

I I also know, I know ladies, okay, who will fly because they've relocated and they will fly back every six months to get their hair done just right.

You know?

It's not my wife.

It's not my wife.

I actually cut my wife's hair.

No, I'm just kidding.

I don't cut my wife's hair.

I don't.

You want to see the depravity that I have, it would just be it wouldn't be good.

But you guys, I and like I said, it is it is it is funny to laugh at ourselves.

It helps us deal with how wicked we are.

It really does.

We are wicked, and we do fall short.

We are way more like Achan than we'd like to admit.

You know, we we have these desires that are just, for some reason, they're just so much more important than what God desires.

We we want, I mean, we we well, we have everything, right?

Our parents gave us these great, you know, lessons as we grew up, right?

We had just great parents.

Um, we have our friends at school who can kind of, you know, give us some sort of uh uh uh idea about how we should be and the things we should want.

We have a financial advisor who says, keep this much of this over here and this much over here.

And we follow him, no problem.

We have a brain.

God gave me a brain.

I can just do what it tells me to do.

It's gonna steer me in the right direction towards the desires I'm supposed to have.

This is not at all the case.

C.S.

Lewis said it really, really well.

He said, it would seem that our Lord finds our desires not too strong, but too weak.

We are far too easily pleased.

Because we spend so much time, and you know what would make us really happy, would make me really happy?

A new truck.

Oh man, that is that is out there, man.

Like you must have huge desires.

You want a new truck?

You want a new house?

Wow, you have big desires.

Those are so small.

And C.S.

Lewis says it like this we are content making mud pies in the slum.

Rather than enjoying a vacation by the sea.

Because we don't have any idea about who God is and how big he really is.

Aiken became pleased with stuff.

Here he is doing the Lord's work, and they're going through, and they're they're they're being his hand, as difficult as that is.

And he goes, you know, oh, look at that.

Silver.

Truck.

Aiken's punished.

Him and his whole household.

This is still Joshua chapter 7.

Joshua 7 · chapter mention

And like I said, what we we said this last week.

What we see happen to Aiken seems extreme, but it's a microcosm of what sin has been doing in the world since the fall in the garden.

So the sin was dealt with.

If you guys don't know how that was dealt with, stones and fire.

And you can read it and you can listen to last week's sermon.

But let's go to Joshua chapter 8.

Joshua 8 · chapter mention

It's a long introduction.

It's okay.

And the Lord said to Joshua, do not fear and do not be dismayed.

Take all the fighting men with you and arise.

Go up to I.

See, I have given into your hand the king of I and his people, his city and his land, and you shall do to I and its king as you did to Jericho and its king.

Only its spoils and its livestock you shall take as plunder for yourselves.

Lay an ambush against the city behind it.

So similar to last week, when we saw in verse one of chapter 7, that it's like a tone setter for the entire chapter.

Likewise, here, the beginning of verse 1 and chapter 8 really sets a tone for the rest of the chapter.

It says, And the Lord said to Joshua, do not fear and do not be dismayed.

Because God's tone changes as he approaches his servant Joshua.

He's encouraging him this time.

You remember last time Joshua falls on his face and the Lord's like, get up.

There is sin in the camp.

And he's, it says the anger of the Lord burned against Israel.

But now this is not what we see from our Heavenly Father.

We see something radically different.

He's encouraging and reminding Joshua of what he told him way back on the other side of the Jordan.

Remember, be strong and courageous, for the Lord is with you wherever you will go.

He said that to him three times.

And now here he is again.

Do not fear and do not be dismayed.

Why the change in attitude?

Why is the Lord shifting and changing and showing this other compassionate side?

Because the compromise that was covered has been uncovered.

And the sin has been dealt with.

Progress can begin again.

Our God doesn't live in the past.

Actually, the Bible says this in Psalm 103.12.

As far as the east is from the west, so far does he remove our transgressions from us.

So he's not still identifying Joshua in the way of Achan and his mistake.

He's allowing them to move forward.

He's actually, you know, he's not even just allowing them, he's calling them to move forward.

That's something for us to think about.

I mean, really, right?

We we uh we have to realize that God's going to allow us to move forward.

He's gonna bless us when we begin to deal with the compromise and the sin in our own lives.

We have to deal with that which he wants to remove.

That's what God is calling us to.

He says he's showing us.

And I know that there are believers in this room like me.

I am the same, trust me.

And we want to feel what it's like to walk in the promised land.

We want to experience God's blessing.

We desire to see him move in our marriages, in our homes, in our workplace, with our parents, with our brothers and our sisters, who at times we've been at odds with.

We want to see God move in those ways.

But we also just want to see we want more of God.

We want more of God's transforming power in us.

We don't just want like horizontal things better.

Right?

That's why I spend my time.

I just like this or like this or like this.

But we want this, we want even more of God.

That's what we want to experience.

And we want to experience those blessings of God.

We want to feel the power of God.

But sometimes we want that, and there is still sin in the camp.

But we have to uncover that.

We have to, like Achan, understand what we did.

But unlike Achan, we need to bring it to the Lord.

Not wait.

Not wait till the people around us suffer because of the sin that we have allowed in our lives.

So after his encouragement to Joshua, right?

Do not be discouraged or dismayed.

God immediately brings this call to action.

It isn't just, hey guys, don't be discouraged.

Don't be dismayed.

Sit here with me and let's just hang out together.

Now I'm not saying there isn't time to be still and know that I'm God, but when he's calling you to move, it's not time to say, God, yeah, I thought you said be still.

No.

He calls Joshua to go.

There's work to be done.

You were on mission, compromise and sin pulled you away from that.

It's dealt with.

Let's keep going.

And he says to him, that I have given this land, AI, I, excuse me, I keep getting that wrong.

I into your hands.

It's already yours.

But now you have to go and take it.

That's kind of weird to me, though, if I'm being honest.

I kind of read that and it's like, hey, you've given me this.

Why shouldn't I just walk in and it's empty?

And all the, there's everything's already gone.

Right?

I should just be able to move in.

Move in ready.

That's what I should be.

But it's not what we see.

It's yours.

Now work.

It's a little strange.

I don't know if you guys see that in there.

I see it.

But we're going to deal with that, but we're not going to deal with it until we get a little further down the uh the chapter.

So, anyway, verse 2.

I want you to, but the reason why I'm telling you that is I want you to hang on to that little piece.

Okay.

About this.

It's yours, but you have to do something for it.

Verse 2 says, And you shall do to I and its king as you did to Jericho and its king.

Only its spoil and its livestock you shall take as plunder for yourselves.

Lay an ambush against the city behind it.

So do to them what you did to Jericho.

Only this time you can keep the treasure.

Oh man.

They're just thinking of Achan.

They're like, dude, if he could have waited.

If you could have waited, you know?

Oh man.

It does seem a little bit ludicrous, like a double standard, maybe though, too.

Maybe like a sort of inconsistency with the Lord.

We brought that up with our elder group.

We were talking about that, and he's like, man, it kind of feels like he got punished for that over there.

Yet just a little while later, it was a part of a blessing.

Hmm.

Hmm.

How do we deal with that?

You guys, there are seasons and there are times in our life where things that are blessings are not for us in that season.

They are for another season.

They are for another time.

Many times when we're willing to give something to the Lord and not take it, it's not mine.

I don't partake in that.

The Lord gives it to us in his timing and it's better.

Because this happens in relationships a lot.

I'm not here to condemn anybody.

A couple is living together outside the boundaries of marriage.

And the Lord convicts.

Right?

He convicts.

He brings that in.

You know why?

Not because they're so bad, because he's so good.

That's why.

Okay?

He's so good.

Like I said, I'm not here to condemn you.

I'm here to exalt the Lord.

Now, this was they they they repent.

And they get married.

And they go, I don't know why we didn't do this.

And what's their testimony then?

This is what I did.

I thought I was doing right.

And then I listened to the Lord, and he brought us together, and I go, this was so much better, he was right all along.

That's how you take that story and you redeem it for good.

You don't have to go, like, oh, and walk in it, and like, oh, the Lord's still condemning you for that?

He's not.

This is the other way that goes.

They repent.

They break up.

God brings somebody new.

And it's better than it ever was.

Yeah.

You guys, you can take those things and you can actually give them to the Lord.

And God will bring something better.

And when we do that, you guys, when God interrupts a relationship like that, and there's more than just that, we're showing we're putting God's desires over ours.

We can sometimes be an example of when we didn't, and how God showed us how it's even better when we do.

You know, I run a gym through the week.

Strong word, I run a gym.

It's like I barely do anything.

But there's been multiple times, you guys, where the gym has created conflict in me, in my family, in my marriage.

And I'm like, I tell my wife and I tell the Lord, I'm like, you want me to close it tomorrow?

I will.

And I meant it so sincerely, I'm like, this is what I really meant.

Please tell me to close the gym tomorrow.

I was as sincere as I could be.

I really meant that.

My wife wasn't sure.

I really meant it.

And it was like every time I've done that, the Lord's just like, sorry.

You're gonna keep it.

You're gonna continue to be a witness there.

You're gonna continue to use this for my glory, and it's the way I'm gonna take care of you and your family.

Okay, Lord.

You guys, the blessing of obedience is far better than the blessing of money, the blessing of sex, the blessing of career, the blessing of obedience when you're willing to lay something down.

And it doesn't always mean that he's going to just say, Yeah, take it.

You can actually keep it.

Come to my house and uh see my little kids running around and they see my wallet and they're not that small anymore.

They pull 20 bucks out of it, they put it in their pocket.

Right?

In the morning, my plan was to give them the 20 bucks so they could go with their friends and hang out.

Right?

No problem.

But they took it without permission and ahead of time.

So instead of blessing, they get in trouble.

You guys, we do this with the Lord often.

And I just want to encourage you guys to wait upon the Lord.

Seek his face.

Look for his parameters around your provision and everything that he gives you.

This is really, really important.

We also see in verse 2, uh, very different than in the battle against Jericho.

There's much more of a tactical approach.

And we're gonna continue to unpack that.

But he says to lay an ambush behind them.

Remember Jericho, what'd they do?

They just walked.

And then they walked again, and then they walked again, and they walked again, walked again, and walked again, and then they walked seven times in one day.

And that's how the Lord said, You're gonna experience victory.

And in this one, he's gonna have them be way more strategic.

But in both instances, what was happening was a following of the Lord.

And it brings victory.

In verse 3, it says, So Joshua and all the fighting men arose to go up to I.

And Joshua chose thirty thousand mighty men of valor and sent them out by night.

Now that remember that was ten times more than what the spies had said for them to send in the last chapter.

And in verse four, it says, And he commanded them, Behold, you shall lie in ambush against the city behind it.

Do not go very far from the city, but all of you remain ready, and I and all the people, this is Joshua speaking, who are with me will approach the city.

And when they come out against us, just as before, we shall flee before them.

That's what happened in the last chapter.

And they will come out after us, until we have drawn them away from the city, for they will say, They are fleeing from us just as before, so we will flee before them.

Then you shall rise up, speaking to the larger group in the back, ambush and seize the city, for the Lord your God will give it into your hand.

Joshua saying here, Victory is not Joshua's, but it's the Lord's.

The Lord will give it into your hand.

And as soon as you have taken the city, you shall set the city on fire.

You shall do according to the word of the Lord.

See, I have commanded you.

So the methods, so the victory is not Joshua.

And the methods are not Joshua's.

They are the Lord's.

Man's methods, you guys, will only get us so far.

You know, it's easy to apply man's methods to spiritual things.

There are books about how to optimize, categorize, systemize all the things.

And what do we do?

We look at something that's spirit-led and we go, huh.

You know what that needs?

A little touch of me.

We do this all the time.

And we call it just like stewardship.

Using our gifts.

Gifts are given from the Lord.

Okay?

Sometimes we do use our talents and treasures.

Joshua is a leader.

He was used to lead.

But we have to be careful that we first push the Lord and his methods, and we put those as what we want to follow.

So the victory is not Joshua's, and the methods are not Joshua's.

Verse 10.

Joshua arose early in the morning and mustered the people and went up.

Mustered.

This is something I only learned in the last year.

Okay?

When they say you must muster at 4 a.m.

That means everybody, toes on the line, uniforms ready, fed, all the stuff at 4 a.m.

Okay?

This is a military term.

I only learned this because of Mason being in the Navy.

So I would just read the muster.

I was thinking, like, muster up some strength.

I would just think that they just like, it's not that.

They showed up.

Okay?

And they went up, he and the elders of Israel before the people of I, and all the fighting men who were with him went up and drew near before the city and encamped on the north side of Ai, with a ravine between them and I.

He took about 5,000 and set them in ambush between Bethel and Ai to the west of the city.

If I had a map, I could kind of show you this stuff, but you can kind of get the picture here.

They're strategically positioning their pieces and their people.

So they stationed the forces, the main encampment encampment that was north of the city, and his rear guard west of the city.

But Joshua spent that night in the valley.

And as soon as the king of I saw this, he and all his people, the men of the city, hurried, went out early to the appointed place toward the Arabah to meet Israel in battle.

But he did not know that there was an ambush against him behind the city.

So there's this big uh, like I said, positioning of pieces.

I'm not a war person myself, uh, but I imagine the game of risk, and then it was like this this game that takes forever, like Monopoly.

And but you position your pieces so that you can have the best chance at winning.

I also remember Proverbs 21, 31.

The horse is made ready for the day of battle, but victory belongs to the Lord.

This is what Joshua's doing.

He's taking what the Lord has given him, and he's doing his absolute best to make the horse ready for the day of battle, but he's saying, Lord, it's gotta be you.

He even said that to his people in verse 7 that the Lord will give it into your hand.

Let's go to verse 15.

We're gonna cover a little bit of ground here.

It says, And Joshua and all Israel pretended to be beaten before them and fled in the direction of the wilderness.

So all the people who were in the city were called together to pursue them.

And as they pursued Joshua, they were drawn away from the city.

Not a man was left in I or Bethel who did not go out after Israel.

They left the city open and pursued Israel.

Then the Lord said to Joshua, Stretch out the javelin that is in your hand toward I, for I will give it into your hand.

And Joshua stretched out the javelin that was in his hand toward the city.

So the Lord gives Joshua this signal of the javelin.

And he says, This is the signal, and this is the timing of the ambush.

And what did Joshua have to do?

He just had to obey.

He just in that moment had to obey.

As a caution, as people, sometimes we don't just simply obey the Lord.

Or we're reluctant to obey.

We sort of want victory and life on our terms.

We want to follow God as when it's convenient for us.

We want to do things that are convenient for us.

We spin the word of God sometimes so there's wiggle room for our personality.

Or there's agency where God is clear.

We have to be careful with that.

Joshua had to stretch out his arm.

Had he just been like, why do I have to stretch out my arm?

Do you remember when Moses was told to speak to the rock?

And instead of speaking to the rock, he strikes the rock?

What did that cost him?

Deuteronomy 28, verses 1 and 2.

Deuteronomy 28:1

Bless all of Deuteronomy chapter 28.

Deuteronomy 28 · chapter mention

I could read it, and you guys just be like if you haven't read it.

But this is just verses 1 and 2.

And if you faithfully obey the voice of the Lord your God, if you are careful to do all of his commandments that I command you today, the Lord your God will set you high above all the nations of the earth.

And all these blessings shall come upon you and overtake you if you obey the voice of the Lord your God.

Then in Deuteronomy chapter 28, same chapter, verse 47 and 48.

Deuteronomy 28 · chapter mention

This verse has been in my brain for way too long without knowing the address, and so now here it is.

Because you do not serve the Lord your God with joyfulness and gladness of heart, because of the abundance of all things, therefore you shall serve your enemies.

Let me read that again.

Because you did not serve the Lord your God with joyfulness and gladness of heart, you shall serve your enemies.

There is blessing for obedience, and there is blessings or consequences for disobedience.

Joshua continues in obedience to the Lord here in something small, and it translates into this massive victory.

Obedience tends to do that.

Obedience snowballs into victory in our spiritual life.

Disobedience snowballs into defeat in our spiritual life.

Obedience snowballs into victory.

Disobedience snowballs into defeat.

And they hurried to set the city on fire.

So when the men of I looked back, behold, the smoke of the city went up to heaven, and they had no power to flee this way or that.

For the people who fled to the wilderness turned back against the pursuers.

And when Joshua and all Israel saw that the ambush had captured the city, and that the smoke of the city went up, then they turned back and struck down the men of Ai.

Total roll reversal.

Flip of the script, we like to say.

And the others came out from the city against them, so they were in the midst of Israel, surrounded on both sides, some on this side, some on that side.

And Israel struck them down until there was left none that survived or escaped, but the king of Ai they took alive and brought him near to Joshua.

Quite the scene, capturing the king.

And it says in 24, when Israel had finished killing all the inhabitants of Ai in the open wilderness where they pursued them, and all of them to the very last had fallen by the edge of the sword, all Israel returned to Ai and struck it down with the edge of the sword.

And all who fell that day, both women, men and women, were twelve thousand, all the people of Ai.

But Joshua did not draw back his hand with which he stretched out the javelin until he had devoted all the inhabitants of Ai to destruction.

Only the livestock and spoiled the city Israel took as their plunder, according to the word of the Lord that he commanded Joshua.

So Joshua burned Ai and made it forever a heap of ruins, as it is to this day.

And he hanged the king of Ai on a tree until evening.

And at sunset Joshua commanded, and they took his body down from the tree and threw it at the entrance of the gate of the city, and raised over it a great heap of stones, which still stands to this day.

Hmm.

Remember, we pointed out in verse one that the Lord had said that I was theirs, and had been given into their hand.

But they had to do, they had to work, they had to be a part of the taking.

To some extent, yes, but there's a dangerous theology where that's sort of incomplete.

We have to look at the Word of God.

And this idea of let go and let God makes a really nice coffee mug, bumper sticker, t-shirt.

I might even have one.

But that's not what Joshua did.

Okay?

He undertook a substantial workload despite being given I.

Muster everyone, split them into two groups.

Right?

Have these guys wait in the ambush, run away, draw these people out, raise your javelin, go in and burn the city.

God works, you guys.

God works.

But he means us to be a part of that work.

Let go and let God.

Like I said, leave it on the coffee cups.

Just put a little, you can keep it.

Just put it, take your little permit marker out and just put a little asterisk right next to it.

So that we can talk about the rest of it.

Because what glorifies God is when like Paul, right?

We learn a lot from Paul.

2 Timothy Paul.

For to this end we toil and struggle.

For to this end we toil and struggle because we have our hope set on a living God.

So my hope is set on God, so I toil and I struggle.

Sounds a lot like work to me.

So maybe this.

Instead of putting a little asterisk next to it, write, let go of, let go and let God.

Maybe that's what we need to do.

Maybe there's a part of us that needs to do that as well.

Begin to work out our own salvation with fear and trembling.

Be like James, who said, I will show you my faith by my works.

Verse 30.

It says, At that time Joshua built an altar to the Lord, the God of Israel, on Mount Ebel, just as Moses, the servant of the Lord, had commanded to the people of Israel, as it is written in the book of the law of Moses.

An altar of uncut stones upon which no man has wielded an iron tool.

And they offered on it burnt offerings to the Lord and sacrificed peace offering.

Uncut stones.

You didn't want to build this altar, and then everybody brings their best artwork, and we're all looking at it like, oh man, that's so good.

Look at that carving.

It looks just like a tree, or just like the ark, or just like Mount Sinai.

The idea was there was no distraction.

Think Italy, if you've ever been or seen pictures, right, of the churches there.

Beautiful, beautiful, way ornate, like that and that are nothing compared to what you see at some of these places.

Thousands of years of improving and adding little pieces all over the chapels.

Beautiful but dead.

No power.

Not much evangelism coming out of places like that.

No time reading the word.

Three percent of people in Italy read their Bible outside of Mass.

But the churches are stunning.

I mean, they're stunning.

That's got to count for something, right?

Paul again in 2 Timothy having a form of godliness but denying its power.

Have nothing to do with such people.

You guys, just saying, be careful, church, that we don't raise up altars to say, look at what I can do.

Look at the work that I have done.

How I have pleased the Lord.

That's religion.

We worship to make much of God, not much of us.

In verse 32.

And there, in the presence of the people of Israel, he wrote on the stones a copy of the law of Moses, which he had written.

And all Israel, sojourners as well as native born, with their elders and officers and their judges, stood upon opposite sides of the ark before the Levitical priests, who carried the ark of the covenant of the Lord, half of them in front of Mount Jerizim, and half of them in front of Mount Ebel, just as Moses, the servant of the Lord, had commanded at the first, to bless the people of Israel.

And afterward he read all the words of the law, the blessing and the curse, according to all its written in the book of the law.

There was not a word of all that Moses commanded that Joshua did not read before the assembly of Israel, and the women, and the little ones, and the sojourners who lived among them.

They went 20 miles to worship God as a nation and to hear his word.

And who went?

I know church is a challenge to get to at times.

So many things going on, but it says that the sojourners, the native-born, the women, the little ones, made this.

God didn't leave anyone out as they went and they set up this altar before the Lord.

You know, guys, we uh as we look at this chapter, we continue to fight against sin today.

We know that.

But the sin that we're commanded to put to death is we are not meant to go on a crusade where we go and we find the sin in other people's lives.

We are to put to death the sin that is inside of us.

You know, Achan didn't do that.

He didn't do that, and the consequences were devastating.

Other people lost their lives.

But when the obedience was restored, we see, we saw that Israel experienced victory again.

But if you know your Bibles, and I think you do, what we're gonna see is that Israel will get it wrong again.

They will.

Israel will get it wrong again.

You're like, where?

I don't know.

Pick a book.

Okay?

Pick a book.

And God will correct them.

They will stumble again, and the Lord will meet them with some perfect balance of discipline and mercy that leads them back to a season of repentance.

And this cycle just keeps on repeating.

Because no matter how many chances a sinful people is given, we cannot get it right.

We cannot make ourselves righteous.

We we, you and me, we still fall short.

Israel didn't just need another chance.

Again.

They need a savior.

That's what this is all pointing to.

The depravity of man and the need of a savior.

So if you don't like what happens when man gets involved, too many people are dying.

Too much sin is happening.

Too much corruption, too much bloodshed.

We needed something different.

It just co-signed on our depravity.

It showed how deep our sin nature went.

We were given a chance as people, and we fail to establish a righteousness that's worthy of anything.

They needed a savior, and so do we.

When we just do it on our own, we are subject to God's wrath.

But Ephesians doesn't stop there.

There is good news.

It actually says, but God, but God, being rich in mercy, and because of his love for us, found us in that sin, in those trespasses, and made us alive together with Christ.

By grace, that's God's riches at Christ's expense.

If you haven't heard that, I know there's a lot of new people in here.

Grace, God's riches at Christ's expense.

By grace, you have been saved through faith.

It's not you.

It's not in you, it's the gift of God.

Because we don't glorify God as we should.

So Christ did.

Hebrews 1.3, Christ is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature.

Because if you're outside of Christ this morning and you know it, come to him.

Come to him.

That's all he asks.

Is repent.

That's turn.

You've been living this one life.

He just says repent.

Turn away from your sins.

Stop trying to justify yourself.

Christ died for sinners, rose from the dead.

Receive him, trust him, call upon his name.

He says you don't need to clean yourself up first.

That's not gonna work.

But Christ says, Come to me now.

And whoever comes to me, I will not cast out.