How Grace Changes Everything About Your Life | Mark S4E5 — The Suffering Servant

Man.

Arturo, let's go.

I don't know how to preach out to that.

That's why we do this, guys.

I see Arturo's parents here.

I know you guys are so proud of him.

I've already seen that video and already cried in my kitchen.

And yet, just so proud of what God's doing.

Everything we do in this church is to bring people home.

Because there's a God in heaven that loves them that much.

And maybe you're here and you relate with Arturo's testimony.

Maybe you haven't made that decision to follow Jesus.

But I love what he said.

It's like, man, I feel like I can't even thank God enough for what he's doing.

And I pray that God sends us so many more Archuros to this church.

We need you.

Thank you for stepping up.

Arturo is in the prayer room every Tuesday, which starts at 6 30 a.m.

He jumped into Kirk Track.

He jumped on a serve team.

He gets here early.

This is his alma mater.

You might have missed that in the video, but he went to school here.

And so what a full circle story for Archurro.

And there are many more stories like that.

And so can we put our hands together one more time to encourage our brother Archurro?

Come on.

I want to preach a message today called Grace Changes Everything.

I believe that's what we just saw in that video, that story from Arturo.

Grace Changes Everything.

Just to set this up, if you guys want to go ahead and turn to Mark chapter 10, that's where we'll be today.

Mark 10 · chapter mention

But to set this up, I'm going to tell a quick story of growing up.

I grew up in Southern California.

Did not have ski passes growing up.

I'm excited for that now.

Like, how many of you got your ski pass?

You ready?

Like, there's already snow on the caps of the mountains.

Like Denver's looking beautiful right now.

Cannot wait to ski.

We didn't grow up with ski passes, but we live next to Mickey Mouse.

And so, man, we grew up with Disney passes when you could buy five passes for the price of one today.

Like it was a way different world at that point.

And man, I have been to Disneyland more times than I can count, hundreds of times.

We love that place.

And as a like participant in the park, like a normal person, you get to encounter Disney and all the things like the fireworks, the rides, the shows.

We had the system like we had it cracked.

Like we had before fast passes, like we had figured out how to rig the fast pass system.

So we didn't have to wait in lines.

But there's still a part of Disney that you don't get to see behind the scenes as a normal person.

And so one day we had the hookup with the head of security for Disney.

I don't know how it happened, but we got the hookup with the head of security for Disney.

And he told our family that he wanted to give us this VIP tour.

And so we're like, man, I feel like we know everything there is to know about Disney, but let's go on this tour.

And little did we know there's so much more behind the scenes.

We got to see Walt Disney's apartment, which is right there on Main Street.

He actually lived there as he built Disney, and his kids and grandkids all like lived in that apartment.

And so we got to like see that.

We got to hear stories about his family that we that no one usually gets to hear about.

There's a part at the end of Disney where they always want to leave you with like the best experience on your way out of the park.

And so the very last thing in the park is the fireworks show.

We've seen it a hundred times.

But this time we got to see it from the premiere spot in Disneyland.

So if you've been to Disneyland, there's a train station as you guys walk in, and on the other side of that train station is Main Street.

And at the end of Main Street, what do you have?

The castle, right?

And that's where the fireworks kind of go up.

And man, we've watched the fireworks show a hundred times.

But on this day, and I gotta give you this caveat too.

People wait hours for their spot at the fireworks show to get a spot on Main Street.

We show up five minutes before the fireworks show, led by security.

Like they're they're moving people out of our way.

They lead us to the train station, and we're up on this platform looking down Main Street in a roped-off area with a bench in the middle, and they said, Hey, this is y'all's seat.

This is like awesome.

People think we're celebrities, they're like whispering about us, thought they saw us on TV.

We're just a bunch of nobodies, but we knew the right person.

And we walked out of that experience like that was the best day ever at Disney.

And I just shared with you guys a fraction of what we got to see behind the scenes.

But all of us love VIP treatment, right?

Have you guys ever had a moment like that?

Maybe we have some frequent flyers in the room, and you have like the common people get to you know go through the normal lines, but you have TSA pre-check.

It feels good to walk into TSA Pre-check or clear, right?

And then to skip the line.

It feels good to know somebody that's important that other people don't know.

Feels good to have special access that other people don't have that kind of access, right?

But if we're not careful, and those are good things, but if we're not careful, we can apply that to our spiritual life.

Where it's all about serving us.

It's all about how is God gonna give us VIP treatment?

And again, we're in a situation with Jesus and the disciples where he denounces this.

So if you guys have your Bibles, turn to Mark chapter 10.

Mark 10 · chapter mention

We're gonna start in verse 32.

We're gonna come to the thesis verse of the whole gospel of Mark.

This is what he's been building up to.

Mark chapter 10, verse 32.

Mark 10:32

It says this.

And they were on the road, Jesus and his disciples, going up to Jerusalem.

This is Passover is coming, and so everyone is descending on Jerusalem, and Jesus was walking ahead of his disciples, and they were amazed, and those who followed him were afraid.

I love that there's a tension there that can live in a relationship with Jesus.

He's like, there should be this healthy fear, but also this awe and wonder and amazement.

So the disciples, they're amazed and they're afraid, they they kind of know what's ahead of them, but they don't fully understand the picture of what Jerusalem has to offer.

And taking the twelve again, he began to tell them what was about to happen, saying, See, we are going to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man will be delivered over to the chief priests and the scribes, and they will condemn him to death and deliver him over to the Gentiles, and they will mock him and spit on him and flog him and kill him, and after three days he will rise.

This is the most descriptive teaching we have of Jesus before he would go to the cross.

And I just want to highlight a couple things that are happening there.

Like this proves that he is God, because he names everything that's about to happen in the future.

He's gonna be handed over to chief priests and scribes.

We know that happens.

They're gonna give him to Gentiles.

Who are the Gentiles?

The Romans, and they will mock him, they will spit on him, they will flog him, they will kill him.

All of those things are gonna happen, and then after three days he'll walk out of the tomb.

Jesus predicts all of this.

And then watch what happens.

In the context of that example, verse 35.

And James and John, the sons of Zebedee, came up to him and said, Teacher, we want you to do for us whatever we ask of you.

It's never great to say to Jesus.

And he said to them, What do you want me to do for you?

Still a little compassionate there, right?

He could have kind of went off on them for a second.

But verse 37, they said to him, Grant us to sit, one at your right hand and one at your left in your glory.

Jesus said to them, You don't know what you're asking.

Are you able to drink the cup that I drink, or be baptized with the baptism with which I'm baptized?

And they said to him, Yeah, we're able.

They have no idea what they're saying yes to.

And Jesus says to them, The cup that I drink you will drink, and the baptism with which I'm baptized you will be baptized.

But to sit at my right hand or my left is not mine to grant, but it is for those to whom it has been prepared.

And when the ten heard it, the other ten disciples, they're kind of missing out on this moment, but then they catch wind of what's happening, they began to be indignant at James and John.

Also the wrong response.

Verse forty two, and Jesus called them and said to them, You know that those who are considered rulers of the Gentiles, they lord it over them, and their great ones exercise authority over them.

They they use their authority to abuse people, that's what he's saying.

But it shall not be so among you.

But whoever would be great among you must be your servant, and whoever would be first among you must be slave of all.

And here's the key verse in all of Mark, to build into this moment, verse forty-five.

For even the Son of Man came not to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.

We've kind of seen three different iterations of this moment with Jesus and his disciples.

And a few weeks ago I talked about what greatness looks like in the kingdom of heaven.

Jesus is once again teaching them what greatness looks like in the kingdom of heaven, right?

You have to go low.

It's not about climbing the ladder.

So we did a whole sermon like that's on the podcast.

If you guys want to check that out, today I want to go come from a different angle.

Like, what is the why behind why we serve?

We understand what greatness looks like in the eyes of God, but why?

Why is that the case?

And here's the main idea I want to unpack for us today.

Serving comes from an overflow of grace, not obligation.

Serving, that heart posture of being a servant, comes from an overflow of grace, comes from understanding the gospel, comes from understanding the free gift that you've already received.

It's an overflow of what God has already done in your life, what you've experienced.

It's not out of duty for him, it comes from a place of delight.

Serving comes from an overflow of grace, not obligation.

So today we're going to walk through four reasons that grace changes everything.

Grace changes everything when you understand the grace of Jesus.

Reason number one is this grace is undeserved.

Grace is undeserved.

You might be in church your whole life, and you can still miss this.

We take credit for the work God's done in our life a lot of times.

I love our true testimony.

It meant he just came to church, he said, God, I want you to save me.

There was nothing he did to clean up his life, right?

The Holy Spirit moves in and cleans up your life.

You come to him as you are, and he does all the work.

He went to the cross, he paid for it in full.

Like he did all the work for salvation.

All we did was ask for his free gift.

And I love what happens here.

Jesus is on his way to Jerusalem.

They're headed to a funeral, and the disciples are arguing over the seats at the wedding reception.

Just think about it for a second.

Like, how low is your emotional intelligence to be fighting over seats in glory when three different times, chapter 8, chapter 9, chapter 10, and this time very, very clearly he told them what's about to happen.

Three different times he said, I'm gonna die, I'm gonna suffer.

All these things are gonna happen.

And yet here they are thinking about themselves.

You can be walking with Jesus and still want the wrong things.

That's what we see here.

And Jesus is headed to Jerusalem to die for these disciples.

And what are they doing at the same time?

They could not be thinking about anybody else but themselves.

They miss it.

And yet I want you to know Jesus is still headed to Jerusalem for them.

Romans 5.8 says, God demonstrates his love toward us, and that while we were all sinners.

Turn to your neighbor and say, All.

That includes you, that includes your neighbor, that includes the other neighbor you ignored on the other side.

All of us are sinners.

God demonstrates his love toward us in that while we were all sinners, Christ died for us.

While we were competing, just like the disciples, you know, Peter would go on to betray Jesus three times to deny him.

Judas would go and stab him in the back and betray him.

Jesus is going to the cross for these ragtag, messed up people.

And you and I are no different.

We bring nothing to the table that's attractive other than God made us in his image and he set his love on us.

But there's nothing we bring, like our best works are like filthy racks.

And yet grace is undeserved.

His closest friends are arguing about who gets the corner office.

Put this in perspective a little bit.

In Matthew 19, Jesus actually told them, like, hey, you guys are going to sit on 12 thrones in the kingdom.

So this is where this is coming from.

But James and John in this moment, they're like, Jesus, man, I want to start by saying thank you for the 12 thrones thing.

That's kind of cool.

But can we get the ones like right next to you?

And Matthew actually says their mom asked the question.

So they put their mom up to who knows?

I don't know what's going on.

Like, if you have to ask your mom to like ask Jesus for something, you're probably you probably should ask that question, right?

They're following Jesus for what they hope he will give them, not for who he is.

But here's what I want us to see: Jesus is still headed to Jerusalem, knowing what's in their hearts, knowing how many times he's told them this over and over and over, and they still don't get it, and they still make it about themselves.

And he does the same for you and for me.

Knowing he would create us, knowing we would turn our back from him.

And grace starts by understanding that it's first undeserved.

It's a free gift.

Here's what I want to ask you today.

How often do you thank God for saving you?

Because man, we could get used to playing church, we can get used to coming in here, you can even get used to having a quiet time and still miss the person you're reading about and meeting with.

Right?

You can make that academic or a checklist.

But man, how often do you thank God for saving you?

We sang that song Living Hope.

Like he says that we've been set free.

Like, thank you, God, hallelujah.

Like, praise God, that's what I mean.

Hallelujah.

Thank you, Jesus, for say set setting me free for saving me.

I think the disciples just misunderstood that this was always about Jesus.

Grace is first undeserved.

A grace that changes everything is also number two, a grace that's unconventional.

A grace that's unconventional.

Here's what he says about the ways of the world, Mark 10.42.

This is where the disciples have all kind of caught wind of what's happening.

All 12 disciples, he's pulling them together, they're all angry at each other.

I love here too that if you think back a couple weeks, the three disciples that got to go up the mountain with Jesus was Peter, James, and John.

And Mark is riding through the eyes of Peter.

So Mark was not a disciple of Jesus, but he's riding through the eyes of Peter.

And it just puts this into perspective a little bit because only Mark mentions the two disciples by name who asked for Jesus' right and left.

Because I think Peter's a little salty that he he was with the three, and now all of a sudden they're trying to cut him out of the kingdom of God and the places of honor.

But then we see in Mark 42 that grace is unconventional.

Jesus says this you know that those who are considered rulers of the Gentiles, they lord it over them.

He's saying, You guys are acting like a bunch of pagans.

You're acting like the world.

What does the world do?

The world uses power to build a platform for yourself.

The world uses people to make them serve you.

That's what we see all across the world.

And he's saying to the disciples who've been following him now for three years, watching Jesus lay down his life, watching Jesus be interruptible.

And he's looking at the disciples and he's saying, You guys are missing it.

You're acting like the world.

But in the kingdom of God, what is greatness?

The kingdom of God uses power and influence to actually lay that aside and to serve people.

Not to get people to serve you, not to use people.

But in the kingdom of God, God gives you influence, God gives you power, God gives you authority.

So just like Jesus, you can set that aside and you can serve.

If you think about the very last night of Jesus with his disciples, we're kind of getting ahead in the story.

But he would share the Passover meal with them.

What did he do at that last meal?

What did he grab?

He grabbed a towel and he knelt down to his disciples' dusty, dirty, dank feet.

Like they wore sandals, and it was they walked everywhere.

Like you can imagine how smelly that was.

And as a way on the last night before he would go to the cross to tell his disciples this is how you should serve, what did he do?

He got down and washed their feet.

The lowest job of anyone in the house.

Reserved for the lowest slave in the house, the lowest servant.

Grace is unconventional because it takes what the world says is leadership and it flips it upside down.

Just think about this for a second.

Grace gets his identity from Jesus.

Grace gets his identity from what God says about you.

So if what God says about you is he sees you as a son and a daughter, that you have full divine approval.

That God, the creator who made you, who saved you, who died for you, looks at you and you have his full pleasure, his full approval.

There's nothing you can do or not do to make God love you more or less than he does right now.

Full divine approval.

If that's true and that's the identity you're walking in, how easy it is to then go and serve other people?

Because you're you're actually free to serve people.

But flip it around.

If you are starving for the approval of people around you, if you are reliant upon what your friends think or what your parents think for your approval, you actually are a slave to other people.

You're not free to serve them because you need them.

Right?

You got to use them so that you can feel better about yourself.

And so the identity that comes from grace in the creator who made you actually frees you to serve other people.

It's a grace that's unconventional.

It's a grace that goes against the flow and the status of our world.

It's a grace that looks different.

If the world defines your greatness, you'll miss the greatness of Jesus.

So here's a question just to kind of frame this for us today.

Are you more concerned with how much you've accomplished?

Man, look at my stats, my success.

Look at my portfolio, look what I've built, look at my followers, look at these likes.

Are you more concerned with how much you've accomplished, or are you more concerned with how much or how many you've influenced because of what you've accomplished?

Here's what a grace that's unconventional, that goes against the world would do.

Yes, accomplishments are great.

You should want to succeed.

You should be the best employee in your workplace, you should be the best student on your campus because you have a calling that is higher.

It's like everything you do is worship.

It should be the best.

But the end is not so people look at you.

It's not to get the stats so people pat you on the back.

In a grace that's unconventional, that goes against the world, that looks like Jesus, is to take what you can accomplish and then to leverage that to pour into other people and to make an eternal difference.

That's the reason why you're an employer or a supervisor.

Maybe you're the lowest rung in your company.

And yet, you can still serve.

You can still demonstrate the gospel through a grace that's unconventional.

So it's undeserved, it's unconventional.

Number three, grace is uncomfortable.

How many of you have an uncomfortable Christianity?

We don't love this topic.

But this is what God calls us to.

This is what we see in the person of Jesus.

Verse 43 Jesus says, But it shall not be among you.

But the Gentiles act this way, the pagans act this way, this is the way of the world, but it shall not be among you.

Let's just personalize this for a second.

I'll use my my house for an example.

You know, maybe this is the case with the Joneses.

And if your last name is Jones, I'm sorry, it's just an example.

The Joneses act like this, but it shall not be this way with the Withers.

Not in our house.

Like we're gonna have a grace that gets uncomfortable to obey the Lord, whatever he asks us.

This shall not be the case with CBC.

And maybe you've been a part of churches where we get this out of whack and we make it about us.

But man, may it not ever be so with CBC, not with this church.

May we see the gospel and want to live this out in every way.

Here's what Jesus is saying: you have a higher standard, you have a higher calling.

As a Christian, as a follower of Jesus, as a disciple, like we choose to pay the higher cost.

If these are the two options on the table, like we choose to pay the higher cost, we choose to go lower for the sake of someone else.

How can you get more uncomfortable in the way you follow Jesus?

I was just thinking this for a moment.

Maybe you're an athlete in here, and maybe you're one of the better athletes on your team.

Playing basketball, like pretty good at free throws.

People on our team struggled.

Man, I can get my shots in and then just bounce.

Or I could stay late after practice and help somebody, maybe rebound for them so that they can work on their free throws.

Apply that to running or whatever sport you may be in.

You know, leaving the office, maybe you got all your stuff done, and maybe someone's staying late.

And this isn't like a workaholic moment.

Like, definitely don't be a workaholic.

Go home, be with your family, have priorities, have boundaries.

But maybe in this moment, someone's staying late because they just need more help.

And instead of going home early, you say, hey, I'm gonna, I'm gonna I'm gonna go lower in this moment, and I'm gonna stay late, I'm gonna help you finish whatever it is.

You know, that's not on my job description, but man, I'm gonna step in and serve.

You can apply this in the home, in the household.

You know, siblings, you probably have chores chore lists.

That's not on my chore list today.

But man, what would it look like to be like Jesus and say, hey, I will do that anyways?

The way of Jesus is uncomfortable.

We choose to go lower.

Here's a question you could ask just to evaluate that.

You can either ask this question how can I be, how can my heart be more transformed to look like Jesus, through making myself uncomfortable, through listening to the promptings of the Holy Spirit when he says, do this, then I'm gonna do it?

Or I can ask this question, which is probably more in line with what we normally ask: how can my position be more improved to serve myself?

Like basically, how can I get out of being uncomfortable and into a comfortable, more comfortable spot?

We ask the question instead, how can my heart be more transformed to look like Jesus?

Here's what I believe to be true.

In the kingdom of God, the most important people in the room may be the people that no one notices.

Even right now, we have people that are running slides in the background, no one notices them, and their job is to not be noticed, because that means things are going wrong up here, right?

But they are serving faithfully.

There's people that got here early at 7 o'clock, not for recognition, but so that you could encounter Jesus in a distraction-free environment.

There's people watching our kids right now, pouring into them, teaching them Bible lessons, teaching them about God, giving them a fun experience about church that when they look back on church, they'll have the best time on Sunday out of their whole week.

That's that's our goal with our kids' ministry.

But man, they are in there giving up a moment to sit in a service and to worship on this Sunday so that families can be in here undistracted.

Not for recognition, but they're making themselves uncomfortable to serve and go lower so that you guys can experience Jesus in a comfortable way.

And we can do that to the nth degree.

I think back to my freshman year in college, and I was saved at 10 years old, but my freshman year in college is where I really started living for the Lord.

I moved away from home for the first time, 1800 miles from my family, which for those that you have have done that to college students in the room, like that's why we love college students because I've been in your shoes.

We want to be a church that's home, away from home for you.

But man, freshman year of college, God called me into ministry, and I had been running for four years, and I finally surrendered to ministry.

I was studying engineering, all of these classes weren't gonna transfer.

Like I'd already done all the work.

I'm like, man, I'm I'm paying for all these classes that I won't even get credit for.

And in a way, like, those were some of the consequences I had to reap.

So I stopped going to class and I bought a Bible, and I sat in my dorm room, like 80 square feet, and I put the date in that Bible, February 26, 2012.

And I'm like, I'm gonna like for the first time get serious about my faith.

I spent hours reading that Bible, hours meeting with God, hours crying in that dorm room.

Sorry for where I've been, sorry for not taking God so seriously, but for the first time, grace had changed everything for me.

That I wasn't okay living the same way anymore.

And in that semester, spring semester of my freshman year, God gave me this as the life verse for me.

Philippians 3, 7 through 11.

This is the Apostle Paul who had it all on the world's terms, and this is what he says about meeting Jesus, and this is what I felt in that moment as a freshman in college.

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.

Your translation might say manure.

Like that's literally the word for manure.

I count them as nothing.

I don't even want them.

I count them as rubbish in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him, 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, the power of his resurrection, that I may share his sufferings.

Did you catch that?

There's a little uncomfort there, that I may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, that by any means possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead.

God gave me that as my life verse at 19, 20 years old.

And it is still the cry of my heart.

That God, don't let me stop one inch short of living the life that you died for me to live.

May I see this grace that changes everything and want to go to the nth degree to be faithful to you.

That's what he says, that by any means possible I may be found faithful.

The grace that changes everything is the grace that gets uncomfortable.

And we in a staff meeting this last two weeks ago, maybe just talking with our staff, I was like, man, I don't want our church to get comfortable.

I want to call us to keep sacrificing because Jesus is so much worth it.

Number four is grace is unmatched.

So these three build to this.

We have a grace that's undeserved.

We have a grace that is unconventional, we have a grace that's uncomfortable, but that's why it makes number four a grace that's unmatched.

Mark 1045 says this for even the Son of Man came not to be served, but to serve and to give his life as a ransom.

He's saying the Son of Man, the Son of God has come, the eternal son of God existed with God, perfect relationship for the first time, has left heaven, set his majesty aside, come to earth, not to be served, not to roll out the red carpet.

There is a day that that's coming, but when he comes this first time, he comes as a servant to give his life as a ransom.

Why does Jesus use the word ransom?

This isn't a word that's commonly around the New Testament.

There's words like atonement that have some like crossover here, but why the word ransom?

There's no other religious leader that has ever made or could ever make this claim, by the way, that they came as a ransom.

This sets Christianity apart from everything.

We needed a ransom because we have all willingly sold ourselves into slavery.

We've sold ourselves into bondage to sin.

And a ransom is the price that you pay for, don't miss this, a slave, a prisoner, or a criminal.

And we are all three, apart from Jesus.

We're a slave to our sin.

We're a prisoner.

We belong to the prince of the power of this world.

And then lastly, we're a criminal, like we have offended a holy God.

Do you realize the gravity of that moment?

If that's the end of the story, no hope.

No amount of good deeds and righteousness can erase that payment, that debt that you owe.

That's why if you reject Jesus, you have to pay for it for all of eternity, separated from God in a real place called hell.

And yet Jesus loved you enough to step out of heaven, into our trailer park, to come to this broken world, to put on flesh, to become like us, not to be served, but to go to the lowest spot possible, to die for all of humanity, innocent and yet died in our place.

Righteousness demanded it.

Some of you are like, why did Jesus have to die?

Couldn't God just like forgive us and like we all that all paths lead to heaven?

No.

Righteousness demands a sacrifice.

Romans 6.23 says the wages of sin is death.

And so, because of our sin, we all have a payment of death.

And so if God is going to stay just and righteous, he can't just dismiss that death, but he sends a substitute, his own son, into that place to pay that.

So righteousness demands it, but love is what provides it.

Righteousness demands that payment.

Jesus, out of love, provides it.

I have a picture of the Hoover Dam that I want to throw up here real quick.

Jesus, in his talk with his disciples, he talks about a cup.

He says, Are you able to drink the cup that I am drinking?

And he's talking about the wrath of God.

So I want you to picture this for a moment.

The cup, the wrath of God poured out for every single sin committed by every single human that's ever walked on this planet or ever will, past, present, future.

That's a lot of wrath.

Because God's just and it has to be paid.

And the best way I can picture this is the Hoover Dam.

If that's holding back the wrath of God, I just Googled it.

I was like, how much water is that?

29 million acre feet, whatever that means.

It's a lot.

Like, we don't even use that.

29 million acre feet.

And this is what Jesus did for you and for me.

That was coming for all of us.

Like that's the judgment of God.

Because of us as sinners.

And Jesus steps into this place.

The damn breaks on the cross.

And all the wrath of God poured out on Jesus the cup.

Every last drop for your sin.

He took it all.

And in place of that, his righteousness transferred to you.

That's how much God loves you.

I don't think we understand the gravity of our sin.

How weighty it is before a holy God.

1 Peter 1 says this about the sacrifice of Jesus.

Knowing that you were ransomed, there's that word, from the feudal ways inherited from your forefathers, not with perishable things like silver or gold, but with the precious blood of Christ.

That is what bought your salvation.

Like that of a lamb without blemish or spot.

The spotless precious blood of Jesus stepped into your place on the cross.

That is a grace that is unmatched.

And as believers, as followers of Jesus, what's our response?

And we get to tell people about that story.

We get to walk in freedom, we get to walk in this new identity, full divine approval.

God doesn't look at you and now see your mistakes in your past.

Man, he sees the perfection of Christ clothing you.

So now out of freedom, you get to lay down your life to serve others.

And here's the big takeoff I want to leave you with today.

If you're like, man, how do I how do I know if I'm growing in my relationship with Jesus?

I think this is a pretty easy sign.

The easiest way to see if you're growing closer to Jesus is to look for a servant's heart.

And I'm not just talking about on a Sunday morning.

I'm talking about at your workplace.

I'm talking about your neighbor who you probably don't even know their name.

I'm talking about the random people you meet traveling in a coffee shop, the people at stoplights.

Because right after this, Jesus is heading to Jerusalem.

He's they stop in Jericho, and there's a man crying out, Son of David, have mercy on me.

We already preached this earlier in the year, so I'm not going to preach that.

But Jesus stops and he heals this man to prove everything we just said.

That no one is out of reach, that he's not too busy for anyone.

That's his heart.

He's on the way to the cross and he stops and he heals blind Bartimaeus.

And you and I are the same Bartimaeus that was on the side of the road.

Blind, desperate, destitute.

And Jesus stopped for you.

So as followers of Jesus, we get to do the same for others.

We get to do the same for others.

It's not a have to, it's not a must.

It's an overflow of grace.

Let's pray today.

God help us today to serve you out of an overflow of grace, not obligation.

God, thank you that grace is undeserved.

Thank you that it's unconventional to the ways of the world.

It looks different.

Thank you that grace is uncomfortable and costly.

And help us to embrace that.

And God, thank you, last and foremost, that grace is unmatched in beauty.

When we look at the cross, God, we see your wrath poured out on Jesus for the sake of us.

So God, today we just say thank you.

God, I pray today that you would remind us of a grace that changes everything about everything, about everything.

That we would not leave this place the same.

We would not get tired of your grace.

But God, to the int degree would you pour out more in our life so it would overflow into the lives of those around us.