True Validation

Well, if you are new, we are really close to wrapping up something that we started at the very beginning of the year.

And it's something we've called following Jesus.

We have spent our year going through the book of Matthew, just trying to follow along the story of Jesus and learn from him and learn about him, become more familiar with him.

I don't think there is a pursuit in life that is more worthwhile than just knowing Jesus better.

Just knowing Jesus better.

Almost every failure that I have in life, I can attribute, and there's many to choose from.

Almost all of those are just moments where I fell far short of being like Jesus.

But in those moments where I have a clear picture of who Jesus is, and I trust in Him and in His Spirit to empower me to be like Him, those are the best moments of life.

There's nothing more worthwhile than knowing Jesus better and becoming more like Him.

And I hope that that's been something that this study has helped you do.

And as we round it out and we wrap it up, we still have a lot to cover because we're in this moment, we've called this series the final hours.

We are in the final hours of Jesus' life before the cross.

And these are stressful moments.

Like you learn a lot about people in stressful moments.

You learn a lot about yourself in stressful moments.

And if you're like me, sometimes you really don't like what you learn.

About 10 years ago, my wife was working and I had the day off, and I decided to surprise my wife by like doing this major, like major work at home.

Not just a little bit of cleaning.

I was like, I'm gonna clean.

I went and got paint, and I was gonna repaint our kitchen, which was just it needed it badly, and she was gonna come home and be like, wow, you're amazing.

She would definitely kiss me like that.

I had it all planned out in my mind.

Uh so I'm setting everything up, and I have this can of paint, and I dropped it onto our kitchen floor, and it goes everywhere.

And then I lost my mind.

And I kicked a door that was nearby hard enough that my leg went through the door.

So she comes home, and instead of it being like, Wow, you're so amazing, you cleaned and painted the kitchen.

She sees uh paint all over the floor and a giant hole in a door, and she's like, What, what would you do?

Did not go well.

Um, it's actually funny.

To fix the door, I had to get some equipment and I sliced my hand open doing it.

I have a scar on my thumb, and every time I look at my thumb, I'm reminded of that day.

I think that's a God thing.

Like God wanted me, you know.

My stressful moments often reveal things about me that I don't like, that I'm not proud of, that I wish were different and need to change.

Jesus is much better than me.

It's actually, I think, in the most stressful moments of his life that we can recognize just how truly special he is and how he understands life in a way that we often don't.

And if we could learn from him and be like him, oh my goodness, would life be different?

And today we're gonna see a side of Jesus that I think all of us, all of us need to learn from deeply.

And I'm so excited about it.

But let's kind of recap and understand where we're at.

Everything that we've been looking at in Jesus' life for the last few months has been taking place in and around the city of Jerusalem.

So we'll bring up a map to kind of show you this.

We we were in the town of Bethany just a few weeks ago.

Bethany is where Jesus' friends Lazarus, Mary, and Martha lived.

He gets anointed at Bethany by this woman, uh, makes his disciples kind of mad.

Judas decides to betray him there, and then they go and they have dinner in Jerusalem.

We don't know exactly where, um, that's just an approximation.

And so Jesus goes into Jerusalem.

That's where we have the Last Supper, and in fact, Madison last week.

Didn't Madison do an amazing job?

Those of you who were here last Sunday, he really did.

He really did.

I know both Madison and I wore a hat last Sunday.

I know that was too much for some people.

I apologize.

Two hats on one Sunday was a lot, but no hats today, okay?

So it was good.

We had a blast.

Madison did.

I'm just I'm not trying to just say this to make him feel inflated.

We are we are so blessed that he's the youth pastor at this church.

I'm serious.

He is amazing.

He's special.

Yeah, clap one more time for Madison.

That's good.

That's enough.

I want him to go to his head.

Um, because then he'll have to buy bigger hats.

So when we get.

All right.

So, Madison taught on that last week.

Now, after that, after the Last Supper, Jesus leaves Jerusalem, goes right outside of Jerusalem.

We'll bring up a map again and show you this.

And he goes to this garden right outside the city called the Garden of Gethsemane, and that's where Jesus prayed to the Father, and he's like, Father, if there's another way, he knows the cross is coming, if there's any other way.

He asks his disciples if they'll pray with him, they fall asleep.

And it's at the Garden of Gethsemane that Jesus gets arrested.

And we're going to pick up the story there in Matthew 26, verse 47.

Matthew 26:47

It says, Even as Jesus said this, Judas, one of the twelve disciples, arrived with a crowd of men armed with swords and clubs.

They'd been sent by the leading priests and the elders of the people.

The traitor Judas had given them a prearranged signal.

You'll know which one to arrest when I greet him with a kiss.

So Judas came straight to Jesus.

Greetings, Rabbi, he exclaimed, and gave him the kiss.

And Jesus said, My friend, go ahead and do what you have come for.

Then the others grabbed Jesus and arrested him, but one of the men with Jesus pulled out his sword and struck the high priest's slave, slashing off his ear.

Put away your sword, Jesus told him.

Those who use the sword will die by the sword.

Don't you realize that I could ask my father for thousands of angels to protect us, and he would send them instantly.

But if I did, how would the scriptures be fulfilled that describe what must happen now?

Then Jesus said to the crowd, Am I some dangerous revolutionary that you come with swords and clubs to arrest me?

Why didn't you arrest me in the temple?

I was there teaching every day, but this is all happening to fulfill the words of the prophets as recorded in the scriptures.

And at that point, all the disciples deserted him and fled.

So they scattered.

And we'll bring up one more map.

At this point, Jesus is taken from the Garden of Gethsemane to the home of the high priest of this group called the Sanhedrin, which is a word that means council.

These are the leaders of the Jewish people.

And we actually have some decent evidence of around where in Jerusalem that house would have been.

And so we know that Jesus is somewhere in this vicinity.

And it's there that Jesus is put on trial.

And this is actually one of two trials that Jesus is going to go through.

We're going to look at trial one today, trial two will be on next Sunday.

And this first trial is Jesus in front of the Jewish ruling council, a group made up of 71 members called the Sanhedrin, though it's almost certain that not all 71 were there at that night.

This is going to happen late in the evening.

We'll pick back up in verse 57.

It says, Then the people who had arrested Jesus led him to the home of Caiaphas, the high priest, or the teachers of religious law and the elders had gathered.

Meanwhile, Peter followed him at a distance and came to the high priest's courtyard.

He went in and sat with the guards and waited to see how it would all end.

Inside, the leading priests and the entire high council were trying to find witnesses who would lie about Jesus so they could put him to death.

But even though they found many who agreed to give false witness, they couldn't use anyone's testimony.

In other words, they found a lot of people willing to lie, but all the people, their lies were too different.

They didn't go together.

They didn't corroborate each other's lies.

So they're struggling just to find people who will lie and agree at the same time.

It says, Finally, two men came forward who declared, This man said, I'm able to destroy the temple of God and rebuild it in three days.

Then the high priest stood up and said to Jesus, Well, aren't you going to answer these charges?

What do you have to say for yourself?

But Jesus remained silent.

Then the high priest said to him, I demand in the name of the living God, tell us if you are the Messiah, the Son of God.

And Jesus replied, You've said it.

And in the future you will see the Son of Man seated in the place of power at God's right hand and coming on the clouds of heaven.

Then the high priest tore his clothing to show his horror and said, Blasphemy, why do we need any other witnesses?

You've all heard this blasphemy.

What is your verdict?

Guilty, they shouted.

Who hit you that time?

So Jesus is put through this, it's a sham of a trial, and just a little bit of background.

They had very specific rules, very specific laws about how these trials were to go.

The Sanhedrin were made up entirely of the Sadducees and Pharisees, the two main Jewish groups in the area, and Rome was very comfortable to give the people that they conquered power to kind of run their own affairs up to a certain point.

That's one of the main ways that Rome kept everything calm, is rather than just rule with an iron fist, they would let you sort of, you know, your leaders can still run your people, and we'll let you do things your way, unless it gets out of hand, and then we'll get involved.

And so these guys actually had the power to send you to prison.

They had you the power to declare you not guilty.

It was only things like the death penalty that they had to then move you up to the Romans to verify that.

They didn't actually have the authority to put you to death.

So Jesus is going to go from here to Pontius Pilate, who's the prefect over this area from the Romans.

We'll get there next week.

The Sanhedrin had all these specific laws that were designed to make sure that justice was actually carried out.

So, for example, one of the laws was that in any trial that could possibly end with death, that trial had to take place during the day.

And no verdict could be given on the same day that the trial happened.

They had this law that was basically if it's something that serious, we have to leave room for people to think about it longer.

We have to leave room for mercy.

We have to leave room for, it's just too serious to decide in one moment.

We've got to have time to think it through clearly because the consequences are so high.

That was a law that they had, but they they don't follow that law here.

They do this at night.

They sentence him to death, they immediately move him on.

They're breaking their own laws.

It's amazing.

Out of devotion to God, they're breaking their own laws that they claim are the laws of God in order to, in a sense, judge God.

It's a very strange situation.

And so the Sanhedrin, they're hypocrites.

This is kind of par for the course at this point in the story of Jesus.

And it's it's really fascinating just to think about this from an angle.

We won't spend a lot of time on this, but I mean they they claim to be the ones who follow God the most closely.

Here is God in front of them.

He is God incarnate.

It is Jesus the Son, He is He is it's God the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

And they've got that in front of them.

And they're judging their own God.

It's a weird thing to think about.

But it actually makes sense if you think about it from a certain angle because people judge God all the time.

And if we're all honest, we've we've judged God a few times in life.

We've looked at the way things have worked out, and we've said, God, hey, I don't feel like you're doing your job.

I don't approve of the way you're doing things.

In fact, C.S.

Lewis wrote a really interesting excerpt in a book called God in the Dock, and the Dock was is a British term for being like on trial.

And he kind of talked about our modern world, and even though Lewis lived, you know, a while ago, we're still in the same era of history.

And here's something he wrote, very interesting.

He said, The ancient man approached God or even the gods, as the accused person approaches his judge.

For the modern man, the roles are quite reversed.

He is the judge, God is the one in the dock.

He's quite a kindly judge.

If God should have a reasonable defense for being the God who permits war, poverty, and disease, he's ready to listen to it.

The trial may even end in God's acquittal.

But the important thing is that the man is on the bench and God is in the dock.

And that very much is how our world operates now.

We'll all sort of decide if we think God is worth following, if God is doing what he should do.

And the point Lewis is making is that's actually not how it works.

Like God doesn't sit under us.

We don't have authority over God.

And Jesus is playing along, but the Sanhedrin have no authority over him.

They have no authority over him.

He's their God, not the other way around.

I don't want to focus, though, completely on the Sanhedrin.

Again, hypocrites, evil, par for the course.

We've had lots of that.

What I want to focus on is Jesus.

Because this moment we see something truly powerful in the person of Jesus, and it's something that if I'm honest, I lack maybe more than I realize.

This week has actually been a tough week for me preparing this because I've had to wrestle with, like, oh, I do I do that?

I don't do that.

In fact, I do the opposite of it quite often.

I'll explain.

Jesus has an opportunity in this moment to prove himself to his harshest critics.

I mean, these are the religious leaders, it's the high priest, these are the most powerful people in his area, and he has every opportunity in this moment to once and for all completely and totally shut down any objections they have to him being who he says that he is.

And he can do it a few different ways.

He could just say something.

I mean, the number of times that they questioned Jesus and he responded with something that was so clever and wise and obviously divinely inspired because he is divine, and they just had no answer for it.

They would just sit there and be like, I uh I that's all they could do.

Jesus could just say something.

He could he could use the prophets and all the prophecies about him, and he could weave something together that was so undeniable that they would have nothing to do but just go get out.

But he doesn't do that, he's just he's quiet, he's silent.

He could do a miracle.

He did lots of those.

He could just do something that's so unbelievable that they would have no way to denounce him.

In fact, Luke's gospel gives us a little bit more detail that Jesus also later is going to go to Herod, who is the Jewish ruler of this area under the Romans.

In Luke chapter 23, it says that Herod was delighted at the opportunity to see Jesus because he had heard about him and had been hoping for a long time to see him perform a miracle.

Luke 23 · chapter mention

But Herod was like, I want to see something cool.

And he asked Jesus question after question, but Jesus refused to answer.

Here Jesus is, and he's in front of the Sanhedrin, and he's in front of Herod, he's going to be in front of the Romans soon.

And he has every opportunity to prove himself.

And he doesn't do it at all.

He doesn't say anything, he's just silent.

And the reason why, at least in part, I believe, is that Jesus needs no validation from people.

He needs no validation from people.

None.

1 Thessalonians chapter 2, verse 6 says, As for human praise, we never sought it from you or anyone else.

1 Thessalonians 2:6

The Apostle Paul wrote this to the church at Thessalonica.

He's saying, Hey, listen, when I came to you guys, I wasn't looking for your praise.

I don't need your validation.

That's another way that Paul could have said that.

And Jesus certainly models this here.

He does not need validation from people at all.

He doesn't seek it because he doesn't need it.

The hard thing about being people is that very often we do.

It's one of the unique aspects of human nature, maybe a flaw in our makeup, is that we sometimes desperately need validation from people to feel good about ourselves, to feel like we made the right choice, to feel like we're on the right path.

And it can come up in really funny ways.

It can even be someone you don't know that you've never met before, and for whatever reason, in that moment, it's really important to you that they think about you a certain way.

I remember years ago, this was like 2007, I had just gotten hired here, I was 23 years old.

And I was hanging out with a couple here at the church, we were friends, and I was meeting all kinds of people because I was new here, and my friend John had this get together, and he introduced me to a friend of his that was also attending here at the time.

He's since moved far away.

And he's like, hey, Justin, uh, you guys will click, you have a lot in common.

I know you're both into video games.

Now, the phrase into video games can have a wide range of meanings.

Okay, I I I don't need your validation.

I can talk about this, right?

Uh no, I grew up in the 80s and 90s, I've played my fair share of Nintendo.

And uh it's funny now, it's kind of like a curse because my little boys, my youngest boys, play video games, and sometimes they'll get stuck on like a boss in a game and they can't beat it, and my six-year-old will come wake me up on a Saturday and be like, Dad, I need your help.

And I'll look at my wife and be like, This is what I've been training for my whole life.

You know, like I have.

And I can be the hero, like, I got it, son, and I'm just like, he's like, wow, dad, you're amazing.

Like, I know, I know.

But you know, I grew up but played video games.

And in college, I majored in communication, but honestly, if you're gonna measure it by hours, I definitely majored in Halo.

Um, you know, so played lots of games, but into video games again, can have other meanings.

And so I was worried in the moment this guy's gonna think I'm like a nerd.

And by the way, those of you who are proudly video game nerds, I'm not, I'm sorry, it was 2007.

My thinking's come a long way on this, okay?

Just forgive me.

Just get mad at 23-year-old Justin.

I'm 41 now, it's a long time ago.

Um, so I look at this guy, and you gotta understand, he's six foot three or four, he's a big dude.

And not just like tall, he's he's big, he's got tribal tattoos.

Kind of looked like Maui from the movie Moana.

I mean, he's just a big, huge dude.

He could any celebrity would hire him as a bodyguard in an instant.

And my friend John's like, hey, you would like him, he's into video games.

So here's what I said to this guy.

I was like, well, I'm not like one of those people who dresses up like video game characters and goes to that kind of stuff.

And he goes, I do that all the time.

In fact, he said, My entire business is making stuff for people who go to that stuff.

And I was like, Oh, well, not that there's anything wrong with that.

You know, it's like one of those, what do you?

And I just foot shoved in mouth, right?

Like deep, deep within me.

Um, and you know, again, those of you that have done, look, I've gone to basketball games with my face completely painted.

That's no different at all.

Okay, I recognize that now, but back then I didn't.

It's just it's this moment where I'm embarrassed, and it all came, it was like, just did it to myself, self-inflicted pain because I felt a need to be validated in front of that guy.

I felt like the way my friend introduced me to this dude who was just kind of intimidating and big and whatever, that he's I I need to course correct here, I need to make sure this guy sees me the way I want to be seen.

And I never even met the guy.

But my need for validation took over and it caused me to put my foot in my mouth.

And I wish that that was the only story I have like that.

It happens so often.

So often.

I I got in a big fight with my wife like six months ago because I was presenting to her this idea that I had that I was really excited about, but I should have said, hey, I don't actually want your input.

And if you disagree with this idea, keep it yourself.

I just wanted her to be like, wow, you're so smart.

I can't believe I married someone this intelligent.

And instead, she was like, I don't think that's gonna work.

And I just like snapped.

And I why and it's because I wasn't asking, I it's so pathetic to say it.

I didn't want help, I wanted to feel good about myself.

Right?

Like in that moment, like what a pathetic thing to say.

Validate me, make me feel valuable, right?

Just in the last couple weeks, I've made a couple really big life decisions uh and and kind of wrestled with them.

And so I've got a few friends who I've had some conversations with, and if you know, if you're one of these guys, you know who you are, I'm sorry.

I'm just gonna apologize to you because I've definitely been verbally processing through a big decision, and I I definitely used you uh for that for some uh maybe validation of a decision that I made, and you guys know who you are, and I'm sorry that I just sometimes we're insecure about decisions that we make and we we seek validation.

That's not a good thing.

My bad.

Mainly to Todd.

Todd, I'm sorry.

Um even last night I was talking to a friend of mine, and I let something slip that is kind of a secret, but it's out now, and he's gonna tell everybody tell you.

Um we're talking on the phone, and he goes, he's like, all right, have a nice night.

And I go, yep, I'm gonna write the message now.

And it was like last night at seven.

And when I said that, I was like, well, that sounds really bad.

And yeah, I write the message on Saturday nights.

It's what I've done every Saturday night for who knows how long.

And here's and so I go in that, hey, you probably hear me say that, and you're thinking, wow, Justin, it's tomorrow is the message.

You're just starting it on Saturday night, and I'm sitting there explaining my whole process.

I'm like, hey, just so you know, I don't just start the message on Saturday night, okay?

I read, I research, I pray, I outline, and I used to write the message on Wednesday, and then on Saturday I'd hate the message that I wrote on Wednesday, so I'd rewrite the message I wrote on Wednesday on Saturday, but really stressed out.

And then I was like, why not just wait till Saturday?

Because it's not due till Sunday, and I'll let all my thoughts kind of like collect and I'll let it marinate, and usually on Saturday there will be this moment like, that's it, that's the thing I was missing, and I'll just wait till I have that and write it.

And he didn't need to have any of that information.

That was just, I said a thing, and I'm like, he thinks I'm lazy.

So I went into this long spiel about, hey, just so you know, why?

Because for whatever reason, in that moment, I felt insecure and I needed to validate myself.

I needed to say, I'm responsible.

I'm also a bit of a procrastinator, but no, no, it's I have a it's a well-developed system.

Um, because in that moment I felt insecure and I needed a I needed to validate myself in front of someone else.

And that almost never goes well.

At the best, it's like awkward and unnecessary.

It's like someone going, cool.

Well, nice talking to you.

Like that's at the best, and at the worst, a side of you comes out that leads you to often make poor decisions, burn bridges, create tension and division in relationships.

And Jesus just had no need to validate himself in front of anyone.

It's amazing how many stories.

The Bible, there are like warning stories of what happens when you seek the validation of people, when you need that.

King Saul comes to mind.

If you know the story of Saul, he's the first king of ancient Israel, he's he's not a good king.

He starts off strong, but his undoing is that he cared deeply about what other people thought about him.

Interesting about Saul, he didn't care about people at all.

He just cared what they thought about him.

Jesus is like the exact opposite of that.

He cares deeply about people.

He just doesn't care that much what they think about him.

That's a really good place to be.

And so Saul's entire reign is undone because he is so worried about what people think about him that he disobeys what the Lord has told him to do, and his answer is, well, yeah, but the people.

They were getting nervous, and I the people.

And the prophet Samuel is like, well, who cares?

What did God say?

That's his undoing.

Seeking validation from people, it sneaks up on us and it manifests in a bunch of different ways.

Sometimes it's you kind of lying or just embellishing a little bit about yourself to impress the people around you.

Sometimes it's defending yourself in a really aggressive way where you learn that someone has said something about you, and look, there are situations in life where you have to defend yourself to some degree and be like, I never said that.

But but maybe you just can't handle the fact that there's people out there who think a certain way about you, and so you go overboard trying to course correct and tell people, hey, this is how and you're talking to all these different people, you get all these different people involved, and it's drama, it's drama, and it's all just because you have a really hard time knowing that there's people out there that have the wrong idea about you.

And so because you need that validation, you need to correct it, you end up causing more problems than if you would have just ignored it.

Sometimes it's just working really hard to make sure that you have a well-manicured reputation.

And we live in a world, by the way, that makes that really easy.

Like social media, if you want, I mean, it's just a highlight reel of everyone's life.

Or sometimes it's the exact opposite.

It can be like just complaints, and you can present yourself like a victim to the highest degree and just get instant validation, and a lot of people who will be like, I'm so sorry, you're right, that person's terrible, you poor thing, and it just feels good because everyone agrees with you for a moment.

Even though they have no idea if what you're telling is true or not.

It's just really easy to live a life where you're focused so much on presenting this version of yourself to the world and and and making sure that they see you the right way and you say the right thing, and you and it's exhausting and it's worthless.

And oftentimes it's just a lie.

Like I remember many years ago, Megan and I, two or three years ago, we took all four of our kids to this putt-putt place, and we took this picture beforehand, and we're all smiling with our golf clubs, and my kids are all like that.

And then the next two hours was the most miserable experience.

I mean, it was like it was well, it was not well thought out.

Like our youngest wasn't even capable of getting it in the hole, but he didn't realize that, so he's angry, and he just starts throwing the ball.

And uh my two boys that are closer in age, like my middle, my oldest, they're fighting, and my daughter just a mess.

And then I posted that picture on Facebook.

And it was like, and I remember people coming, like, what a wonderful family.

And I was thinking about, wait a minute, no.

This night was it was horrible.

It was the and yet I post the, I should have posted like a video of, hey, look at what a mess we are.

But I post the picture that makes it look like wow.

And people probably looked at that and were like, we never go and do fun stuff as a family, you know?

Some poor dad had to hear his wife be like, How come you don't take us?

Because he loves you, because he's smart, because he's not an idiot like me, because he knows how it's gonna go.

But it's just easy to do that.

It's easy.

Our world has given us new tools for seeking validation from people.

And if we want to, we can live a life that is consumed, utterly consumed, with just making sure that everyone thinks a certain thing about us, and Jesus didn't need that at all.

He didn't need it from his hometown when he went to Nazareth, he was rejected there, and he kind of just moved on.

He didn't stay there and plead with him.

No, no, no, guys, like you know me.

I grew up with you.

How could you not believe in me?

Like, dude, I we grew up together, we hung out together.

You you you you remember that one time I did that thing?

Come on, you were there.

Like, he didn't do that.

He just said, Okay.

He didn't need validation from his own family.

Like in in Mark, it says that early in his ministries, uh, early in his ministry, this is early in the three-year ministry of Jesus, it says that Jesus entered a house, Mark 3, verse 20, and the crowds began to gather again.

Mark 3:20

Soon he and his disciples couldn't even find time to eat.

There were so many people.

When his family heard what was happening, they tried to take him away.

He's out of his mind, they said.

We go on a few more verses, it says, Then Jesus' mother and brothers came to see him.

They stood outside, sent word for him to come out and talk with him.

There's a crowd sitting around Jesus.

Someone said, Your mother and your brothers are outside, they're asking for you.

And Jesus replied, Who's my mother?

Who are my brothers?

And then he looked at those around him and said, Look, these are my mother and brothers.

Anyone who does God's will is my brother and sister and mother.

He's like, This is my family.

He didn't need the validation of his own family.

We're all about to go to Thanksgiving.

Oh my goodness.

Who's prepared for the next five days?

Because if you're not careful, you want to talk about a temptation of just constantly needing to validate yourself in front of the people that you're with and all the fun, especially like on the tail of an election, that's always a blast.

Thanksgiving after an election is just wonderful, right?

Um But no, like I'm I'm even thinking through I'm thinking through Thanksgiving dinner.

I've already had mapped out conversations in my mind.

I've already had them.

Like, well, he's gonna say that, and I'm gonna say, yeah, but you've got to think about it this way.

And and Jesus wouldn't do that.

Like, Jesus wouldn't freak out about a conversation, a gathering, like, well, okay, if they say this, I better say that.

The reason why is because it just didn't matter that much to him.

He didn't need the validation of people, he didn't need the validation of the religious leaders, he definitely didn't need the validation of his accusers.

And on both of kind of practical daily people who accuse you say things about you, you don't need to prove yourself to those people.

On a deeply spiritual level, we all have an accuser.

Our enemy, Satan, is an accuser.

It actually says that his role is to be the accuser of the brethren.

It's Satan who accuses us, who tells us that we're failures, who tells us that we're not worthy of God's love, that we've messed it up, that we've messed up beyond repair.

That's him, and if we're not careful, we can spend a lot of time and energy out of guilt and shame trying to validate ourselves to our accuser, and we don't have to.

Because Jesus is already taking care of all of that for us.

We don't have to waste a breath on validating ourselves to our accuser.

Jesus, I really do believe this is something about him that we see here that if we could learn, if we could, if we could grab this and do it in our lives, it would change our lives.

Because all of that wasted time and wasted energy and worry and anxiety about what does this person think about me?

What does my boss think about me?

What is I mean, it's our world is designed for that and it's loud.

It's really loud.

When you go to work, right?

When you go to school, when you're on a team, you have a coach, you have a boss, you have a parent, you have all these different relationships and all these different people.

And I'll be the first to admit that sometimes as a parent, I'm sure I make this hard on my kids.

And maybe they feel like they need to do certain things to be validated in my eyes, and that's not right.

Because we don't.

Here's what gave Jesus the ability to be like this, and we'll we'll kind of wrap up and worship team, you guys can make your way up.

The reason that Jesus didn't need to be validated by people is that he didn't get his value from their opinions.

Validation and value, same thing.

Jesus knew that his value came from the Father.

When he got baptized, God the Father spoke over Jesus and said, This is my son who I love, he brings me great joy.

And then after this, Jesus goes through a period of time where he's out and about and he's doing amazing things, he's healing people, and a lot of people love him, but a lot of people hate him, and a lot of people say really horrible things about him.

And there's many times where the Pharisees, the religious leaders, they come and they say, You're this, you're that, and every time Jesus responds really calmly, and he just goes, No.

The Father, he always references the Father.

The Father and I are one.

I only do what the Father tells me to do.

In other words, like I don't get my value from what you guys think about me, I get my value from what he thinks about me.

And he says that I'm his son and that he loves me, and I bring him great joy.

So I don't care.

I don't care what you say.

And this allows Jesus to navigate some incredibly difficult situations and keep his head, like, not lose it, and not get depressed and worried.

Because you don't need to get val, you don't need to get validation from people if you get your value from the Lord.

If you get your value from the Lord and what he thinks about you, what he says about you, who you are in his eyes, then you know it other people are wrong.

Other people are wrong.

People are wrong a lot.

And it actually frees you up in life to be like, I don't need them to be right about me if I know he's right about me.

And I know that I'm right with him because Jesus actually, through the cross, restores a right relationship with God.

That's actually what it means to be righteous.

We're made righteous by the sacrifice and the blood of Jesus.

Righteous means made right.

We have a right relationship with God.

And so, you know what?

If I'm good with him and you're not good with me, I don't like that.

I'll do my best to be in good relationship with you, but I'm not gonna, I'm not gonna exert all the energy in the world to try to validate myself to you when I don't get my value from you.

I get my value from him.

It's a really hard thing to do.

It's easy to say, hard to do.

Jesus didn't need to get validated by the Sanhedrin because he knew that his his value came from God and he would one day be vindicated.

Not just validated, he would be vindicated by God the Father.

That's why he said to the Sanhedrin, hey, look, guys, one day you're gonna see me sitting at the right hand of the Father.

And you'll be like, oops.

Like, seriously, those men that condemned him to die, they will see him seated on the throne of heaven.

And they'll know.

It's kind of a scary thought.

And Jesus just says, This is how it's gonna be.

He cared deeply for people.

He just didn't care what they thought about it.

And so, we're gonna take Lord's Supper and get close to wrapping up.

If you are new, we do this every week.

There's uh there's cups at the back on these tables.

You can grab them, and and these are everyone's welcome to take part in this.

Um, we'll go through it in here in just a second.

You know, this this uh meal, it always ties into what we're talking about.

It's amazing how that works.

Right before he's in this trial, right before that happened, he's eating with his disciples.

That's when they had the this meal for the first time, as Madison taught on last week, how they took the Passover and Jesus just forever changes its meaning.

Or actually reveals what its true meaning was all along, is more accurate.

Right before he got arrested, he was praying in the garden and he prayed, My father, if there's any way that this cup of suffering, that's in many ways what this represents, a cup of suffering.

If there's any way that this cup of suffering can be taken away from me, please show me.

But not my will, your will.

And he wrestles with the father in that.

He struggles through that a little bit.

Says that he was distressed.

Even Jesus wrestled with things.

But then he had peace.

He knew what his purpose was.

So that by the time he was arrested, he just looks at them and says, You know, do what you're gonna do.

I know what the Father's will is.

Can you imagine how powerful it would be if we could actually say that in life?

If we could have that attitude, like to the world around us.

Do whatever you're gonna do.

Say whatever you're gonna say, think whatever you're gonna think.

I know who my father is.

I'm gonna do what he wants.

It is what it is.

What a powerful way to live life.

Like, what a simple, amazing light.

Light in the sense that you're not carrying all this baggage from what everyone else wants you to do or be and all that.

What a beautifully simple way to live.

Do whatever you're gonna do, say whatever you're gonna say, think whatever you're gonna think.

I'm gonna do what the Father wants.

Because I've spent time with him and he's affirmed in me what I'm supposed to do.

It's a powerful way to live.

And this cup represents that.

Jesus lived this out.

And this sacrifice, this death that this cup represents, that's on our behalf.

Jesus wouldn't have done this if it was all about getting his value and validation from the people around him.

Right?

If that was the case, then this would represent failure.

That Jesus failed to be validated by people and so they killed him.

But this is not a moment of failure, this is a moment of utter victory.

Where Jesus obeyed the will of the Father, regardless of what people thought.

And because of that, we have life and we have mercy and we have forgiveness.

So let's take the bread and let's thank him for it.

Father God, we thank you for this piece of bread.

We thank you that this represents the body of your precious son Jesus.

And Jesus, we thank you for giving us yourself, for sacrificing yourself on our behalf.

You died for us.

You saved us.

And you did this because you were just doing what the Father told you to do.

And you say to us, you know, take it or leave it.

This is what I've done, this is who I am.

And Lord, we want to be the people who take it, who receive it, who honor it, who cherish it, who live out of it.

We thank you, Jesus.

Let's take the breath.

Now we'll pray for the juice.

Lord, we thank you for this juice, this cup.

This is your blood spilled on behalf of us to save us, to free us, to cleanse us from sin.

And now, because of this, Lord, we're free, we're forgiven, completely and totally forgiven.

We're made right with you so that we can actually have the same attitude, Lord Jesus, that you had.

We can live life confident in who we are in your eyes.

Confident that we belong to the Father.

And whatever other people think about us, it doesn't really matter because nothing can change that.

Help us get our validation and our value from that and from nothing else.

We pray this in your name, Jesus.

Let's take the Jews.