God in Search of Man (transcript)

Yep. Alright. We’ll wait for the coffee. We’ll wait for the coffee to kick in. Nancy, thank you.

So good to see you all here this morning. Welcome to the TMC, our cozy living room. It’s a it’s a great fun, unique experience. Mean, else in the middle of church do you get to stand up, walk over to the refrigerator and help yourself to a fizzy water? Crack a cold one, it’s not too early.

There’s also a little connect card in your seat. If you’d like to fill that out, you can. There’s also room on the back for a prayer request if you have that. On Monday morning, our team, when we meet for staff meeting, we pour over those prayer requests, we pray over them, we lift them up, we take them seriously, we consider it a a great privilege to be able to join with you in prayer. I’m so glad that you guys are here this weekend with us.

Last couple of weeks, we have been in a series of conversations about Israel and this week since it’s Valentine’s Day weekend, I hardly ever preach thematically like, you know, along with like holidays and seasons and things but I don’t know, love was in the air this weekend and so I thought maybe I would do more of a love Valentine’s Day oriented conversation. And when I use that word conversation, I do mean that. At the church that you come from or that you’ve been at recently, it’s probably just like the the one fold your hands in your lap. Keep your hands to yourself, well not here at Tribe. What what I’m saying is, I mean the venue is conducive to conversation.

And so instead of just me up here on the stage, I really want it to be us in this together. I would like for us together to dive into the content, to have discussion about it and instead of just the sage on the stage in a monologue, I want this to be a dialogue so that we can engage with these things together and if you have questions or comments or connections, all you have to do is raise your hand and we have Ella that’s running the mic around in the room and I know you know this but we have the mic in the room so that all of our families that are traveling for sports this weekend or out of town on the long weekend, they get to tune in to the livestream and also be a part of the conversation and get to hear your contributions and your connections. So if you have something to offer, just throw your hand up and Ella will get you the mic in the room. Sound good? Okay.

So this morning, let’s talk about love. And if you are taking notes, you can write at the top of your notes the title of this morning’s conversation, God in search of man. God in search of man. And if you have a bible with you this morning, would you open up your bibles and let ‘s turn to Genesis. Genesis chapter three and click on verse six.

Would somebody please read Genesis three six through nine for us as we get started? Oh, Joe. Joe’s always willing to. I mean, it’s not as good as how Ella did last week but I know why you can do that. Oh.

So maybe I should Yeah. Maybe I should hand it off to Ellen. It’s big shoes to fill, Joe. I know. I know.

I’m I’m I’m shaking in my boots. The woman was convinced. She saw that the tree was beautiful and its fruit looked delicious. She wanted the wisdom it should it would give her. So, she took some of the fruit and ate it, and she gave it gave some to her husband who was with her and she and he ate it too.

At that moment, their eyes were opened and they suddenly felt shame at their nakedness. So, they sew sewed wow. Sewed fake leaves together to cover themselves. When the cool evening breezes were blowing, the man and his wife heard the Lord God walking around in the garden. So they hid from the Lord God among the trees.

Then the Lord called to the man, where are you? Okay. A little Let’s let let’s have a little bit of fun with God’s question. When you read that in the bible, you don’t need the mic in the room but when you read that in the bible, what tone of voice do you hear in your imagination when God asks that question? Give me an example.

Charlton Heston and the 10 commandments and how how might Oh. How come you don’t read the bible like that? I think I will. Yeah. Let’s give Nancy a shot.

So so one, where are you? This deep commanding booming voice. How else do you hear it in your imagination, that question? Where are you? Okay.

Right, right, right, right. In what voice did you hear it? You’re with Gretchen? And how would you describe that question that he asks? He’s sad, he’s heartbroken.

So slightly playful knowing exactly. Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes. Okay, so isn’t that interesting? We all have the same text in front of us but our idea of God in our mind’s eye in part dictates how we read that passage with the Charlton Heston booming commanding. I won’t go so far as to say that you think that he’s angry but maybe there are people in this room, maybe that’s just his voice.

Maybe there are people in this room that when they hear that, they hear the voice of an angry God that that he has already pulled his belt out and Adam is not where he should be and he’s about to get a whooping. Well, knew that they did something wrong. Well, brings us to another good point. As you look at the text, it’s not a whole lot of verses, just six through nine. Are there any other observations that you see in the text that are noteworthy or or a detail that stands out.

I’m not fishing for anything in particular. We’re about to head off in a direction but as we just examine the text together, what details or what things stand out to you? Any other observations that you have? Ladies and gentlemen, Jesus on the drums this morning. Caleb, we love we love having you.

We love having you back. It’s not Jesus, Zoe, it’s Caleb. Oh here it comes. Okay. Well, now you need the mic.

Okay. Fine. Hey. I’m literal. Okay?

I thought it was interesting that after they ate, their eyes were open and they realized they’re naked. I mean, they’ve been together all this time. Yeah. And then they just eat the fruit and go, oops. Can anybody relate to certainly not themselves, but maybe a friend of yours where you’ve known between right and wrong and you’re like, how much is the wrong?

And no sooner than you do, you’re like, that was really dumb. Yeah. Do you know anybody like that and certainly nobody in here. Corey’s the only honest one in the room. What were you gonna say?

I was just gonna say the very first line is the woman was convinced. Like she wasn’t like, know. Just kinda see what happened. Like she was convinced this was this was gonna be a good thing. Interesting.

Or it’s convinced that’s what she really wanted. Interesting. There is a repetitive phraseology used in the old testament that is a clue for us to let us know that something not great is about to happen. When they see it with their eyes, and if you look in this in this passage, you’ll see that Eve says, she saw the fruit was pleasing to her eyes. Later, in the old testament, Achan, he sees things that are pleasing.

David sees Bathsheba. Those eyes, you gotta watch your eyes. You can’t trust your eyes. Joy, did you have something? Two things.

I just noticed in verse eight. In my version, it says that they heard the voice of God walking in the garden at the time of the evening breeze. Like, why why include that detail that it was at the time of the evening breeze, and then they hid themselves among the trees in the garden. I don’t know. It’s just a couple of things that I jumped out.

But I was also wanting to answer from before. When God asked, where are you? I’ve been doing a study in Genesis right now, and they were talking about how this is, like, a God’s chance. Like, he, of course, knows what they just did, and he immediately confronts them with an opportunity to repent by saying, where are you? Like, here we are.

Or he comes in, reaction could have been, I’m right here. I made a mistake. You know? And he offer and he can offer him a chance to be redeemed immediately, but they hid instead. Guess we’re good.

Everyone have a good Sunday. Happy Sunday. Here’s a here’s a truth that is that is grounded and founded in this this passage, that humans are hardwired for connection and relationship with their creator. We see that dynamic playing out in the garden before the fall. But here’s also something that’s interesting, but within each and every one of us, there also lies a pernicious bent towards rebellion.

Pernicious, you can look that up to see how to spell it. Now, what is rebellion? Rebellion is the propensity to break the moral law code of the universe. Now, no one would disagree that there are physical laws of the universe. It doesn’t matter if you believe in them or not, they are objective truth.

They’re not subjective truth, they are objective truth. For example, you could stand on the top of a high building, not believe in gravity, take a step off and where will you go? Straight down. Similarly, there are laws of nature. You can never breed a dolphin and a sloth.

It it just it just won’t happen. You can’t breed an apple and a tomato but they’re both red, they’re both yummy, they both like are tasty, they’re both round. It don’t matter. You can’t do it. There are certain laws and in a similar way, the universe has been structured with a moral law as well.

And I’ll prove this to you. Eliminate all because when you think of morality, you tend to think of of here we are in church, Christian morality. Just take Christians, Christianity off the table for a second. Do a survey of every single human civilization and every human culture in any part of the world throughout all of history and give me one example where a murderer was lauded as a as a hero. Now he would be a despot and people may may praise him out of fear but when in any society and culture is murder been an esteemed quality of a person or lying.

Oh man, I really like that guy. He is such an incredible liar, backstabber, murderer, like, oh, oh, I just I just love him so much. I wanna be like him someday when I grew up. There is a in the same way that there’s a natural law, there are physical laws, there is a moral law in the universe, and rebellion breaded deep deep deep within our being is the propensity to break the moral law code of the universe. And here’s something interesting.

The moral law code is the intrinsic instinct that all of us have to know between right and wrong. For those of you who have raised children, then you’ve said the cookies are on the table, they are for after dinner, you cannot have one until after dinner. You turn your back for five seconds, turn back and one cookie is missing and you look at your child and they’re, man, it’s me with chocolate, their hands behind their back, did you did you take a cookie? Opportunity for repentance and they’re like, they know instinctively. We have this propensity towards rebellion.

So here’s what’s interesting, choosing wrong over right is has a name and it’s called sin. And sin leaves a permanent mark on our hearts that cannot be easily erased. So these two drives, a drive for connection and relationship with the creator and this drive for rebellion are in conflict with each other within the human heart. In order to satisfy the drive for connection and relationship while holding fast to rebellion, man has gone through great lengths to create what we would call today religion. How do I hold on to that rebellion and satisfy my deep longing for relationship with my creator.

It’s called religion. And in a moment, if you’re like, oh great, is that what we’re doing here this Like aren’t we in church? Like I hope that you will see, soon see a distinctive between religion and relationship. Okay? So listen to this.

When a person holds on to rebellion but tries to satisfy that deep longing for relationship and connection with God, they form religion and that would be the equivalent of what in my little AI photo that I made. What do you see in this picture that reeks of religion? That’s right, the fig leaves. Adam and Eve, after they sinned in the garden, to hide their nakedness as if they could fool God, sewed garments for themselves out of fig leaves to hide and cover their nakedness. And man’s best effort at holding on to rebellion and trying to have that relationship in connection always ends up in religion which is really nothing more than sewing together fig leaves to cover the stain of sin on a person’s heart for having broken God’s moral law.

So it is that rebellion that is the wedge that separates man from his creator. As Joy beautifully pointed out earlier, had Adam just repented, I wonder how the story of man would have gone differently cause sin already entered. But it’s that rebellion that lies within each and every human heart, that’s what creates the wedge. Man’s best effort to bridge that gap that has been created is called religion. And I don’t know how many of you have been there but how many of you have seen the the beautiful painting on the Sistine Chapel?

I mean, it’s incredible. Did By chance, did you get yelled at by one of like the Vatican guards that are like, maintain silence and just like, ugh. It just scared me. No photografio. So when you go into the Sistine Chapel and you look up at the painting, one of the iconic moments is the hand of God reaching out to the the languid hand of man that is making a feeble attempt to reach and touch the the finger of God.

Striving, yearning to touch and reconnect with God. When we think about religion as a vehicle for trying to reconnect with God, it’s worth taking a moment to do just a quick survey of the the big the big three religions in the world and let’s look at man’s effort to try to reconnect with God. Religion is all about man’s activity and energy and striving, trying desperately to reconnect with God. What do I need to do to earn right standing with God? And maybe you took a religious studies survey class in in college, but think about Islam.

What is required in Islam for a person to go to heaven to earn that right standing with God at the end of their life? Well, there’s a lot of good deeds that must be done. They you have to perform a pilgrimage to Mecca. You have to strictly adhere to the five pillars of Islam and if maybe if at the end of a lifetime of trying to have your good works outweigh your bad works. When you die, you will walk the sword of Allah’s judgment.

And if your good works outweigh your bad works, then you will fall onto the good side and you will earn right standing with God. Remember that class in in in college? Hinduism. Billions of Hindus around the world. What is their pathway to earning right standing with God?

Well, constantly making sacrifices to appease the pantheon of gods. You’ve got Shiva, Vishnu, Ganesh, you know, the elephant god of like okay. Ganesh. And then, through a lifetime of making sacrifices and to appease the gods and living in constant fear, perhaps through many reincarnations. A lot of attempts at this life, maybe maybe after I don’t know how many reincarnations.

Maybe then you would achieve a state of nirvana. That smells a little bit like teen spirit. Or Mormonism. How about Mormonism? Participation and required religious ordinance ordinances here and like Mormonism around the world, around this country a little more.

In this neck of the woods, Mormonism is has some traction. But even in Mormonism, it’s all about man’s effort to climb his way out of having broken God’s moral law and him striving and working to earn his right standing with God by participation in required religious ordinances and faithful good work including knocking on your door on a Saturday when you’re just trying to like enjoy a day at home and here they come. So for a lot of people here in the West in The United States, they really don’t subscribe to any of those religions. I’m not an adherent or a proponent like, alright, you do you, like that that’s great for you. I’m so glad that you found your truth.

But then the the modern westerner, the modern American. They don’t subscribe to any of these religions. Instead, they think of themselves as a modern, rational, enlightened man of science and reason. The modern man has no need for religion. But man cannot deny his core drive for connection with the divine and thus springs up a whole new religion like out of the forehead of Zeus in Greek mythology.

The religion of being a good and moral person. What must a person do to earn right standing with God and who even is God in this religion? Ultimately, God is who? Self. And being an enlightened Well, I’m a man of science.

I’m a man of rationality. I’m a man of reasonability. Alright. Thank you for sharing with me your religion and now I know who your God is. Well, what are the what are the dictates of this God to earn right standing with yourself?

I’m gonna be a fair person. I’m gonna be an honest person. I’m gonna be a moral person. I’m gonna work hard to have a good reputation and the admiration of my peers, those that I lead and the leaders above me. In this religion, a person is their own god, their own arbiter of right and wrong, of good and evil.

So that when you transgress and break your own moral law, you just add another fig leaf. I mean, yeah, that was not so great. But what do we tend to do to compare ourselves to after we’ve made a mistake of commission or omission, we forgot. What do we tend to do after that transgression? Well at least I didn’t mess up as bad as so and so.

And we tend to morally evaluate and judge ourselves against a standard that is less than our average putting us in right standing with us. Please, Bethany. I would say like the other direction with that, I think though too, is like without God, like if we make a mistake or do something that doesn’t align with our moral compass, and there’s also the like hole you can dig yourself into of like, I’m the worst and there’s nothing that could help me too. Perpetual self loathing. Sure.

I’ve blown it again, I’ve messed up again. The bible Paul is speaking and he says, oh wretched man that I am, who will rescue me? I’m gonna double my efforts at being a good person. I’m gonna double my efforts at excelling at work. I’m going to try to climb and claw my way out of this hole that I’ve created myself.

All of those will put on one side of the equation. And now look at the other side of the equation, standing in stark contrast to these gods and religion created by man is only one being in the entire cosmos. He is eternal, he is uncreated, he is self existent and the bible says that he lives in unapproachable light. He is our creator. Whether you acknowledge him as our creator or not, he is the one that set the universe in motion.

The bible says that he can weigh out the mass of the entire cosmos with one grain of sand in his hand. He can measure out all of the oceans of the world with one drop of water in his hand. The bible says that he can hold the span of the entire universe between his pinky and his thumb. He exists outside of space and time. He created space and time and he is not bound to space and time.

He has a proper name and his name is Yahweh. He is the God of the bible. Among the many magnificent attributes that God possesses, some of them are what’s known as incommunicable attributes like our little human brains cannot fathom some of the incommunicable attributes of God. For example, God is quite comfortable living in a paradox. Our brains don’t like paradox.

Is he the stone, talking about Jesus, is he the stone that the builders rejected or is he the bread of life? Is he the lamb of God that takes away the sins of the world or is he the lion of the tribe of Judah? Some of his attributes are communicable and he doesn’t withhold them from us like playing hide and go seek with a child where you go and hide in a place that a child would never even conceive to look. I think that’s how a lot of people think of God. We’re we’re we’re on a little bit of a progression in a journey and they think of God as like okay, I know that there’s a God, I know that it’s not Allah, I know that it’s not or Vishnu.

Okay. I’m a deist, I believe in a god but he’s really unknowable. He’s so far distant and removed. His attributes cannot be known and he’s just kind of up there and he has that Charlton Heston voice. Adam, where are you?

One of the remarkable attributes about God is that he is holy. Holy means set apart, and he is perfect. There is not a single flaw to be found anywhere in his nature and character. He is so perfect. The bible says this about him, that there’s no darkness within him at all.

The bible says that his eyes are so holy that he can’t even look at sin. The breaking of the moral law. The bible also describes Yahweh as the God of love. Name any other God and look up on Wikipedia. Remember when we used to trust Wikipedia or even use it?

Type in a God, look up their attributes. Are any other gods known, identified by the demonstration of and the possession of love? So god is holy and the bible describes and he describes himself as a God of love. Now what’s the what’s the conflict that immediately rises when we talk about those two attributes? Can you see the tension that instantly develops?

What’s the tension between a holy God and a God of love? What’s the tension that you see that emerges? What do you see? Oh, I thought you were I was like, oh, somebody’s gonna take a shot at this. Clay, give it a shot.

Alright. Take a swing. Step up. Is it judging? More.

Say more. Gosh. Bethany tell him. An oxymoron with me to say more. Oh yeah.

Well, I don’t think we quite understand, or maybe back then did not understand that when you judge others, you have to basically judge yourself as well or realize that you’re going to be judged, and you’re gonna be held accountable for the way that you judge, the way you interpret the scriptures. Part of the nature of Yahweh, and I use his proper name to distinguish him among other gods instead of just generically saying God, part of his holiness, what you’re getting at, is that sin must be judged. So how does a holy God judge sin and yet be known as a God of love? How does let me phrase it this way. How does a perfect and holy God embrace sinful man?

Especially if he’s set apart. He sends his son to die on the cross. All of Sorry. All of religion I’m trying to build something. I love it when y’all spoil my message.

Message. All of religious effort is all about man trying to earn and claw and achieve on his own right standing with God. Wouldn’t it wouldn’t that be great? If you do this, this, this, and this, you and I, God says, are good. What if they were just, oh, don’t know, let’s say 10 laws.

If you could just keep 10 laws, that’s all you gotta do and you and I are good. How many of you would wanna know what those 10 laws are? How many of you realize that those 10 laws are actually written on your heart long before you ever cracked open a bible. And let let let’s do a quick little test to just see if maybe possibly you could qualify for earning on your own right standing with God by just taking a quick little test. So one of the laws, the moral law of nature says, thou shall not lie.

Now I would like you in front of all of these other people to raise your hand if you have ever No, I’m just kidding. But take this take this quick little quiz in your heart. Have you ever not told the truth? Has there ever been any time in your life where you’ve not told the truth? K.

That’s called that’s called lying. And and in a similar way, we could ask an expert in law breaking. How many laws does a person get to break before they’re a law breaker? Harsh. Whether you get caught or not, you break one law, you’re a law breaker.

So if you tell one lie, what does that make you? Anybody in here, don’t raise your hand, ever taken something that doesn’t belong to them? What is that called? Stealing. And how many things and it doesn’t matter if it was a car or gold bars from a bank or an eraser off of your neighbor’s desk at school.

If it doesn’t belong to you and you take it as your own, that’s called stealing. And how many things do you get to steal before you’re a stealer? One. And what do you call a stealer? A thief.

I mean, we could we could go on. We got eight more rules that we could go through. So so consider just really quickly, just two. A liar, a thief, we haven’t even gotten to the others. Did you know that the bible says, if a person in the book of James, the bible says, if a person keeps all of the law and stumbles at just one point that they are guilty of having broken what?

All of the law. Your efforts at adherence to a religion created by man or you worshiping your own god by trying to be a good, right, and moral person does absolutely nothing to remove the stain of guilt from your hands of having broken God’s moral law and all of your best efforts, I would say, are nothing more than sowing fig fig leaves, but the bible goes well beyond that to be extremely graphic by saying all of your good moral deeds, trying to earn on your own right standing with God is like walking into the throne room of heaven where the king is seated and you’ve put on your best garments and they are covered in excrement. So here we have the most difficult problem in the universe. How does a holy God embrace sinful man? The most difficult problem in the universe requires the most brilliant solution ever conceived and this solution did not come from the minds of man.

How does a holy God embrace sinful man? Clay, now you can say it. He sends his one and only son. Not coming down from a beam of light. I am perfect and you must do your best to follow me so that you can earn right standing.

God’s like, you ain’t gonna make it. I will send my son in human form, fully God and fully human. Born like all other babies are born, kicking and screaming, dependent on his mama, having to go through an entire human experience yet without sin. That’s one of the many remarkable things about Jesus from Nazareth. Without sin, to live the way that we live.

Tempted, the bible says tempted in every way that we were, but without sin. He passed the test. You know those 10 laws we talked about a moment ago? Nailed it. Every single one of them.

First time, cold bore, perfect. And then was accused by man in religion of false crimes, sham of a trial, committed to paying the penalty for capital punishment under the Roman law which was to be stripped naked and hung on a cross until death. His blood was poured out, which we’ll come back to in a moment about the stain of sin on man’s heart. His blood was poured out and he died. Was laid in a tomb for three days, but the bible says that the wages of sin is death.

Well, did Jesus sin? No. So death, no, had no rightful claim to keep him. And he rose from the dead on the third day. Now maybe you’ve heard that story before, but maybe you’re hearing it afresh with new eyes today or ears, I guess.

God realizes that man cannot earn or call his way back to heaven. So instead, God comes down to earth. For millennia, man has created religion in search of God but only the God of the bible is the one who left heaven in search of man. Following Jesus, I won’t even say Christianity, following Jesus is unlike anything else on planet earth because it begins with knowing there’s no way, no matter what my service record shows, there’s no way that I could ever earn right standing with God. You know it, God knows it, God comes up with the solution and says, I’m coming in search of you.

I will go to great lengths to bridge the gap. So here’s what so here’s what here’s what Jesus did. That wedge of rebellion Jesus erases it with his great love. That bridge of religion that man tries to adhere to earn his way with God. Jesus says, my love just covers over all of your striving.

Was that cute? Valentine’s. My love would like, stop. Stop. Quit trying to earn favor with me.

I love you. We do tend to make it hard. Jesus’ love melts the wedge of rebellion. Jesus’ sacrifice bridges the gap between creator and creation. You know, in the just a few moments that we have left, there’s a a story that I heard recently of a a man in Europe who, when World War two broke out, Nazi soldiers, broke into his home, ripped his family out of his home, and his whole family went to, one of the death camps in your Dachau, Birkenau.

His wife was murdered. His children were killed. Somehow, miraculously, he survives the death camp. After the war, he comes back home only to find that his home and his whole city has been essentially reduced to rubble due to the ravages of war. Heartbroken, he looks at where his home once stood and sees that there’s nothing left.

But then he remembers before SS guards came and ripped him out of his home, His wife took her wedding ring off and put it in the false bottom of a dresser drawer. And so he says, if I could just find that ring amongst all of the rubble rubble and ruin. And so he sets to work on his hands and knees, pulling apart timbers and removing brick, clearing out debris. And he looks for one day, two days. His neighbors see that he’s back.

You made it. You’re alive. What are you doing? And he’s like, I’m looking for my wife’s wedding band. Well, is it expensive?

Is it about no. It’s a very simple, very simple, easily overlooked gold wedding band. And they’re like, well, let’s help you. So they join their neighbor in searching for this wedding band. One day, two days, three days, a week of searching, they don’t find it.

The rest of his neighbors neighbors and friends are like, it’s a lost cause. It’s a little simple gold wedding band that you can like, you’re not gonna find it. They leave. He continues to look and search, moving brick by by brick, broken timber after broken timber, busted wall clearing out the debris on his hands and knees with his hands bloody from digging through the dirt and the rubble. Not weeks, months goes by, and he has a single focus to find this wedding ring against all odds.

After months of tearful searching, he finds the busted up dresser. He carefully removes all of the debris around it, opens up the splintered false bottom, and there is that golden wedding band. He grabs it, and he clutches it to his heart, and he just begins to weep. And later when he was asked, why were you so emotional about this wedding band? He says, it’s in a way, have redeemed all of the horror that has happened to my children, to the loss of my wife.

And in a small way, I get a restored relationship with my wife by holding on to this ring. In a similar way, Jesus has gone through great lengths and crossed an uncrossable chasm by us to search us out. He is the god in search of man, and he will go through great lengths to reveal himself to you, and I’ll prove it to you. How many of you moved to Jackson Hole and were like, I really wanna move to Jackson and pursue the Lord? Certainly wasn’t my story.

I moved to Jackson to climb big mountains, ski big lines. How many of you find yourself in church on a Sunday morning here in Jackson Hole, Wyoming? You thought that you were making a decision. You know what? I’m gonna go to church this morning.

Really? That was all orchestrated by the Lord to bring you here, the great lengths that he would go through, to whisper a message of love and reconciliation to your heart. Abandon your false religion. Quit trying to be a good person. Drop your rebellion.

Because the Lord would say, I am in. I am the God in search of you. So how does this just the last thing. How does this relationship get restored? How do I restore that relationship with Yahweh?

This is I’ve taken you about as far as as as I can go. Number one, repent of your rebellion. Repent. That’s called sin. Number two, ask Jesus to forgive you.

I’m sorry. You didn’t shed your blood on the cross. He shed his blood. That’s why you have to ask him to forgive you because it is his blood and his blood alone that can remove the stain of sin on your heart. Only his blood can.

Number three, invite him into your heart. The Bible says that at that moment, you become a new creation. Not just, alright. Well, from this point forward, I’m gonna give you a second chance, but you better not blow it. The Bible says you literally become a new creation when you invite Jesus into your heart.

And then the fourth thing is you make him the leader of your life. I’m going to abandon trying to follow my own ways, trying to follow my own whims and desires and what I think is good and what I’m gonna abandon all that. Jesus, the best way that I know how I’m just gonna follow you. This is as far as I can take you. Anyone within the sound of my voice this morning that feels like, this was for me.

And you know that you need to take care of business. This is as far as I can take you. The rest is up to you. I’ve put in the skin track. I’ve stomped out the transition area, but I can’t ski the line for you.

That was good. With the last few moments that we have left, why don’t we take a moment and invite the person of the Holy Spirit to just whisper to our hearts for a moment. We’re almost done with service this morning, but let’s just make a little bit of room for the Holy Spirit to just whisper to us. And if you’re like, I don’t know what you’re talking about. In the stillness of your heart, you can just say, Jesus, will you talk to me?

I’ve heard that you’ve been in search of me my whole life. I wanna be found by you. Just just talk to him. Just talk to him. Come, Holy Spirit.

We love you, Jesus. Just talk to us. Listen for his voice. His voice does not sound like Charlton Heston. His voice does not sound like an angry parent.

His voice sounds like a loving father who has crossed the chasm, who has removed all barriers, and who longs for that restored relationship with you. Adam, where are you? Can you hear his invitation to come running into your arms? Listen for his voice. My heart, you you can have every part of me.

Just sing Let’s that together. Every time we come together, we just practice something as a family and we say, lord, we love you and we trust you. So, we are going to bring our tithe and offering to you. That’s a portion of our finances that we make and we just stay. This is one way that we say I love you and trust you and it’s a way to stay calibrated.

One of the things on the board was making the Jesus the leader of your life and one of the ways you do that is just to stay and remain obedient. So that’s something we do every week when we come together as a tribe family. So let me pray over us, and then I’ll tell you just a few ways to give, and then we will get out here. Heavenly father, thank you so much for who you are. The chasm that you bridged with your love is just unfathomable.

Thank you so much for who you are and how you love. We love you so much in return, and we just try daily not out of well, we do it out of obedience, but not to try to earn your favor. We already have that because of your love. But every day, we just say, we love you. Let me try to show you how.

So we thank you so much for everybody today who’s giving, whether it’s now or another time. Lord, we just wanna calibrate our heart with you and with what you’re up to. So I thank you for Tribe, this local church. Thank you that we have the honor and the privilege with these funds to do the work of the ministry, to be your hands and feet, to love on our neighbors and beyond. Thank you so much.

We love you. In Jesus’ name, amen. Pastor Ryan, please come pray us out. So sorry. There’s three ways to give.

If you have cash or check, there’s a box right here as you head out with our tribe logo. There’s also a black lockbox downstairs right outside the front door. You can also see here, this is the easiest way to give. If you open your phone like you have a new friend, and you type in the number (833) 369-7847. And then what you type, is next, the dollar sign, and then number the amount that you wanna give.

First time, it’ll take a few minutes. Either way, if you give before next, they go to You can this is for tribes next home. You say next. If you just wanna give to the general fund, say give dollar sign, dollar amount, and it’ll take you to the church app. You can give to different things.

So Thanks, A. Just before you get out of here, I I had one last slide. It’s my little way of being creative with AI, of man being Oh, oh, look at him. Stand up. Let me pray for you.

Lord Jesus, thank you so very much for being good to us. Thank you that you are the God in search of man. Thank you for searching us out. Lord Jesus, I command a blessing over each and every person here. Help us in the jobs that we have.

Give us favor with our coworkers and with our bosses, the people that we lead. Give us favor in our schoolwork. Give us favor on our sports team. Lord, I command a blessing over each and every person here this morning. One more time, we tell you that we love you, Jesus.

We pray these things in Jesus’ name, the strong son of God. And everybody said, amen. I love you. Travel safe back to where you came from. Have a great week.

And remember, Phil, you got this.