Standing Ground: Sin, Righteousness, & Pride

So imagine for for just a second that it's early June, which isn't far away, so this shouldn't be too tough to imagine, and you're at the beach.

You're at the beach.

And let's say in this scenario, since we're dreaming a little bit, that you're a person of means and that you're very cultured, so you're like in France.

Okay?

You're vacationing in France, early June, you're at the beach.

Let's say you're at this specific beach in France.

Can you picture it?

Because there's a picture.

That makes it easier to picture things.

Right?

In this scenario, what are you wearing?

Most likely, like a swimsuit, right?

You're at the beach.

Hopefully you're saying not like suit and tie, formal wear.

No, you're at the beach.

And it's beautiful, it's amazing.

So you should be wearing a swimsuit, something that's comfortable.

But let's let's look at this exact same beach at a different moment in history.

This is the same beach in early June of 1944.

That beach is called Normandy.

And if you had been on that beach on June 6, 1944, you better not have been wearing a swimsuit.

You better have had a helmet on, some body armor.

Because on that day, that beach was a battlefield.

Right now we're in a series called Standing Ground, and we're exploring something that Scripture actually talks about a lot.

It's something called spiritual warfare.

And depending on where you're from, you're like either going, yay, or this is weird stuff.

Why did I why shouldn't I come here?

I'm in the wrong place.

But but stick with it.

It's this concept called spiritual warfare.

It's talked about a lot in scripture.

We're going through the book of Ephesians, and so Ephesians chapter 6, this is kind of our last series in Ephesians, ends by saying this: a final word be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power.

Ephesians 6 · chapter mention

Put on all of God's armor so that you will be able to stand firm against all strategies of the devil.

For we're not fighting against flesh and blood enemies, but against evil rulers and authorities of the unseen world, against mighty powers in this dark world, and against evil spirits in the heavenly places.

Spiritual warfare.

Evil spirits, like the devil, demons, that kind of thing.

And it's actually kind of tough stuff to talk about because we have to ask this question of like, do we actually believe this?

Do we actually believe that this is true?

Or is this just a bunch of superstition, a bunch of nonsense?

Because if there's no such thing as spiritual warfare, then there's no reason to wear spiritual armor.

And here's kind of the way we've been talking about this for the last few weeks.

A lot of people see the world this way.

They believe that there is something spiritual, but that the spiritual and the physical are totally disconnected.

And so they say, yeah, I believe there's spiritual stuff.

It's just like we're not really going to encounter that on this side of life.

Maybe that's something for the afterlife.

That's when the spiritual stuff kicks in.

Other people would say, no, I believe in the spiritual stuff, and I even believe that sometimes there's like an overlap.

Sometimes the spiritual and the physical sort of come together.

And in that overlap, we see things happen.

We see God things happen, right?

Something happens and it's like a miracle.

We can't explain it.

There's no scientific reason that can explain it.

It's just like, wow, something happened, spiritual, physical overlapped.

It was a miracle, it was a God thing.

And sometimes that overlap could be something really twisted, something really dark.

We see something happen in the world and we say, that's more than just a misguided person.

That's more than just someone who was raised incorrectly.

There is something sinister, something dark behind that.

There's overlap, good and bad.

The question is, how much overlap is there?

Is it a sliver or is it like the whole thing?

What if it's more like this?

What if the spiritual and the physical overlap greatly?

If that's the case, then what is the real world?

It's kind of all of it.

And the simple truth is, if you if you read the teachings of Jesus, and if you read the teachings of those who are his first followers, they talk as if the overlap is something that we experience constantly.

I can't tell you what the exact percentage is.

There's no Venn diagram in the Bible.

But Jesus, I'm a Jesus follower, so what he says matters more to me than anyone else, Jesus talked about the spiritual as if it was the most practical thing we could know.

We have this tendency in American church to separate physical, practical from spiritual.

And so we see things as either spiritual and like, yeah, that's this good to know, but I need something practical.

Jesus said, What good is it if you gain the world but lose your soul?

In other words, the spiritual is really practical.

So this concept of spiritual warfare, if it's not real, then it doesn't matter.

Tune out.

Don't come back for the next four or five weeks as we wrap this series up.

No reason.

But if it is real, and if there's even a chance that one day you're gonna face spiritual resistance.

If there really is an enemy who's trying to come against all the good things that God has won for you, trying to keep you from experiencing the joy and the peace and the victory that Jesus has won, well then you need to be prepared.

And the good news is that God has prepared us.

He has a solution for spiritual warfare, and it's spiritual armor.

It's a metaphor that Paul uses, and it's really brilliant.

We see it in Ephesians chapter 6, verses 13 through 17.

Ephesians 6:13–17

He says, Therefore, because there is spiritual warfare, he says, put on every piece of God's armor so you'll be able to resist the enemy in the time of evil.

Then after the battle, you'll still be standing firm.

Stand your ground, putting on the belt of truth and the body armor of God's righteousness.

For shoes, put on the piece that comes from the good news so that you will be fully prepared.

In addition to all of these, hold up the shield of faith to stop the fiery arrows of the devil, put on salvation as your helmet, and take the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of truth, the Word of God.

And so we're going through each of those pieces of armor one a week.

Last week was the belt of truth.

We started with a belt.

It's not the most exciting piece of armor.

You don't really think of belts as armor, it's more of an accessory.

But last week we talked about the fact that belts hold things up, the truth holds up.

And so you gotta know the truth.

Satan wants to attack our minds.

He wants us to get us to believe lies, to think incorrectly.

And lies are powerful.

There have been been many battles and wars won on lies, just as many as have been won with force.

And so we want to be guarded against lies.

We want to know the truth.

I encourage you to listen to the message from last week if you weren't here.

But today we're talking about something else that Satan's trying to attack, and that's our heart.

And when I say heart, what I mean is like your inner person.

Your inner person.

Anytime you see the word heart in the Bible, it's talking about the core of who you are.

And we still use language like that in our world today.

We might say to someone, I love you with all of my heart.

And we don't mean our physical heart that's pumping blood through our body.

We mean some deeper part of us, something deeper than just our logic.

It's the core of who we are.

And we might even put our hand right here to express that, something deep.

Satan's after that.

He wants you to question your very identity in God's eyes.

He doesn't want you to know who you are.

He doesn't want you to know the truth about what God says about you.

But there's good news.

God has given us a piece of armor to guard our hearts.

It's a breastplate called righteousness.

And so let's talk about that.

Let's talk about righteousness for a little bit.

Now I'm sensing that the room is a little bit heavy or you're very tired.

I don't know which it is.

So let's go with something lighthearted to express this.

What does it mean to be righteous?

Have you ever seen something?

And it's not something major, it's not some like moral wrong, but you see it and you say to yourself, that that's just not right.

Like that's just not right.

You're personally offended?

You know what I'm talking about?

Let's say, for example, you're a Star Wars fan.

Anyone in the room willing to say, I am a fan of Star Wars?

I enjoy the Star Wars movies.

Anyone here never seen a single Star Wars movie?

That's just not right.

Right?

So, okay, I'm I'm not a huge Star Wars fan, but I have an older brother who he's eight years older than me, and the Star Wars movies were like new in the theaters when he was born, so I grew up and he was all about Star Wars.

Then I have a little brother who's six years younger than me.

And so the the like newer Star Wars movies or the used to be newer Star Wars movies were coming out when he was a kid.

So like my childhood was sandwiched between two Star Wars freaks.

So I just saw a lot of it because I couldn't avoid it.

And I'm fine with Star Wars.

Let's let's say, those of you who are Star Wars fans, let's say you're at you're at a gathering and you're talking about the new Star Wars movies that's coming out.

You're like, hey, are you gonna see the new Star Wars movie?

Someone else says, Yeah.

And someone from across the room, their ears perk up and they're like, ooh, Star Wars people.

Star Wars people find each other.

I don't know if you've ever noticed that.

They like have a sense for that.

And so this person comes up to you.

This is a hypothetical situation.

And they say, you like Star Wars?

And you're like, yeah, I love Star Wars.

They're like, me too.

The newest movies, they say, I'm not like, I'm not in love with them.

They're fine, they're okay, but I'm I don't think they're the greatest.

And you might even say, I agree, I agree.

They're, you know, they're doing their best, but I don't I don't know how I feel yet.

We'll see how it wraps up.

And then they say, and I'll tell you what, the original trilogy, like Luke, Darth Vader, Han, they're the worst.

And then they say, where it's really at are the prequels.

You know, like the ones that came out late 90s, early 2000s, that that's like the pinnacle of Star Wars for me.

And they say, because in my opinion, the single greatest character in the history of Star Wars is Jar Jar Binks.

Right?

For those of you that aren't Star Wars fans, he sucks.

He's the worst.

He's the worst.

But but like, if you are a Star Wars fan, you would just say, no.

Clinton, no.

That's just not right.

Like, we're all entitled to our opinions, but some opinions are just no.

That's not right.

I'm gonna use one that's uh a little bit more divisive.

Uh, in the first service, this had people really fired up, so feel free.

I'm okay if you're mad at me.

Um, this is personal for me.

Let's say you and I are having lunch and we're at a restaurant and we order buffalo wings.

Anyone here never had a buffalo wing?

That's just not right.

Like, what is come on?

One person, Taco Mac across the street.

As soon as we're done, head that way, say, I've heard about this thing called a buffalo wing, and they'll say, Here you go.

It's great.

So let's say we're hanging out, we're having lunch, and you order buffalo wings, and I'm with you, and I'm like, right on, buffalo wing person.

I respect that.

And then you say that you would like ranch dressing with your buffalo wing.

That's when I realize who you really are.

I go, Oh, you're a ranch dressing person.

Because here's the truth it is so clear that God designed and ordained blue cheese to be the complimentary flavor with buffalo wings.

There's no question.

There's none.

Ranch with wings, it's it's just not right.

It's just wrong.

And you you think it's just an opinion.

I want to read you something that I found.

This is a direct quote.

I found this on the internet, so you know, you know it's good.

Here we go.

I'm gonna go ahead and spoil this for you that blue cheese is the correct answer.

Ranch is symbolic of everything that is wrong with our world.

And you should feel bad for even thinking this is a debate.

It's not.

Blue cheese goes with wings because it tastes better, it enhances the flavor of the wings.

Ranch is at best lightly seasoned mayonnaise.

It does nothing, it just sits there like a glob, killing any and all the flavor in the wing.

Blue cheese is a complimentary flavor.

The sharpness of the cheese counters the spicity of the wing without completely killing it.

And when you're eating celery and you get that crumble in there, it just tastes so perfect.

You don't get that with ranch.

You just don't, you don't.

It's just a bowl or a bottle or a tub of creamy goo that just sits there, not contributing to the chicken wing conversation at all.

It detracts from the conversation, it's a chicken wing conversation killer.

And if you like ranch with your wings, I want you to know that you're weak, your bloodline is weak, and you won't survive the winter.

I was written online by a guy named Brody.

And I I've only known a few Brody's in my life, and and chicken wings sounds about like something they would have authority over.

So Brody and I agree.

It's just not right.

There are some things that just they're just not right.

And here's where that gets really interesting.

Um, God is like the opposite of that.

Like if something's not right, it means that it's fundamentally just wrong.

God is is fundamentally right.

He's he's just right.

He's good, he's he's holy.

He's pure.

Everything he thinks about is right.

Everything he desires is right.

Even if if what he wants is not what we want, it's not because he's wrong.

We've all had those moments where we're praying, but we're actually like giving advice to God.

You know what I'm talking about?

Where you're like, hey God, I got some ideas for you to think about.

Like, have you ever thought about this?

We're trying to advise God.

He knows everything.

And his will is good, even if it's the opposite of ours, it's good.

He is fundamentally right, and there's a word for that.

It's righteous.

He's righteous.

And that that presents a little bit of a problem for us because we are fundamentally on our own, in and of ourselves, not.

We're not.

And I want you to I want you to understand right at this point in the message.

This is gonna sound like a really discouraging message at first.

Stick with it.

I actually believe that if if if received and thought about correctly, this is one of the most encouraging and inspiring concepts that we have in our faith.

But it begins by us understanding that we are not righteous.

We're not, we have this thing called sin.

We see it, for example, in Romans chapter 3, verse 23.

Romans 3:23

This is like a pillar of our faith.

It says that for everyone has sinned, everyone has sinned.

We all fall short of God's glorious standard.

And the word for sin in the Greek language, this is what this was originally written in, it's an archery term.

It means to miss the mark.

So another way we could put this to understand in our language today is that sin just means we're we're off target.

We're off target.

We are not calibrated correctly.

And scripture actually teaches us that we're born that way.

That's a very offensive idea in our world.

It's a concept called original sin, but we see it, for example, in Psalm chapter 51, verse 5.

Psalms 51:5

For I was born a sinner, yes, from the moment my mother conceived me.

And anyone who doesn't believe in this, I would just advise you to have one child, have a child.

Give birth to a human being, and then ask the question are we born fundamentally off target or is everything just right from the start?

And here's how you know it, we're off.

I have four kids.

I've never had to teach one of my children how to lie.

There's never been one time where one of my kids has said, hey, you know what?

If you do something that you know you shouldn't do, just make up a story.

Just make something up, blame it on one of your siblings.

We'll probably believe you.

If you blame it on Judah, we'll all believe you.

Like every one of us.

Yeah, it was Judah.

Okay, cool.

Just you never have to teach your child that.

They figure that out on their own.

I'll never forget the first time I saw my oldest son lie to me.

He was two.

And and he was outside playing with something he wasn't supposed to play with, and we had this sliding glass door, but the way it was tinted, if you were outside, it was like a reflection.

You could see from it, from the inside, you could see out, but outside you just saw your reflection.

And I saw him playing with this thing he wasn't supposed to play with, and so I just yell his name, Liam, and I see him.

He can't see me.

I see him like, go like this, and then he runs and he puts the thing in like a box, this bin that we kept it in outside.

It was a shovel that we used to scoop dog poop.

That's what it was.

So I'm like, build a mystery.

It was a poop shovel.

So he puts the poop shovel in the bin, and then he like runs back.

And I just I saw the whole thing happen.

And it hit me like, oh my gosh, he's a bad person.

You know?

Here he is, my two-year, my only child at a time, this sweet, innocent.

Oh, he's not sweet, he's not innocent.

He just lied to me and he doesn't even realize that I saw it.

What do I do?

Never had to teach one of my children to lie.

I've never had to teach one of my children to be selfish and to care more about what they want than what anyone else wants.

It takes years of training to teach children how to do those things.

Why?

Because we're born and we're just we're off target.

And that's a bit of a problem.

That's a bit of a problem.

We have a thought in our world, in our culture, that that we're born good, and therefore anything we desire, if we really desire something from the core of who we are, it must be good.

But James chapter 1 says, temptation comes from our own desires, which entice us and drag us away.

James 1 · chapter mention

These desires give birth to sinful actions, and when sin is allowed to grow, it gives birth to death.

How many of us have have followed our true desires and regretted it?

Jeremiah 17, 9 says, the human heart is the most deceitful of all things and desperately wicked.

Who really knows how bad it is?

That our hearts, that core of who we are, it's it's just fundamentally off.

And here's the the bad news.

There's nothing we can do about it.

There's nothing.

There's nothing we can do about it.

We can try.

That's that's where like religion gets invented.

It's a bunch of rules and regulations.

Hey, do these things, follow these rules, and God will say, good enough.

But God lets us know in Scripture that, yeah, that doesn't work like at all.

Romans chapter 3.

Romans 3 · chapter mention

Obviously, the law applies to those to whom it was given, for its purpose is to keep people from having excuses and to show that the entire world is guilty before God, for no one can ever be made right with God by doing what the law commands.

The law simply shows us how sinful we are.

Oh no.

We're not right.

You know what this means, church?

It means that we're the ranch dressing.

It means that you're jar jar.

And that's a problem.

That's a big problem.

But here's where here's where it gets good.

Like I said, this is not discouraging.

Our faith is different.

Our faith is not based on what we're capable of doing as people.

Our faith is based on what God is capable of doing.

Our faith is based on what Jesus has already done.

And in and of ourselves, yeah.

In and of ourselves, we don't have a hope.

In and of ourselves, we we can't be good enough.

There's no good that I can do.

It's gonna be good compared to God.

Right?

There's nothing I can do.

In the book of Isaiah, Isaiah actually describes our righteousness as compared to God, filthy rags, which means the best things that I've ever done, my highest achievements, the things that I would put on the top of my resume and hand to God and be like, hey, did you see number three?

That was me.

That was me.

I'm just saying, you saw it, you probably saw that already, though, right?

No, like the best thing I've ever done compared to the righteousness and the goodness of God is a filthy rag.

But our faith is not about our ability to do enough good to please God.

Our faith is not about what we do.

Our faith is about what God has already done, what Jesus has done.

And so righteousness becomes something for us, not that we earn, not that we create, but it's something given to us.

Romans chapter 3, verse 21.

Romans 3:21

Now God has shown us a way to be made right with Him by keeping, without keeping the requirements of the law.

And that that word, that phrase made right, the literal translation of the word righteous means means right standing with God.

So when it says made right, it means made righteous.

As was promised in the writings of Moses and the prophets long ago, we are made right or made righteous with God by placing our faith in Jesus Christ.

And this is true for everyone who believes, no matter who we are.

For everyone has sinned.

We all fall short of God's glorious standard, yet God in his grace freely makes us right in his sight.

He did this through Christ Jesus when he freed us from the penalty for our sins.

For God presented Jesus as the sacrifice for sin.

People are made right with God when they believe that Jesus sacrificed his life, shedding his blood.

2 Corinthians 5 21 continues this thought for God made Christ, who never sinned, to be the offering for our sin, so that we could be made right with God through Christ.

Jesus has made you righteous if you've put your faith in him.

That's awesome.

That's a really big deal.

That's a really big deal because righteousness is what guards our hearts.

The number one thing that I have to remember over and over again is who God says that I am, what God says about me.

Like there are certain people whose opinions of me matter a lot.

Like if I'm if I'm playing basketball, I don't know if you guys know that I like basketball.

If I'm playing basketball at the gym and a 20-year-old, no offense to 20-year-olds, doesn't think very highly of me, I'm fine.

Like I'm great with that.

I can walk away from the gym and be like, I'm gonna have a great day.

I don't care.

There are some people, there are some people whose opinions matter more.

And sometimes we have to fight that, you know, we have to fight not letting the opinions of other people mean more than they should.

But that's just reality.

But then there's opinion, the opinion of God.

Like what God says is true.

So what God says about us is true.

What God says about who you are, that is your identity.

More than any other thing determines your identity.

What God says about you determines your identity.

And Satan always, always, always wants us to settle for some identity that's less than the identity God gives us.

God says that you're his child, you're his son, you're his daughter.

God says that you are righteous, that you are blameless, that you are holy, that you are good.

And here's the amazing thing.

When he says that, it's not because he hasn't seen your stuff.

It's not because he hasn't seen your issues.

Not at all.

It's the opposite.

He sees it all.

And he declares you righteous.

The question is: have you received that righteousness?

Do you wear it daily?

Do you just recognize that you're good in God's eyes because of Jesus and only because of Jesus?

Just Jesus.

That his righteousness belongs to you.

And you can wear that like a piece of body armor that guards your heart, that you are declared righteous in the eyes of God because of what Jesus did on the cross, because he died for your sin.

He covered it and he gave you his righteousness.

It's amazing.

I mean, like, think about that for a second.

It says that he not only paid the debt of your sin, but he deposited his righteousness into your life.

Like, I know that none of us are in debt, so we can't really relate to this concept, but like, if you know how much debt you have, what you owe on your house, your car, Best Buy, not that that's me or anything, like just this hypothetical situation.

Like, if you know how much debt you might be in, and you you find out one day that someone has paid all your debt, they just it's paid it all, it's gone.

That's amazing, right?

That'd be a good day.

Do we agree on this?

I just want to make sure you guys like think right.

Okay, that would be good.

Thank you.

No debt.

But if someone pays off all your debt, how much do you actually have?

Like technically zero.

Because they they paid what you owed, and now that's paid for, but that's you're still back to zero.

But now suppose that someone not only pays your debt, but then puts a few extra zeros in your account.

That, by the way, is a problem I've never had.

I've never had to call the bank and say, hey, I noticed more zeros than they're supposed to be.

I've and the ones that are before that little point, you know, I've I've got a lot of those zeros, and it seems like too much.

Like it's never happened to me before.

But imagine that someone not only pays off your debt, but then deposits a significant amount into your account.

That would be that would be good news.

That would be a great day.

That's what Jesus has done.

He's paid off the debt of your sin and he's deposited his righteousness into your life so that when God looks at you, he sees Jesus.

That's incredible, that's amazing.

And that that knowledge, that recognition of that, that's what guards your heart.

From accepting any identity for yourself less than the one God gives you.

But the question is, do we receive it?

Do we believe that we really, really need it?

As we wrap up, go back to that idea of spiritual warfare.

We have an enemy and he's coming against us.

And so he has these tools that he likes to use.

Like last week was truth.

So we talked about lies.

Well, what does Satan use to get us to not receive and wear that righteousness that he's given us?

It's it's pride.

It's pride.

See, if if you don't believe you need God's righteousness, you won't put it on.

You won't receive it.

If you think, in other words, that you're good enough, then there's no need for God's righteousness.

None whatsoever.

And pride's kind of a sneaky thing, you know?

Like we want to be confident, and confidence can very quickly tiptoe into pride.

Pride's sneaky.

And we have to be very, very careful as people that we're on guard against pride because there's one thing it's one thing to be righteous, it's another thing to be self-righteous.

And self-righteousness is like opposed to God.

The people that killed Jesus were self-righteous people.

They could not understand what he said, they hated him.

Because it requires humility, which is the opposite of pride, to say, I depend on Jesus and without him I have no hope.

Think about it this way: we have a phrase in our world, in our culture, that's very, very popular.

It's it's just the way I am.

Right?

People should love me and accept me just the way I am.

This is me.

This is just who I am.

And when I was a kid growing up in church, we didn't start going till church to church until I was a fourth grader.

Um, our neighbor invited us to church, to his church.

We went the next day, he got arrested for embezzling money and never saw him again.

And uh, but he invited us to church, and so I'm a Christian because a criminal invited me to church.

That's just part of my story.

It's always great.

And like, it's what happened.

And so we would go to this little this little Baptist church, and there was always this song almost every Sunday that was sung at the end.

It was just as I am.

And the idea behind it was that we can come to God just the way we are, but there was in that song this sort of awe and wonder about that.

Like, how in the world does this make sense that he receives me just as I am?

Our culture is a little different.

Because when we use that phrase, just the way I am, embedded in that just a little bit is this air of like, and I deserve to be treated this way just because I am the way that I am.

Give you an example.

If if a girl is dating a guy and she goes up to him and says, you know what?

If you can't accept me and love me just the way I am, I'm sorry, I was doing like my head like this a little bit, and I'm sorry, ladies, I don't know why that happened.

Forgive me.

That just like it hit me all of a sudden, like, whoa, I'm doing this, you know?

Maybe it's because I'm married to a woman who does this a lot.

Whatever.

Um, but like, if she goes to her boyfriend and says, hey, if you can't love and accept me just the way I am, then you don't deserve me.

We would look at her and go, you go.

Like, applause, yes, he needs to love and accept you just the way you are.

If he can't, he doesn't deserve you.

And that's what all of her friends would say, and we would all say, yes.

Walk up to God and say, hey, if you don't love and accept me for just the way I am, you don't deserve me.

That won't work.

Because here hear this again, it's not meant to discourage, it should be the opposite.

He sees you exactly as you are.

And he accepts you and he loves you.

Your issues, he doesn't, he doesn't gloss over them.

It's not like he loves you because you've snuck past him, because you've you've hidden a few things.

Like, I remember when I got married, I realized, oh, Megan doesn't really, there's a lot of things she doesn't know about me.

And she may not have said yes if she had.

You know?

Like, but we're married, so now you're gonna learn to deal with this.

She told me that I snored first night we were married.

I didn't know I snored.

So that was like I'm innocent.

I did not realize that I snore.

No one's ever been in the room to tell me.

So I apologize.

But like, there's things sometimes in relationships on this earth that you sneak past people and they don't realize this.

You didn't do that with God.

He didn't accept you and love you because he didn't notice that thing that you do.

And by the way, we have a tendency as people to minimize our stuff, right?

We minimize it.

We come up with with words that we almost kind of like to act like some of our biggest issues are just cute little quirks.

You know?

We say things like, I'm just a really passionate person.

And what that means is I'm a jerk.

I'm a jerk.

When I don't get my way, I throw a huge fit.

And I demand that everyone adjust to my desires.

Because I'm just so passionate, right?

God doesn't do that.

He calls your stuff exactly what it is.

He doesn't like He doesn't look at us and go, you know what I love about you?

I love it when you lie.

I love it.

You know, when you like exaggerate things about yourself, or or you you just tell those little bitty lies just to make your life a little bit more convenient, to make other people see you a certain way.

That's my favorite.

It's so cute when you do that.

He doesn't do that.

He doesn't.

God sees our sin and he calls it exactly what it is.

So if it's perversion, he calls it perversion.

And if it's selfishness, he calls it selfishness.

And if it's idolatry, he doesn't say, oh, you know, sometimes your priorities just get a little bit off.

He goes, No, that's idolatry.

You worship money, you worship sex, you worship yourself.

He sees it for what it is, he calls it for what it is, and yet, and yet, he loves you and he accepts you exactly as you are.

That should fill us with so much awe that it it simultaneously breaks our hearts and yet fills us with a joy that we can't comprehend.

Because he sees us exactly as we are, and he doesn't minimize it, he dealt with it by sending his son to die on the cross to cover all of that.

And he loves you exactly as you are.

That's what it means to be righteous in God's eyes.

And the only thing necessary to receive that is humility, it's just humility.

Paul says this in 1 Timothy chapter 1.

1 Timothy 1 · chapter mention

This is a trustworthy saying, and everyone should accept it.

Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, and I am the worst of them all.

Paul, who wrote most of the New Testament, who took the message of Jesus to places it had never been, who died as a martyr for his faith, said, I am the worst of them all.

That's important.

Jesus once gave this story in a dinner in Luke chapter 7.

Luke 7 · chapter mention

He said, A man loaned money to two people, 500 pieces of silver to one and 50 pieces to the other, but neither of them could repay him.

So he kindly forgave them both, canceling their debts.

Who do you suppose loved him more after that?

And Simon, the person he's talking to, answers, I suppose the one for whom he canceled the larger debt.

That's right.

There's power in the ability to just own your stuff and just say, This is it, and call it for what it is, and just own it.

Because if you can really own it and be like Paul and say, I'm the worst, like I'm the worst one in the room.

It's me.

And they're not talking about self-hate and self-deprecation.

I'm just saying just owning it.

If you can be like the person in the story that Jesus is talking about, and recognize I'm the one that's been forgiven the big debt, not a little debt, a big debt.

If you can really own that, then the grace of God and the love of God and the righteousness that he gives you, it seems like something vast, some huge treasure.

But if you feel like you've only been forgiven a little bit, you don't really need that much of it, you're never going to be filled with wonder about this.

And you won't put on that breastplate because you don't really think you need it.

But we do.

And he's given it to us.

And so I want to encourage you, as we as we wrap up, to wear your breastplate, to guard your heart from pride.

And every day, when you look in the mirror, like literally, do this.

It's kind of cheesy, but just do it.

Like God loves that person.

And he he knows the person you're looking at better than you do.

He knows everything.

And he completely, totally accepts and loves.

He declares you righteous.

Totally, fundamentally right.

Now you're like blue cheese.

That's good.

That's a good thing.

We're gonna finish.

We have we have five people getting baptized right now, which is awesome.

And I finished on time, so we still have ten minutes to fit the baptisms in.

Also a good thing.

Not that that doesn't happen on a regular basis, but it happened today.

In the first gathering, we had two people that went all in with Jesus, got baptized.

We've had a lot of people this year.

A lot, more people this year have been baptized at this point than we had in all of last year or in the year before.

It's awesome.

And these five people are uh they're doing exactly what we're talking about.

They are recognizing their need for Jesus, and they're just saying, Hey, hey, I'm I'm I'm just a sinner in need of grace.

And I don't have enough in the tank to do it on my own, but God's given it to me.

And so we're gonna celebrate with these people.

As a church, we're a family, and so anytime someone makes this decision, this is our opportunity to say, we're gonna stand with them, we're gonna pray for them, and we're gonna we're gonna come around them and help them live out this commitment in their lives.

And so, with that said, pray with me.

Jesus, thank you so much for for this day.

Thank you for every person that's here, and thank you, Lord, for the seven people that are part of our family that are getting baptized this Sunday, the two from the first gathering, the five right now.

And Lord, we just want to say that as a church, we will surround them, we will support them, we will come around them in every way we can.

And God, I also pray if there's one person here this morning that has yet to receive the righteousness that you've given us.

If there's one person here this morning that's still holding on to hope that they can do it themselves, I pray that they let that go.

And they would experience the peace and the release that just comes from hearing you say, It's all right, I've made you right.

I've fixed it, I've covered it, I've made you right.

We love you, Jesus.

It's in your name we pray.

Amen.