Perfect Perfection and the Death of Shame (Ephesians 6:14)

Joshua Kehler: hey everyone, this is Josh Kaler.

Welcome to the Grace House Podcast.

Just wanted to take a moment and do a little intro mainly because the

audio's pretty rough on this episode.

We recorded it with the phone.

We didn't have our normal recording equipment, as we all gather together.

And so you hear a lot of background noise.

You hear, everybody basically.

Even though we cut out the conversations just to maintain the intimacy of the

group, you do hear a lot but we thought, the content was worth it.

And, if you make it to the end, if you make it through it, I hope you're blessed.

All right.

Bye.

let's turn in our Bibles to Ephesians chapter six this morning.

We're making our way through the book of Ephesians in Stockton, but we're

on the theme of spiritual warfare and we're looking at the armor.

Verse 10.

Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might Put on the whole

armor of God that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil.

For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers,

against the authorities, against the cosmic powers, over this present

darkness against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.

Therefore, take up the whole armor of God that you may be able

to withstand in the evil day.

And having done all to stand firm stand, therefore, having fastened on the belt of

truth and having put on the breastplate of righteousness and his shoes for your feet.

Having put on the readiness given by the gospel of peace and all circumstances

take up the shield of faith with which you can extinguish all the flaming

darts of the evil one and take the helmet of salvation and the sword

of the spirit, which is the word of.

Praying at all times in the spirit with all prayer and supplication.

To that end, keep alert with all perseverance, making supplication for all

the saints and also for me, that words may be given to me and opening my mouth boldly

to proclaim the mystery of the gospel for which I am an ambassador in chains, that I

may declare it boldly as I ought to speak.

Jeremiah 23,

Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord.

When I will rise.

For myself, David, a righteous branch, and he shall reign his king

and deal wisely and shall execute justice and righteousness in the land.

In his days, Judah will be saved and Israel will dwell securely.

And this is the name by which he will be called

the Lord our righteousness.

This is the word of the Lord.

Thanks Father.

The Lord our righteousness.

Now, there's a story, a pastor tells about going to a purity conference If

you haven't been to a purity conference before, and the, at least the ones I grew

up going to, you're really missing out

You're missing out on a, you're missing out signing a contract and,

getting a little gold necklace to wear a vessel for honor or pure

woman, a garden enclosed certificate.

but at this particular purity seminar, the youth pastor wanted to make a point about

the holiness of God and our commitment to him and following in that holiness.

And so he took a rose freshly cut, beautiful long stand red pedals, and he

said, I want you to pass this around.

I want you to smell it.

I want you to, see how beautiful this thing is.

And as it was passed around in the hands of hundreds the leaves got pulled off.

The pedals as it was passed around, began to fall off.

The stem broke.

And so as to drive his point home, he asked for the rose back.

And as it was given back to him, a rose was a shabby, thing in its former glory.

It was broken, it was wilted, it was destroyed.

It wasn't beautiful anymore.

And to drive his point home, he said, who would want something like this?

Who would want something like this?

Do you think God would want something like this?

something broken, something de flowered, something not pure, something,

something less than it was meant to be.

The pastor telling you the story said that he had his friend there who was

coming to, church for the first time, who had a sexual history, and you

could see the weight of the world just sinking on her shoulders, just crushing

she's at the end of herself.

She's gonna try Jesus.

She's gonna see if he's the answer.

She hears that he has nothing for her because she's not good

enough, because she has a history.

She has a past because she's dominated by guilt and shame.

Now we know in the gospel.

that the answer to that pastor's question of who wants something like this is

to yell out at the top of the lungs.

Jesus does.

That's exactly who he has come for.

he hasn't come for the well, but he's come for the sick as the

great physician of our souls.

Guilt is feeling bad about what you've done.

Shame is feeling bad about who you are.

Guilt is feeling bad about what you've done.

Shame is feeling about who you are.

Shame is an interesting thing because shame can actually happen at our own hand.

It could be our own doing.

We could participate in something foolishly that we stand back and

look at and we go, I can't believe I ever did something like that.

I can't believe I participated in this.

I can't believe that this is a part of my story.

But shame can also be what's done to us.

We can experience tremendous shame because of abuse.

because of damage that other people have done that we feel the damage that's been

done by other people is irreparable.

That it is something that's a baggage that we're gonna have to carry with us, and

that it's something that weighs us down and it's something that makes us blessed.

So we're talking about spiritual warfare, and we're talking about the armor

specifically, and we're talking today about the breast plate of righteousness,

the breast plate of righteousness.

Little re recap.

Paul says at the end of his letter, we're in a battle, and he's not

shifting gears in the sense that this is a whole new subject.

He's saying all the environment of where you find God's infinite blessings

that are already yours in Christ Jesus, Jesus being seated with him in the

heavenly places, your new identity, that he's one for you, your security

in him, that before the foundation of the world, he chose you in him, right?

And that it gave him pleasure to do that, that it pleased the Lord and on,

and we were dead and our trespasses and sins, But God, who's rich in mercy,

he made us alive together by grace.

You've been.

Through faith and that faith isn't even yours.

It's the gift of God and that he changes your life.

He transforms you.

God is not in the business of making good people better.

He's in the business of making dead people alive.

Amen.

Amen.

That's what our God does.

He's not remodeling us.

, he's making us noon.

New creations in Christ.

Yeah.

Old things have passed away.

Behold, all things have become new and Paul says that the, that this is

taking place in the midst of a battle.

A battle, but that this battle isn't against flesh and blood, where we so

often get our eyes on other people.

It's this person, it's this political party.

It's this president, it's this policy.

God says, we're not wrestling against flesh and blood.

We're wrestling against principalities and powers.

Our wrestle isn't against the physical, it's against spiritual.

So often the church is trying to change the world through the world's means.

Yes.

If we just have the right person in place, if we rep repeal this law or

get this one through, if we can get a government definition on marriage

If we can give more of a handout to people, or if we give less of a handout

to people, then that's the answer.

But God's way is different.

He puts his spirit into the church and sends them out to demonstrate his.

First of all, between one another.

By this, the world will know that you're my disciples by the

love you have for one another.

And in things like enemy love, that we're not overcome by evil, but we overcome evil

with good that we now, this is hard to do.

This is gonna, this is going to take the rest of your life to, to get all

the resources to be able to do this.

But Matthew 25 says that we give somebody a drink of cold water

in his name, who's thirsty.

The kingdom of God is like a mustard seed.

It's small.

It seems like it doesn't impact, it seems like it's little that the gates

of hell can't prevail the gates.

Amen.

And it's through these ways of Jesus that he transforms the world that we're in.

He puts a spirit up.

You see the church is like a boat and the world is like the water.

The boat is made to be in the water, but water's not supposed to be in the boat.

But we tend to either make a beautiful boat and keep it on the

shore and give tours of our boat.

We're like, this thing is so sale worthy.

It's like the Titanic, but we never put it out to sea.

It's unthinkable, but it's never in the water.

, and there's people drowning.

. and they're crying out for rescue.

. Yeah.

But we're content to stay away or we go to the other extreme and we make a submarine.

. And we're underwater.

We're all the water's all around us.

And we cannot save drowning people either, but we're in a spiritual battle that he is

called the church to, to follow Jesus in loving one another and in loving people.

That's the kind of spiritual battle we're in.

And Satan wins when we engage in the conflict Any other way.

You remember Peter as they come to arrest Jesus and they say, are you Jesus?

And Jesus is just destroying his authority, right?

He says, I am.

And they all fall back.

The soldiers this dead man.

But Peter pulls out his sword.

He's it's time.

I've been waiting for this.

I'm showing my sword, And he starts swinging it.

And Jesus says, put away your sword.

That's not, that's on our warfare.

That's not where we engage.

The weapons of warfare are not carnel.

. They're not fleshly.

But they're divine.

they're mighty in God through the pulling down a stronghold.

So we're in a battle.

This battle's run against splash and second Corinthians hit

four, let me quote it, right?

for the weapons of royal warfare are not of the flesh, but have

divine power to destroy stronger.

We talked about the belt of truth, the foundation of the armor.

It holds everything else together.

And we saw that the enemy will try to either get us to doubt God's

word or to neglect God's word, to doubt God's word, or to neglect it.

He's happy with both outcomes, because that is truly the foundation, we're

gonna talk about righteousness.

Where are we getting this truth from?

We're getting this from scripture, God's revelation to us that he has

written his very breath to us, right?

That this scripture is God breathed.

truth is objective.

That means that there is actually an objective standard of truth, If there

is truly a creator and he made the world a function a certain way, then there

is an objective standard and objective.

Two existence.

I don't know if you guys ever watched a show.

Greatest American Hero.

Yes.

it was like the perfect show.

Perfect.

this guy goofball got a suit that gave him superpowers, but from

episode one, he lost the manual.

As a kid, I was just so frustrated and anxious that he'd get the

manual because then he had these amazing, he could shrink, he could,

he was basically Superman, but didn't know how to be Superman,

And, and so he flew, he crashed everywhere he flew, he did not know how to do.

He'd always do everything wrong because he didn't have that objective

reality telling him this is how it was designed, and this is how you function.

And so there is in the universe, built into the fabric of the DNA

and the molecules and the atoms and objective standard of reality.

That this is how lives function.

This is how lives flourish.

This is how lives, grow.

That when God says, this is the way you flourish, this is the

way that, in, relationship, in relationships, that causes flourishing.

And when we go against that, it leads to that breakdown.

And we see that.

We see that with people's truth.

wisdom is justified by our children as one of my favorite little biblical quotes.

And it just means you have your wisdom.

Let's see how your kids.

You have your wisdom.

I'll find out how good your wisdom is based on the fruit that it

produces, is what that saying means.

God as creator tells us how things work and how they

flourish according to his design.

We use then as the belt of truth, knowing truth.

We use the objective truth subject subjectively.

We use it inwardly, right?

We run up to the watch tower of the mind, and we use the truth of what God says

is truly true and what is truly real.

To shape our identity, to shape our attitudes, to shape our hope, to

shape our love, to shape our future.

We have to say as we talk about truth, that Jesus is the truth.

Jesus is the truth.

In fact, Paul says that earlier in Ephesians and Ephesians four 20 to

21, he says, but that's not the way you learned Christ, assuming that you

have heard about him and we're taught in him as the truth is in Jesus.

So we hear the story of the rose that the purity seminar, and we know because we

know Jesus what the right theology is.

Even though someone can use Bible verses to say, be holy as I am, holy, God's

not gonna accept you because he's holy.

We know the story of Jesus, that he came as the holy one to make us holy.

And that the only holiness we can approach God in is Jesus' holiness imperfection

that he won for us, not in our own.

I think it's so important to remember that and to see scripture

through the lens of Jesus.

It is to be our Herman Nuk.

It is to be our means of interpretation.

Philip, on the night at night said to Jesus, his heart's full of worry.

Jesus has just told him, don't let your hearts be troubled.

You believe in God, believe also in me.

And Philip just says, I don't know if that's enough.

And he says, just show us the Father and it'll be enough for us.

That's what we need.

That's the answer.

And I love Jesus' response.

Philip, have I been with you so long and you still do not know me?

If you've seen me, you've seen the Father.

he's the exact representation of the heart of God.

He's the revelation of God.

Jesus is the heart of God.

So we don't have truth abstracted away from tone attitude,

how he draws near to the weak,

how he fights against injustice.

When people are taking advantage of other people, like when he is turning temple

tables over in his court, we know jesus.

So it's not just using Bible versus in an abstract way.

the whole point is that he's the hero of the story.

in every way, shape or form.

You've got Paul who's talking to the church in Second Corinthians

chapter eight about being generous.

And he doesn't just tell them, be generous, you fools.

that's the right thing to do.

He says, think about the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, who was rich beyond all.

, the wildest imagination.

we love the story of the golden goose.

that, that lays golden eggs.

Oh, if we just had the golden goose or, stories in that vein, the un caused cause.

To create the alpha, the omega, the beginning and in who can

bring anything into existence.

He's not just the father who has cattle on a thousand hills.

He can create the hills and a billion more like he is rich.

And it says, think about him.

Think about the grace of our Lord Jesus, who was rich, but for your

sakes became poor so that you might experience true riches.

says, meditate on that.

Let the story of Jesus who had everything and gave it all up so that

you could have everything with him.

Let that melt your heart until your heart generosity flows out Him.

. So it's not just abstract truth, but it is Jesus truth.

It's Jesus being the hero of every story.

when I love the Old Testament.

I love it because he is the hero everywhere.

When I read in Jeremiah 17 about the bush, you know that is an evergreen,

it doesn't wither, it doesn't fade, because it's planted by the stream.

I read it and I'm like, I want to be that.

I wanna be that.

But so often I'm like the bramble.

I'm the tumbleweed who doesn't have root and is blown about by every situation.

That's more true to who I am.

Like the situation changes and I'm like, oh, I'm this way.

I'm flip flopping like a fish out of the water.

My faith is weak.

And what does this story say?

It says, yeah, you were the bramble.

He said, but I planted you by me being uprooted.

and being cast into the wilderness.

He was crucified outside of the city of water.

He cried.

I thirst and he planted me in the water's life so I never have to thirst again.

Jesus is the rescuer of every story in the Bible.

He's the hero when he gets all the glory.

Amen.

He tells me the truth about who I am.

I don't have to pretend.

I don't have to fake, I don't have to front.

I can be honest that Lord, more often.

I'm like, that tumble we, he says, I know that's who I came for.

And he plants us by that stream of water.

So the belt of truth holds everything else together.

Jesus, the way, the truth in life, not a truth.

The truth fits off right.

The breast plate of righteousness there.

Stand verse 14 of chapter six, standing there for having

fastened on the belt of truth.

Having put on the breast plate of.

Rest.

Plain is a kind of a generic word.

It's thorax or where we get that word for thorax, it means just to cover from

your waist up all the vitals is the idea.

so much in scripture.

It's funny, when we read about the heart, it's actually talking about the vows.

We just don't have a modern way that we would translate that in a gut.

Yeah.

it's, when it says, my heart turned within me, it's my bowels churn.

And we're just like, I don't like that as much.

I like the heart.

I like, on Valentine's Day we give hearts.

We don't give large intestines, it's a little more, but what's

fascinating is it's talking about the seed of the motions.

It's talking about, what we feel about things, what we feel about ourselves,

which are powerful, how we perceive.

The idea is to that, that seed of emotions, the way we perceive and

the way we feel intensely, the seed of our affections, covered by

the breast plate of righteousness.

Now righteousness, and in a broad sense it means the state of him

who is as he ought to be, righteous to condition, acceptable to God.

it can also be translated integrity, virtue, purity of

life, rightness, correctness of thinking, feeling or acting.

And, because I work full-time beyond full-time sometimes, I'm constantly

listening to other Bible teachers and what their take is on things.

It's one of the ways I stay connected and redeemed the time.

and it's amazing the division on people who say this is talking

about the righteousness that we give to God, that it's more about,

integrity, it's more about, it's some really good Bible teachers.

more about that.

and I want to say that's good, important, like we should be bearing fruit.

, right?

Like fruit is helpful.

Yes.

To us, to our wives.

Oh my goodness.

Fruit is so helpful to our wives.

if you want to do something for your wife, don't buy earrings or a necklace.

, produce some fruit of Jesus.

anyways, I don't know.

Is that true?

yes, it is true.

It's important into what God's doing in his kingdom in this day

and age that we might bear fruit.

That he might get glory.

like that is such a, and I'm not playing that down at all.

I just don't think that this is what he's talking about here, because he's

talking about standing in the evil day.

, he's already said, number one stand and the strength of the

Lord and the power of his mind.

, that's that's how we stand, right?

Yeah.

. And so in the evil day, that's great, but I just, good luck on standing in

the evil day with your righteousness.

yeah.

It's, when we say Good luck with that, I want to read you a story.

it's one of my favorites.

It's one that changed me.

Luke 18 verse nine to 14.

Verse nine.

He also told this parable to son who trusted in themselves

that they were righteous.

So there's our theme right there.

and treated others with contempt.

Two men went up into the temple to pray, won a Pharisee

and the other tax collector.

And you have to understand at this time, people didn't

miss when they heard Pharisee.

like we do.

We're like boo.

You know where we boo?

but one of Pharisee, one of the other attacks collector who

would be like a Nazi sympathizer.

Someone from would be like a Jewish person selling out his fellow

juice to the Nazis telling him, oh yeah, they're hiding in here.

So that's who you boo up.

That's the villain of the story.

The Pharisee standing by himself prayed.

Thus, God, I thank you that I'm not like other men extortion or unjust adulterers

or even like this task tax collector.

So first of all, you have to notice that he gives God credit.

Yeah.

He says, God, it's you who did this in my life.

That is so crazy to realize.

. He's not saying I did this all.

He's saying, God, thank you for making me unlike other people.

okay.

That's a little, that's a little whoa.

I never read that part.

, he said, I fast twice a week.

I get ties of all that I get.

But the tax collector standing a far off would not even lift his

eyes to heaven, but beat his breath saying, God, be merciful to me.

A sinner or the sinner.

Like I'm the only one in the room.

I'm no, I'm not blaming anybody else.

I'm not comparing myself to anybody else.

It's me and you.

God, as I tell you, this man went to his house justified rather than the other.

For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who

humbles himself will be exalted.

And that's a root word there for righteousness.

That justification made right.

Put in, right standing.

with God.

. And so you have a Pharisee who is like the hero of the day.

He's the pastor and he is God, you've trust me so much.

I'm so grateful that you've done this, you've given me

this, you've made me this way.

That you can always tell whether somebody gets grace and somebody

doesn't get grace, as if there's pride.

, then that person doesn't actually understand grace.

, you could say grace, not just at dinner, you can use the words,

you can use the terminology.

We're really good at that in the church.

We get a buzzword and then it's stamped onto everything.

I had a pastor friend who told me we were getting ready to go on a flight and

he said, the gospel I think is a fad.

And I was.

I'm deeply offended, sir.

. And to me the gospel meant something.

Yes.

So weighty because it changed my life.

. Yeah.

But I could see he was right.

It got slapped on every book.

It was gospel parenting gospel business gospel, this gospel driven gospel.

And then people move away from that to the next thing.

It was, it's this system.

It's this thing.

We get what's popular and you can use the term grace, but if there's

not a humility and they worship

and awe that says what?

If there's ever a, I said it once.

I've told you guys the story when I was, are you this kid

foul mouth just got saved.

And I walked out of there and said, at least you got me.

God, I am.

I haven't compromised.

I literally like pee.

You get out of my sight.

that is you re cuz I didn't get grace.

And so here is saying, God, he's using the lingo, God, you did this in me.

. But the root of pride hasn't been removed.

And Grace is an ax to our.

. It is the sort of the spirit to our ego, our self-righteousness.

, it chops it down at the root.

, because grace levels, it's purely different.

sin creates a delusional field.

and especially with pride and self-righteousness, but I don't know.

we've heard it in our churches as we've heard it preached that, here's

what Jesus has done, but you go do your part in a sense, instead of

realizing that because of what Jesus has done, he enables me to do my part.

Like he like it, it changes everything.

and so there's this sense, there's this way often that, it's my integrity.

It's my, this, it's my, that, that is going to, win the

day or recommended me to God.

a crazy story about someone who thought he wase.

and was standing in his righteousness.

and again, I come back to not a good place to stand.

good luck with that.

Philippians chapter three, this is what Pulse is about, standing in righteousness.

and honestly, I don't think we had anybody in this room, no offense who

had it going on like Paul did, or Saul.

but finally my brothers verse three or verse one, rejoice in the Lord to

write the same things to you, is no trouble to me and it's safe for you.

Look out for the dogs.

Look out for the evil doers.

Look out for those who mutilate the flesh.

For we are the circumcision who worship by spirit of God and the glory in Christ

Jesus, and put no confidence in the flesh.

Though I myself have reason for confidence in the flesh.

Also, if anyone else thinks he has reason for confidence in the flesh, I have

more circumcised on the eighth day of the people of Israel, of the tribe of.

A Hebrew of Hebrews as to the law of Pharisee as to zeal a persecutor

of the church as to righteousness, under the law, blameless.

But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ.

Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth

of knowing Christ Jesus, my Lord.

For his sake, I've suffered the loss of all things and count them

as rubbish garbage in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him.

Here's the key, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but

that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends

on faith, that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share

in his sufferings becoming like him in his death, that by any means possible, I

may obtain the resurrection from the dead.

So he says, I need a righteousness that comes from without.

I need a righteousness that doesn't come from me trying to obey the law, trying for

me to be moral, trying for me to be good.

I did that and I did it.

Blamelessly, he gets to the, the 10th commandment commandment.

That shall not.

That doesn't, because that's the one that isn't outward.

It's inward.

and he said, that destroyed me.

But everything else, everybody would look at me and say, ah, you're amazing.

We should wa write a biography about you . You know what a resume.

What a resume.

What a resume.

And he says, salt garbage.

So Paul, he here, he says, I need a righteousness that's not from me.

Cause Paul also, he would say, forgive the things that are behind, but then

he'd bring up his testimony and say, sometimes it's hard to forget because

I was a persecutor of the church.

Yeah.

I think probably in that first century people were a little skeptical, Paul, when

he's coming in and preaching, and they're like, you killed a, an aunt and mine or

an uncle, and he had his hand, in that.

So here he was a persecutor of the church, an enemy.

and even Jesus, when he reaches them, he opens his eyes on the

macu road, falls to the ground.

He says, Saul, why are you persecute me?

Who are you Lord?

I'm Jesus.

Who you're persecuting.

so identifying the body of Christ, the church with himself.

You're wounding me, Paul to my body.

So Paul, he's like desperate for righteousness.

That isn't his, he's not combining resumes.

And I want to do that.

I like that.

I like the hybrid.

you got the electrical vehicle with the gas.

I like the hybrid, uses both.

I want his righteousness for most of it.

But I also want to give you something that I do.

I want some credit.

And Paul saying, I need a righteousness that's totally from you, A

righteousness that comes from God.

so back to Ephesians.

We're almost done.

I've got one more story.

one more section of scripture and then we'll be wrapped up.

but in Ephesians four, we can often find out what Paul's talking about.

It helps us, as you study scripture, what does that word,

righteousness mean by seeing how he's used it already in his letter.

Ephesians four, verse 24,

and to put on the new self created after the likeness of God in

true righteousness in holiness.

So he's saying he's using the same imagery of putting on right, and

he's saying, put on the Lord Jesus, put on Jesus all through Ephesians.

He's saying this and he's saying that true righteousness is the

righteousness that Jesus is one.

You're putting on true righteousness.

not a hybrid righteousness, not a 99% righteousness, but a true

righteousness that is from Jesus himself.

and so we dig into the term righteousness a little more.

It means the state of him is he ought to be the condition acceptable

to God, to be approved by him, to be straight or to pass inspection,

to be and to live up, to speck, to relational, be right with someone, to

have nothing in between, to be present.

I have passed inspection in the eyes of significant other, I have

been found pleasing in the eyes of someone I want to please to stand

before the one we long to be approved by and hear him say, I approve you.

I love you.

I accept you.

Well done.

That's what righteousness means.

That's the righteousness that comes from without the imputed righteousness

that we're to take up as a breast plate to cover our parts or our bowels.

romantic comedies are interesting, right?

They follow a very set pattern, in the genre.

It's two people have a meat fte, right?

People who would never get along and they hit it off somehow and, they fall in love.

But then somebody has a deep, dark secret and, that secret comes out and then

it looks like they're gonna be apart and this thing isn't gonna work out.

And then they show up creepily and they hold a sign out in front of the house, or

a boom box, or they stop an airplane from taking off, or a million other things.

The whole Lifetime channel has literally made their money.

Do you know, they produce over 60 movies every Christmas that

are all like romantic comedies.

It's this time it's a nurse.

This time it's a doctor.

This time, it's a one-armed nurse.

it's like they the same formula over and over, and.

Why, but it so hits us because that's our story.

Yeah.

it's one thing to be approved by people.

We don't care whether they approve us or not.

We all have this circle that we deem is important and we're like, if they told

me I was worth it, then my life would be full of meaning if I, if they told me.

And we're constantly, a lot of us are trying to get into that circle and

trying to perform to hear well done that good and faithful servants, you're

approved, you're loved, I see potential.

I see this in you, it doesn't matter so often, the circle of our friends or

the ones who could encourage us, Yeah.

You just say that cuz you're my mom.

but we want to have that.

But as we

grow in this relationship, we suspect what we found out.

Maybe we've fudged the numbers, maybe we haven't graduated from that

place and I told him I'm dead or maybe I, not as smart as I come off.

, maybe I'm going to be found out as the fake and the fraud.

And then that, which I long for that, which will make me call there saying, Hey,

you belong in this circle, I'll lose it.

And so we react to those stories that, that formula in such

a powerful, fundamental way.

Because deep down we believe you can either be loved and not

known or not known and loved.

See if you're loved, then they can't know you, who you really are.

Think about your first date.

If you ever went on a date with somebody, the number one thing

you do is you hide all your flaws.

you roll up, you borrow somebody else's car because you don't want

to take the brown Bull , right?

And you wear clothes you've never worn before.

you put Old Spice on and old Spice that's only been on your armpits thus far, and

you don't come out and you don't say, oh yeah, I did this, I failed here.

I got in trouble with a lot at this point in my life and this, and this.

How are you?

Tell me about yourself.

it's more, you're ordering wine with a French accent, and just doing

something and you're gonna salad too.

Yes, exactly.

You salad?

Yeah.

Oh, this is so good.

Yeah.

You.

, how do you feel about animals?

you're asking them, feeling 'em out.

are you a vegan?

Yeah.

You're like, I like a medium rare, but I'm a vegan.

And you're like, oh yeah.

Real medium rare.

Like, where we don't even feel 'em.

Don't put it on the place . Exactly.

And so there's that, there's this dance we go through.

Yes.

In any relationship.

And there's a fear.

Unless you're Andrea, she's pretty just, here I am.

but for me, I always would ask her, am I like a piece of gum to you?

You're gonna chew me.

It's flavorful fun, but then you're gonna get tired of me and spit me out.

You're gonna, you're gonna see what my substance is, or lack of it.

and we can bring this into our relationship with God.

Man, you're born again.

You're new.

There's color in the universe.

You hear the birds for the first time, you thinking about creation and sunset

and sunrises, and you're just like, that's the coolest thing I've ever seen.

And then you fail, you yell at your wife, get upset at your kids.

Where's the power?

And so then you rededicate a previous rededication from

our previous rededication.

And you're like, start to try things like, oh, maybe it's, I didn't pray right?

Maybe I'm not really saved, I need a reboot.

Maybe I need this, maybe I need that.

Maybe what we're do is we try to cover ourselves because we treat

God the same way we treat people.

If he sees me for who I really am, that he's going to say, ah, that's too far,

that's too far from my grace to go.

And nothing could be further from the truth.

Zach, Chapter three, and I close,

you of see how like important breast play of righteousness is

as it's been said when Satan talks to you about God.

, he lies the whole time.

Yeah.

When Saint talks about you too, God, he tells the truth.

He's look at them.

They failed chapter.

This is awesome.

I like, I like this story a lot.

Oh yeah.

This is 75 years before Nehemiah built rebuilds The wall.

50,000 Jews came back from Babylon to Jerusalem, to rebuild the temple.

The first thing they do before they rebuild the walls is they

say, we need the temple rebuild.

And they rebuild the temple, and they get to going, but the

people get tired and discouraged and stop rebuilding the temple.

It's so similar to Diah.

They're discouraged.

It seems like the task is too great.

Remember, it's always fun to start a project.

It's always fun to end a project.

It sucks in the middle of the project.

You want to give up, you want to, we're not going anywhere.

We're not making any progress.

In fact, the story of Nehemiah, I love it so much because

there's all this conflict in it.

They're in the middle of the project and there's all this warfare, and

then there's one verse that says, oh, we completed the wall in 52

days, you're what just happened?

bam, and it can be like that so often, but so similar to Nehemiah Haggai and

Zacharia calling the people to repent of their discouragement call into action.

And in five years the temple's finished being rebuilt as they

talk about worshiping God.

Again, the people with Israel are not the same people they were.

They're very broken from being in captivity, disheartened, most

of their families stand that one.

It's only the smallest remnant of people who go back.

Most of them get assimilated into that.

And into that context and say, no, we're good.

It would be like Moses telling the Israelites it's time to flee Egypt.

And 90% of what I'm saying, no, we're good.

We're good.

We're good with our captors, we're good.

Throwing our babies in the denial.

We're good in captivity.

So that's discouraging.

You feel like, what are we doing?

You feel like Elijah, who says, I'm the only one God.

, that's you're not.

I have a remnant who has a, but they're discouraged.

Most of lights, I stay in Babylon walls.

none of them come back.

And the thing very foremost in their minds was, how can God accept such

a broken people and receive such a broken people and receive such

a worship from a broken people?

Sure.

When we're doing good, God accepts us.

So God gave Zacharia vision of Joshua, the high priest.

Very interesting scene of what goes on before the throne room of God.

Alright.

We get this vision that Zacharia sees and he writes about Joshua, the high priest.

Here we go.

And remember, they're feeling not just guilt over what they've

done, they've been exiled the battle on for their disobedience.

but shame too over not having a place anymore about not having their roots,

about not having their families with them like they're broken.

So it opens in a dire situation.

First one, then he showed me, Joshua with a high priest standing

before the angel of the Lord.

And Satan, whose name means accuser, standing at the right hand to accuse him.

And the Lord said to say The Lord rebuked youo Satan, the Lord who

has chosen Jerusalem, rebuked you.

And I love this description of the reality of their situation.

Cuz God knows, God doesn't put spin on it.

He's not, he's not no.

Talk more positive.

Here's what he says.

He says, is this not a brand plucked from the fire?

Yeah.

They're more ash than substance.

It's more chaff.

Now, Joshua was standing before the angel clothed with filthy garments.

And that's why is if you're hearing the story, that's cool, okay.

The enemy's accusing him, but the Lord's like the Lord rebuke you,

shutting the enemy in that accuser down.

He's yeah, they're in a bad way.

But Joshua, the high priest representative, heard the priest,

the high priest was the one who represented them before God once a year.

The one makes sacrifice on the day of the.

To cover the people's sins.

So there, remember, he had to be pure, he had to be without spotting and bluish.

He had to do sacrifices for himself.

Otherwise, going into the holy of Holies, he'd be struck

down in the holiness of God.

Remember, they would, he'd wear, bells on the fringes, his garment,

then tie a rope around cause they couldn't go and get him if he died.

Man, that is an intense job description.

Really, , right?

Who, go in, hopefully you're good.

the mountains and the trees and the rocks.

Trimble before the presence of Lord, hopefully you're good, full time.

and then the people's heart to sink because here's their

representative, filthy.

He can't go away.

And he is in the sense their representative, cuz there's,

they're filthy as well.

Joshua, I, a priest represents the people before God.

Perhaps he was being accused, for what Zacharia, if you read Zacharia one, two

is talking about, and the enemy accuses him and says, what's wrong with this?

People, you've even sent them a prophet to tell them what's wrong about their sin.

This is a prophet who's writing this filthy clothes.

The idea again, is, Covered Isaiah 64 6.

Our righteousness is a filthy rag.

It means menstrual rags, right?

It does.

It's the rags that women would use when they're on their period and

then they would get rid of them.

And he's saying, your best before my wholeness is this.

God doesn't have a high view of our righteousness.

If there was any hope and holiness to be found in this remnant of the

people, it would be the high priest.

Our representative, the enemy, the he will lie to us about God, but to God.

He will always tell the truth when he talks about us.

And I love God doesn't play it down.

He doesn't pretend that it didn't exist.

Satan adversary, prosecutor in job and in Revelation, 1210, it says, I heard a

voice, a loud voice in heaven saying now the salvation and the power of the kingdom

of our God and the authority of his Christ have come for the accuser of the brethren.

Brothers has been thrown down.

Who accuses them day and night before our God, day and night accusing the

prosecutor has really good evidence, . Sometimes when trouble and trials

happen, he says, God is punishing you.

And you deserve this punishment.

You know your story, you know your history.

If you were really repentant, you wouldn't keep doing the same thing discouragement.

Sometimes he comes as you are trying to tell somebody else about Jesus.

If they only knew what you were like, you have no right to speak for Jesus,

he'll say, keep your mouth shut.

What a poor excuse you are.

Keep your mouth shut.

Pray you're gonna pray.

You don't deserve to have your prayer answered.

Why should God listen to you,

the heart and how we fail?

He says, look at what you have done falling over and over.

If you're a real Christian, you wouldn't struggle like this crazy temptation.

If you were really saved, you wouldn't have these thoughts.

And often our own conscious conscience jumps in as a key witnesses.

that's why Paul says in First Corinthians, he's I don't even

let my own conscience judge me.

I'll let the Lord who sees everything judge me on that day.

but if we read in first John that God is greater than our hearts, hallelujah.

God knows what he's choosing.

It's no surprise to God who we are.

I know exactly who he's choosing.

He says, I know their flaws.

I picked them.

I chose them.

I adopted them before the foundation of the world.

I knew their name.

I know the number of hairs that are on their head.

I have ordained the times and the places they should live.

If they were not broken in Mard, then I wouldn't have come

to rescue and to heal them.

He says, enemy, I don't expect any different.

He's not,

begrudging you.

Okay, let's clean you up.

Let's make you presentable.

He runs to you

because even what you get out your whole rehearsed speech.

I love it.

He says, wear this.

I'll discover you.

Let's good squeeze.

He says, this is who I came for.

He loves to save a beat after of ourself.

It gave God, as Ephesians one said, great pleasure to save,

to choose you, to adopt you.

You verse four and five, and the angel said to those who were standing before

and removed the filthy garments from him.

And he said to him, behold, I have taken your iniquity away from you,

and I'll clothe you with pure vess.

And I said, let them put a clean turbine on his head.

So they put a clean turbine on his head and clothe him with garments.

And the angel of the Lord was standing by.

He doesn't say, you have removed your iniquity or have had any part of it.

He says, I have removed it.

This isn't about what Joshua the high priest has done.

This is purely about what Jehovah my righteousness has done.

This is about what God has done.

He doesn't say, Joshua removed your iniquity.

He says, I have removed his ni IQuity.

He doesn't just leave him naked, but covers him from head to toe.

He doesn't just take the filthy.

Off and put them off somewhere.

He doesn't sweep them under the rug, but he saves them for a special day.

And you have to understand this.

So this is why it's so powerful is because God is holy and he has to

make a payment for the debt of sin.

There has to be a price that's paid, otherwise it would be unjust.

And God cannot be unjust.

He's holy.

He's consistent with this nature.

So as much as he could say, let there be light, he couldn't

say, let there be forgiveness.

He couldn't sweep it under the rug and say, oh, let's all just get along.

Think about if somebody did something horrific to your daughter or your

son and you are in the court of the law and the judge is you know what?

I ate a great breakfast today, but I'm just gonna let this guy off.

We would turn over to the tables in the courtroom.

We say We demand justice.

We demand an answer to the wrong.

And God is greater than that.

His holiness is greater than that.

He is justice itself and to be consistent with his character.

He can't take Joshua's garments off and place them somewhere and just

pretend like they didn't happen.

He reserves them for a special day, and that day was good Friday on the cross of

Jesus Christ, when Jesus said, I'll wear the garments and I'll take the wrath.

You, I'll take the justice that they deserved so that

they can wear my perfection, my obedience, my righteousness.

He provided a righteousness.

You hold the lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world.

The unblemished Lamb pilot said of him, I find no fault in him, and

one of the amazing things about the doctrine of imputed righteousness

and doctrine should always lead to doxology or worship, if it's good,

is that Jesus did His didn't come and give you a clean slate, and

now you keep up that clean slate.

He gave you a whole record from beginning to end.

you guys have to think out the implications of that.

That's crazy.

That means that's why there's, therefore now no condemnations.

Those are pres.

It's evaporated.

It's gone.

. That's why God is greater than our hearts.

Yes.

That's why the way the father relates to us

is with the same.

The same excitement,

the same exaggerated display of love that he has for the son.

So what's beautiful about wearing the breastplate of righteousness

is it says that the father, the god of God's, the end cause.

Cause the alpha, the omega, the beginning of the end adores you and treats you as

if you've obeyed like Christ himself.

That he doesn't treat you daily and say, oh, he, you've been in obey today.

So I'm gonna, I used to think that I didn't do my devotions

and so that's why my day is hard.

That is religion.

if you let that sink in, if that goes to the heart, if that enters

into the being of your soul, that you have a righteousness

that didn't come from your own.

and that you are delighted in adored, celebrated sang about

held up as a trophy of grace.

Like nothing but good.

I know the thoughts, I think to you, towards you, like they're more a

number than all the stands of the sea.

like everything he thinks to you.

Somebody wants to try to figure that out.

It's 192,000 thoughts a second.

he holds you up and it's good.

It's delight, it's celebration.

it's crazy to know that like you are secure.

That's why he says stand in that day.

Yes.

maybe accuser roar that I've done, I know them all in thousands more.

My savior know with none.

Like I know.

Yes, but Christ in his righteousness.

That's why they say on that day, when if the question was it's theoretical,

why should I let you into my heaven?

You don't say I, because I accepted Jesus, or because I prayed the

prayer, because I rose my hand.

I went forward.

I got baptiz.

You say, because Christ still alone, hall.

That's it all.

All I have is Christ, all my strength is Christ, all that I am, Ms.

Christ.

And what happens is that sinks in like Paul the Apostle.

He says, man, that gospel is a power.

Yes.

And all of a sudden, There's like a response in you like

light showing on a mirror.

A mirror's.

not I don't know if I should reflect this or not.

is this, let me parse the light particle.

It's like I have to, and so our righteousness comes from his

righteousness, like our obedience flows because he was obedient to the

father on our behalf, and we have an invincible obedience laid to our account.

That's the thing about the purity seminars is they're so often saying

present to Gotti purity that he'll accept when the kids need to hear.

You have an invincible purity that can't be marred, that can't

be shaken, that can't be moved.

It's invincible, it's incorruptible.

It's been bought and purchased with the blood of Christ himself.

His actions have proven that it is pure.

Yeah.

And, man, if we started telling our kids the good news, yes.

Yeah.

Instead of the good news with the claws.

That's like now you,

but we're too often fearful that

that grace doesn't

and it changes everything.

If you like Dyna High, I'll go off.

It's not a diamond.

, it will shape and change things.

So I would say if you are battling and you have two options,

you're at the fork in the road.

Should I stand in my righteousness in the evil day or should I stand

in the righteousness in Jesus?

What breastplate should I put on?

I would put on the one that Jesus provides in what he's done and stand

in the gospel and his might, what he declares about you is truly true.

And then out a response of gratitude where we're not leveraging God on our behalf

or using him to get into the circle, but because he is declared before all

of creation, you're in the circle that you are my beloved son and whom I'm well

pleased, well done now, good and faithful servant, that we get to enter into the joy

of the Lord that because, he's declared that because we're already there, we don't

have to use good works to try to get him.

Now we can just use as an expression of our delight to him.

And that is something he loves.

That's the good works.

That Ephesians too says that he ordained for us to walk in.

He doesn't want it to be burdensome.

He says, my yo is easy.

My burden is light.

Whenever he talks about good works, it's like Collin celebrating the party.

Go tell people.

What does he say?

It's like a wedding and we're inviting people to the greatest celebration.

Oh, that sounds terrible.

No, that's amazing.

The mission that God, we get to see miracles happen, that

he restores the dead, that he brings the dead back to life.

That people get saved.

, when you're like, they're not gonna get saved.

They're hopeless candidate.

No, God still reaches down and he calls people out of the tomb.

this shapes everyth.

and how we relate to God.

This takes care of shame because God says, I know, but I love you.

I know Joshua, that you're more, Ash, I know what you've been,

impacted with what you've done.

That's why I've come for you.

I've come to rescue you.

I'm not holding anything back.

I'm giving you my all.

I'm giving you my all.

And I've given you that, that beautiful, perfect record.

so that every day on your worst day, you know that you're delighted to.

We pray that like Paul said, okay, Lord, I, I told him I gave you this, them

this amazing theology, and it's gonna be pointless and it's gonna bounce off the

ceiling unless you open the eyes of their heart to come humbly to scripture and

say, Lord, I need you to do this in me.

I want to believe this.

I.

we need community.

We need people to gospel.

and again, that's a foreign thing cuz we're an individualistic society, but

we need to get comfortable with the fact that like, when I'm down, Tom comes

alongside and goes, Hey, try to say you're doing the good news about Jesus.

Yes.

Yeah.

It's not over.

People say speaking into our lives and us welcoming that and

doing that for other people.

We don't do this on our own.

And as, as we think about it, as we pray it into our hearts.

Easter meditation is clear.

Your mind, biblical meditation is fill your mind with truth.

Very different.

we worship the truth in, we sing, we praise, we pray scripture over

the songs, but not in a way to, to use it as a method to unlock the

potential or the five power principles.

Like it, it's to have God.

the whole point of the breastplate of righteousness is I get God.

, unhindered.

That's it.

That's, I, that is, I get Jesus, like he's made a way where there was no way,

he's made me presentable to the father.

I get the family that I've always long for like the focus isn't on

us, like becoming better, but being with Jesus, and, intimacy with him.

that's what we've been made for.

Walking with him in the cool of the day, and he's very patient

and relentless in his pursuit