The Church of Eleven22 - Wk 3: Religious Tradition

Episode Date: January 29, 2023

Religion kills. It’s a trick. It convinces people that they are saved by their good works and self-righteousness. 

Church, how are we doing? Everybody good? All right. I like it. Hey, when I was early in ministry, I was working for a mission organization called Young Life. Work with teenagers

and had never really worked with adults before. Went to seminary, and then Kristen and I got married, and we moved up to Washington, D.C., and we're helping plant a church up there. Really the first time I'd ever worked with adults. And so I'd meet somebody, and I did what I thought you were supposed to do.

It would be like, hey, I'm Adam. They'd say their name. and be like, so what do you do? And they respond with something like this. I work for the government. Cool. What do you do for the government? I work for the government.

Okay, and I just turn around and walk away. Like, I don't know. So I had this friend Joe who worked for the government. And we got to be buddies and I was like, hey, Joe, so when somebody says I work for the government, like, what does that mean? And he said, it means if you keep asking them, they're going to kill you. I was like, okay, that's a showstopper for fun party. And then I remember Joe said something like this, and it was a game changer for me. He said, hey, Adam, why don't you just get a better set of questions?

You're trying to define people by what they do. There's more to people than that. And that changed everything for me. And I said that because we were in this series called Life Defined. We're in the third week, the last week of this series called Life to Find. And we're going to be in 1 John chapter 2. We're going to be in verse 15. So go ahead, grab a Bible, not the gospel of John, but one John.

And it's towards the back of your Bible if you're going there. And it's the first couple of verses that have been the kind of the theme, the centerpiece for this series in Life to Find. And what we're going to do is we're going to dig into these today. In week one, we talked about desires of the flesh. Last week we talked about desires the eyes. This week we're going to talk about pride of life. And man, I'm going to nail it. I'm going to just crush this thing.

Some of you are like, so arrogant. Wait for it. There we go. I'm an expert in this subject matter. We're all over it. But it's interesting when you think about your life being defined. Right? Like you define.

a word, and when you define a word, that helps you understand what that word means. And so, do you understand, like, what life is? Is it just some cells that form together and string together some days and randomly happen, and then they're over and they go away? Is that what life is? Or when you define something, it's like your property lines are defined, right? You understand what you can do on your property, like you can cut your tree down, you just can't cross the defining line and cut your neighbor's tree. down. Or you define something and it tells you the point of it. Right? Like this is a water bottle. I define, this holds water. I don't use it as a steering wheel or something. Like, that's

ridiculous. Or you define something and that lets you know whether you're using it correctly or you let you understand what success is. And so by the way you define your life, it helps you understand what life is. The way you define your life gives some meaning or purpose or some definition to it. And it actually gives you a measure of success in this thing. And the question is not if we're going to be defined by something. We will all be defined by something. The question is what are we going to be defined by or who are we going to be defined by? And for some of us, if we're really honest, Like, if you're really honest right now, how would you define your life? What would be the thing that you would say, this is what marks who I am?

Like, is it your job? Is it what you do? Is it maybe that you don't have a job? And that really, you feel like that defines you because you don't have a job, or you're retired. Or maybe it's your title. Right? You're like, I'm CEO, or I'm president, or I'm assistant to the regional manager, or I'm, I'm, I'm, you know, whatever, I'm an entrepreneur.

It's like, I'm just unemployed. That's what that all that means. I mean, maybe you define yourself by your relationships, like I'm single or I'm married, I'm divorced, I'm a widow. Maybe it's by your kids. Maybe you're defining your life by your kids. Like I've got, I'm a parent of a little kid or I'm a parent of teenager.

Ooh, I'm an empty nester. Maybe you define yourself like you would, maybe you'd never say it out loud. But the thing that you think, you know what, you know what gives me value and worth and meaning and purpose, and I know whether I'm succeeding or not, or some numbers in an account somewhere? Like, how do you define your life?

And so what John's going to do is he's going to tell us how to define our life and how not to define our life. And so in 1st John chapter 2, start in verse 15. This is what John says. He says, do not love the world or the things of the world or in this world. So he starts with a command. Don't do this. Don't, don't love.

Now, when you read love in the Bible, there's kind of three kinds of love. The first one is eros, which is like erotic love. It's where we get kind of all the sexual erotic language from. That's not this. The other one is Phelos, like Philadelphia, brotherly love, like warm, friendly, nice buddies, fist bump.

That's not this kind of love. What he's saying is, this kind of love is the word agape, which is kind of this all-consuming type of love. It's a fully giving yourself to kind of love. It's a life-shaping thing. And so what John says is, hey, don't love, don't shape, don't define,

don't fully give yourself over to the world or the things of the world. Now, when he says world, he doesn't mean like Earth, the terrestrial ball we're on, or the sky and the stars. He's not saying don't love that, that's awesome. Love the earth. He's not saying things of the earth like sunsets and good meals. That's not what he means.

A world, he doesn't mean people. Like for God so love the world. He's talking about people. When he's talking about don't love the world, what he's saying is don't define yourself by a system or a set of values or a structure or a philosophy of life. that at one end, at best, and it's not even best, doesn't take God into account at all. And at the other end is completely counter and in opposition to God.

He's saying, don't love, don't fully define who you are by a view of life that's completely opposite and counter or absence of God. You ever heard where in scripture it will say Satan is the ruler of this world? He's not like the ruler of the earth. The earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof. Satan is the ruler of a type of perspective, a defining of life that is absent of God at best and completely counter-and-opposite of God at all. And so he says, don't define yourself like this.

Don't define your economics like this. Don't define your job. Don't define your family. Don't find sex like this. Don't define human life like this. Don't define success like this. Because at best those things are founded on the footing of something that just doesn't factor God in. At worst, they're all designed to run counterculture to God.

So he says defining your life, defining who you are, don't do that, but this honestly is the normal way that we define our life if we're honest, isn't it? So John says, don't define your life that way. But then the question's, so why? Like, why don't I define my life that way? What's wrong with this? So he goes on and he says, if anyone,

meaning none of us are exempt from this, none of us get off the hook, none of us are the exception. If you're thinking this thing is somebody else's problem, we're in the anyone category. So he says if anyone loves the world, shapes the world, defines themselves in this way, and he's going to give us four reasons why we shouldn't do this, what's a problem with doing this? If anyone loves the world, first one, the love of the father is not in him.

Basically, you can read that little phrase love of the father, one of two ways, right? Because you can read it as God's love for us, like love from God towards us. and he's saying don't define your life by a set of philosophy or values or standards that God is absent from because love of God isn't in that thing. The other way you can read it is to say don't define your life that way because your love of the father,

your love to the father, love from you to the father, isn't a part of that. Because you and I, if we define our lives by the way of the world, the system and structure and values. We'll relate to God in all kinds of ways. We'll relate to God in religious performance. We'll relate to God by ignoring him.

We'll relate to God in rebellion. We'll relate to God by pretending. But the one way we won't relate to God is by love in a relationship. So he says, don't do this. Jesus says you can't serve two master. You can't, you can't love this way of the world and love God. You can't be devoted to this way of defining yourself or else you will detest God.

You can't do it. And a bunch of us have tried, haven't we? And we found out that it just doesn't have any love in it. Like people may want to be around us because we have money or power or status or position or whatever it is, but they don't want to be around us because of love. They don't want a relationship with us. So John says, don't primarily define your life

by the world's systems or standards or values or philosophies because there's no true love in it. It's loveless. So this is for all that's in the world, desires of the flesh, desires the eyes, pride of life. All that's in the world,

here, these three things, here's all that the world can offer you is this. Desires of the flesh, desires of the eyes and the pride of life. That's all it has to offer. And those desires, their cravings, their lusts, it's an appetite,

and they're never met. It's an insatiable appetite. And when you define your life this way, John says, all you'll be left with, all it has to offer you is an insatiable appetite to have more, to feel more, and to be more. and in the end you'll be left unfulfilled and unsatisfied by any of this

and so don't define your life this way all it leaves you with is cravings and lusts that are never met now for just just a minute let's stop kind of push pause and I want to dive into what pride is what the pride of life is because on the surface

it seems pretty simple right you just say pride and in our minds what pops up is bragging, showing, arrogance, ostentatious living, right? But that's just the way we experience pride from other people, and that's just the way we project pride to others. That's just the outward part of pride. Pride goes a whole lot deeper than just bragging.

That's surface stuff. That's easy. Paul says in Romans 12, verse 3, for by the grace given to me, I say to everyone, among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think. Pride isn't, pride isn't, pride didn't just thinking about yourself. Like we, we have to think about ourselves. John Calvin says there's no knowledge of God without a knowledge of self. You got to stop and pause and, like, take account of your life. That's not what pride is. What he says here, Paul says, is don't think yourself more highly than you ought to. Pride's thinking way more about me and too highly of me

than is actually me. That's pride. So don't think more highly than you ought to. He goes on, but to think with sober judgment. Pride is a view of you that's detached from reality, right? If you're not seeing things soberly, you're not seeing them the way they actually are. You got goggles on. And he's saying, don't, don't view life that way. Don't view you that way. But he says, each according to the measure of faith that God has assigned. Pride is a view of life through a lens that we believe that everything in our life, who we are, depends fully and finally on what I accomplish.

It's a belief in me. And Paul says, don't do that as opposed to. to faith, which is a belief in what God has accomplished on our behalf in Jesus. And so I took a stab at writing my own definition of pride. So here, I told you I'm an expert, so I nailed it. Pride is a soul issue. It's a soul issue. It's a heart.

It's way deep down in our core. It's a soul issue that leads me to project. So it comes up, it's not an outward thing. It doesn't start that way. It starts deep down in my heart, and it projects out of me false or inflated versions of me. I got something going on in me. Because of that, some things are going to come out of me

and what comes out of me to cover up what's going on in me are false and inflated versions of me. In order to gain a sense of value or worth, which is what I really believe it takes to be accepted. Pride is a sole issue that leads me to project, brag, flex, name drop, false or inflated versions, untrue things about me. Because deep down, I feel like I need a sense of value

and a sense of worth in order to get you to love me. I feel like your love of me depends on how great I am. And here's the thing. Maybe you've seen this too. Every time I see insecurity and me and I see insecurity and other people sitting right up next to it,

I mean pride is insecurity. Have you seen that? Right? You see somebody that's bragging and you're just like, that's an insecure little puppy right there. And that's not to excuse it. There's just a, there's other things

that go along with pride that just should break our heart in this thing. Because I don't know about you, it's easy to stop and to go, okay, so, I mean, what's the big deal? Really? So what? I tell you, my famous friend, I brag a little, I tell you a little something, maybe it's just a little more true than it. Like, what's the big deal about it? What's the big deal about pride? I mean, who's it really hurting? Pride is really, really dangerous. Pride's dangerous because it's the root of all sin and it makes us look a whole lot like Satan. In Ezekiel, God is talking to Satan. Ezekiel 28 and he says, your heart was proud

because of your beauty. You corrupted your wisdom for the sake of your splendor. And so I cast you to the ground. He says in Isaiah 14, God's talking to Satan again. And this is what he says. He calls him Daystar. How you are fallen from heaven, O Daystar, son of dawn. How you are cut down to the ground, you who laid the nations low. You said in your heart, now listen to this. Listen. God says Satan, you said in your heart, I will ascend to the heaven above the stars of God. I will set my throne on high. I will sit on the Mount of the Assembly and the far reaches of the north. I will ascend above the heights of the clouds. I will will make myself like the most high, but you are brought down to shield to the far reaches of

the pit. I, I, I, I, I. Proverbs 1618 says pride goes before destruction and a haughty spirit before the fall. If you rewind and go all the way back to Genesis chapter three when Adam and Eve are in the garden, do you know what's sitting up underneath that original sin? You can be like God. You can be like God. Just have an inflated view of yourself, an inflated version of yourself. You can be like God. And pride is the root of every single sin in our life. Pride's really dangerous because pride is straight up evil. James 416 says, you boast in your arrogance. All, all such boasting. He doesn't say like just the worst of them. He's going to just the littlest bit of pride.

All such boasting is evil. Not bad. Not sad. That's a shame. All of it's evil. Pride's dangerous because God hates pride. Proverbs 616, it says there are six things that the Lord hates. Seven that are an abomination to him.

And you know what number one is? Haughty eyes. This is pride. That's it. It's pride. Number one on the list. Pride's so dangerous because God opposes the proud. James writes about it.

Peter writes about it. They're just echoing back to Proverbs that says God opposes the proud. Jesus says, whoever exalts himself will be humbled. I don't know about you. I don't want to be on the opposing end of God. I mean, it doesn't say that God ignores the prideful. God turns and looks away from the prideful.

It says that God opposes the proud, like the full force of the almighty God. That's the, I'm telling you, that's the last place I want to be. I don't know about you. No way. and I don't want the promise of being humbled by God. Do you know, you can look at Jesus' encounters, and Jesus is the biggest conflicts that Jesus has,

they're not with murderers, they're not with prostitutes, they're not with drunks, they're with the religious prideful people. That's who he seems to have the biggest conflicts with, every single time. And pride is so dangerous, because pride kills our relationships. Think about it.

I mean, we somehow believe that if we inflate ourselves to other people, they're going to want to love us. The irony is, have you ever been around anybody that's prideful and thought, wow, I love being around them? Give me some more of that. Give me some more. Tell me how you're the hero of every story. Come on. Tell me.

Do the humble brag thing. That's awesome. I love that one. No way. I read this quote from a pastor and author, Ray Ortland, and he said, you can be impressive or you can be known. You want to be impressive? Nobody's going to know you. You want to be known? You just got to lay it down. You got to lay down the pride. Pride's so dangerous. because pride kills our joy and our happiness. Because when pride gets up under there and inside of us, what we have to do then is pretend and perform. Pretend like we're more, perform to be better. And any time you live by pretending and performing, what you end up with is stress and anxiety and fear all day long.

And pride is so dangerous because pride will keep us from seeking a Savior and acknowledging God. In Psalm 104 it says, in the pride of his face, the wicked does not seek him talking about God. And all his thoughts are, there is no God. At the end of the day where pride leaves you in thinking about God is,

eh, I don't need him. I won't seek him. In fact, it's not really God. It's all up to me. It's me at the center, not him. And pride is so dangerous because ultimately it's going to kill you. It will kill you. Romans 2.8, Paul writes this,

for those who are self-seeking, prideful, and do not obey the truth, but obey the unrighteousness. There will be wrath and fury. Proverbs 16, again, it says pride goes before destruction. You want to know where this leads? It kills us. Now the thing about pride, though, is it's so sneaky, isn't it?

Like some of us are sitting here and in our mind, we're thinking somebody really needs to hear this. Right? You're like, you're like, oh, I got a message for you to hear, you know? Guess what? Remember the Jeff Foxworthy You might be a redneck if? Let's play that game with pride. Not funny?

Oh, come on. You might be prideful if. You might be prideful. If you brag, you want up, you name drop, if you flash your wealth or possessions, if you don't ask for help, if you already know all about what's being discussed in the meeting.

If you can't learn from someone younger or less successful or in a lower position than you? You might be prideful. Position or title matters a whole lot to you. If your boss is an idiot and your successor will never measure up, they can't do the job. Man, you rebel, you don't like authority at all.

If you're always right, never admit when you're wrong, get defensive when you get corrected or hear another, Point of view, justify all day long, but never confess, never repent. No way. You might be prideful, overly concerned about your appearance, crave attention and affirmation. You're a people pleaser, or you're overly self-deprecating, a false humility like, don't tell me. Just email me how awesome I am. Don't tell me. Man, helping, serving,

way beneath you. That's somebody else's job, not mine. That critical eye, like you see things, that thing's turned into a critical heart. Or you strategize all day long, man, you sit, whiteboarded all this stuff out, but when was the last time you actually prayed about it? Or the public you and the private you are not lined up. And pride?

Pride will get you because you don't think you're proud. I don't think I'm proud. Everybody else has got the problem. The problem than me. And John says, don't define your life by that way of the world. Don't define your life by a world system that all it has to offer you up underneath it is pride

because in the end it's deadly dangerous. So for all the world has to offer, desires the flesh, desires the eyes, pride of life, all it has to offer, listen to what he says, is not from the father, but it's from the world. verse 17 and the world is passing away along with its desires saying you don't want to define your life that way you don't want that at the core of who you are because it's not from

god the origins are not from god the foundations are faulty right to begin with they're temporary at best completely flawed at worst he's saying they don't ever that way of defining your does not come from God, and it's not ending up with God. He says it's passing away. And passing away doesn't just mean like, oh, it'll be done in a few years. It's meaning the judgment, the just wrath of God, his justice and judgment, will come against the way of defining life that it best ignores him and at worst is counter to him. It is undergirded by a pride of life.

and so he says don't define your life that way don't do it because it didn't from god and it's not going back to god and listen i i sat in this thing all week and i got to this point and it was like dark inside here because i was like i'm so prideful i mean i'm i'm not just saying that so you'll think better of me. Like, generally, I got to this really dark place. And then you get to verse 17, the second half of 17, for all the world has to offer. It's not from the father. It's from the world. And the world's passing away along with its desires. But, but, like, you should circle that, because that might be really, that is the good news in here. But, okay, all of that, that's really bad news. But, and then he says, but whoever. Like,

anyone, all of us are prone to pride. Then John's going to say, but now let me give you some good news for all of us. Let me give you some really good news over and against defining your life by the way of the world. There's another way to define your life. And he says, but whoever does the will of God abides forever, lives forever, remains with God forever. Now listen, if I'm honest, I read that and I go, I don't know, that doesn't sound like a whole lot of good news to me. Like, I got to do a bunch of religious stuff, do the will of God in order to live forever.

I'm just going to end up right back where pride is. I thought that's what we've just been talking about. Like, that doesn't sound all that great. But even if you take at the surface level it to mean that, like God has given us some things in his will to do that will crush pride, how good would God be that he would give us things like that? How good? I mean, God gives us things like humility. In Colossians, it says, put on then as God's chosen ones, holy and beloved, put on humility. Like you are God's chosen. You are his beloved. Therefore, put on humility. First Peter will say it like this. Clothe yourselves, all of you with humility towards one another. He doesn't say like drum up humility, create humility, make humility. What he says is that God opposes the proud but gives

grace to the humble. Do you hear the promise in that? Put it on. Clothe it. It's God's. He He bought it and purchased it in Christ for you. So put it on. Put on that cloak. James 410, humble yourself before the Lord, and he will exalt you. Or Jesus says whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest. But will be the greatest, is the greatest. How good was God that he gives us this humility to put on?

how good is God that he gives us things like gratitude first corinthians he says let the one who boasts boasts in the lord paul writes something like this what have you done what do you what do you have you have that you did not receive if then you received it why do you boast as if you did not receive it like gratitude like saying thank you you want to crush pride say thank you like the other other day, I think it was Friday, Thursday. I went out to the mailbox, check the mail, you know, there's junk mail and flyers and bill, whatever, it's all out there. And I'm flipping through as I'm walking up the driveway. And there's a handwritten envelope. I'm like, okay. I tear that thing open, you know, I'm standing in the driveway, I opened up, and it's a handwritten

thank you note. I thought a robot wrote it for a second. I can't remember the last time I got a handwritten thank you note. You want to crush pride? Make a big deal boasting God, boast in what somebody else has done, platform somebody else, point to somebody else in a meeting and brag on them. It'll crush pride. And how good is God that he would give us something like that? Or that he would give us confession? James says, confess your sins. Pride. To one another. And you will be healed. Like, go to somebody, not just to God, because you can still be like, man, nobody needs to know that. That's pride. Go to somebody and say, can I confess something to you? Sure. I need to confess that I am one of the most arrogance. Like,

no, no, no, no. Don't. And when somebody does it, don't tell them no. Let them. You don't cover their sin. Let Jesus cover their sin. Let them confess it to you. Because the promise is if we confess our sins to one another, we will be healed. You drag that thing out in the light. It can't live. Can't live. There's this great Fabian Hartford is a counselor, Christian counselor.

And Hartford says, confession of pride signals the end of pride. I love that. It doesn't mean it's done with. It's just like you put your turn signal on and you're like, here it comes, the end of it. God gives us prayer, nothing, nothing will crush pride like prayer because prayer is just a big declaration of Lord, I need you. Oh, I need you. Every, God, I need you. Worship? What a gift. This thing that we're doing. This is a gift from God to crush pride in our life because you can't look up at God and look down at other people. You can't do it.

Some of you are like, well, I've done pretty well for the last hour, so good for you. You just didn't worship. You did something else, but I don't know. But here's the thing. If that's, even at the surface, that's what doing the will of God meant here. That'd be pretty great. But does the will of God for John is code language? What it's code for, if you go back and read through John in 1st John, just in 1st John chapter 5,

He'll say things like, this is the love of God that we keep his commandments, and his commandments aren't burdensome. Or Jesus and John 14 will say, if you love me, you will keep my commandments. Do you see that? The will of God is the love of God. So when John says, do the will of God, what he's saying is trust the will of God, believe in the love of God. Lean into the fact that God loves you. Jesus had this encounter and some people came to him and they said, what must we do in order to do the works of God?

And I love Jesus's answer. He doesn't say act religious, didn't give him a bunch of things to do. He just looks right at him and says, you want to do the thing that God wants you to do? Believe in me. Doing the will of God is John's way of saying it's the love of God. you want to live forever you want to drown out pride in your life it's the love of god that will do that listen it's the love of god that reminds us that it's from dust that we came it's the love of god

that he breathes life into us that he knits us together in our mother's womb that he counts the hairs on our head that he numbers the days of our life and he writes our name in the lamb's book of life it's that love that kills pride. It's the love of God that shows us that where we fail, like Adam and Eve, falling to the temptation of the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and the pride of life, that where we fail like that, Jesus succeeded in the garden of the wilderness and in the garden of Gassimony. It's that kind of love that kills pride. It's the love of God that he shows us our sin of pride, and how the wages of sin of pride is death and that Christ died for our sin of pride. It's that kind of love that kills pride. It's the love of God that

Jesus, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God, a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men, and being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. And therefore, God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name so that the name of Jesus, every knee should bow

in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father. It's that kind of love that kills pride. It's the love of God that he first loved us. We didn't choose him. He chose us. And that not many of us were wise

according to worldly standards. Not many were powerful. Not many were of noble birth, but God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise. God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong. God shows what is low and despised in the world,

even things that are not, to bring to nothing, things that are, so that no human being might boast in the presence of God. It's that kind of love that kills pride. It's the love of God that salvation is not by what we do, but why what God has done for us in Jesus, that by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing. It is the gift of God so that none should boast. It's that kind of love that kills pride. It's the love of God that though the Lord is high, he cares for the lowly.

It's that kind of love that kills pride. It's the love of God that all things work together for the good of those who love him and are called according to his purposes. It's that kind of love that kills pride. It's the love of God that His grace is sufficient for us. For his power is made perfect in our weakness

so we can boast all the more gladly of our weaknesses so that the power of Christ may rest on us. It's that kind of love that kills pride. It's the love of God that the meek shall inherit the earth. It's the love of God that by grace through faith in life, death, and resurrection of Jesus, that we may be heirs with God and fellow heirs with Christ. It's the love of God that all things are ours in Christ. It's the love of God that we shall not want.

It's that kind of love. That's an expulsive power, like a real, bring it out of you power of a new affection. And John says, you know what the love of God is? It was made manifest among us. That God would send his one and only son, the way you can know beyond a shadow of a doubt that you can have that kind of love

that will ring pride out. The way you know that is true is that God sent his one and only son and he lived the perfect life. He humbled himself. He didn't need to. He was God on the throne. And he humbled himself to the point of death, death on a cross.

And he cries out, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Because he did not deserve the death. You and I deserve the death. And he died in our place for our sin, for the sin of the sin. of pride in our life. And then three days later, God resurrected him. And if anybody could have walked around with a swagger, come on. You call your death, call your resurrection, and then pull it off?

It's not what he did. Instead, he walked around for 40 days, pleading, pleading, lay down your pride. and take my life, and take my humility, and take my death and my resurrection that secures forgiveness for you. Take that. Believe it.

Define your life by it. And you will abide, you will live, you will remain forever. Forever. So here's the invitation to define your life to love the world, at best, a system and a structure and a philosophy that has no love in it, that's not from God, that's not going back to God, that is deadly dangerous, or to define your life by the love of God that you know in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

And so for some of us today, listen, by God's grace, you would go, yeah, I'm my life is defined by Jesus. And it still currently is. I would say, yes, my life is defined by Jesus. And if that's you, when we worship, boast in God. Like sing, praise, love God. Sing out. Say, God, this is a thing you did in me

and you get all the credit for this. Some of us, if we're really honest, we'd say, yeah, that was me once. But if I'm being totally transparent, What's really going on is I've traded the love of God in for a love of the world. And it's God's kindness that would lead you to repentance. It's God's kindness that he would show you right now the bankruptcy of that again. And maybe what you need to do is come down and just get down on your knees and confess to God and repent.

And I'm telling you, God never turns down that kind of request. Never. And maybe, maybe some of us in this room and in our campuses, what you would say is, honestly, I've never even thought about it. I just sort of always defined my life. I didn't even really think about defining my life. But when you say define your life by the world, yeah, I guess that's what I did. And for the first time your eyes have been open and you feel this thing like, why?

Why do I want the love of God, not the love of the world? I don't, what is that in me? And I would say, that's the spirit making you new. And the invitation to you would be to put down defining your life by the way of the world and pick up the love of God in Jesus Christ for you. Surrender your life to Jesus. And know the love of God forever. So would you bow your head?

And if for the first time you would like to surrender your life to Jesus, would you lay down your pride and would you raise your hand up? If you want to declare Jesus as your Lord and Savior, don't be prideful. Come on, raise him up. Heavenly Father, we love you, we thank you. God, you are the fountain of all things that are good. So, Lord, would you come and wring pride out of us? God, even though it's a hard pill to swallow to stare our pride down,

God, it's a real gift from you that you would show it to us. show us the bankruptcy and the end of it all. God, clothe us in the humility of Jesus and allow us to taste the sweet grace of your love. We love you, God. You are the one that gets to define our life. We pray it all in the name of Jesus. Amen.

Do you stand and let's worship? Maybe you need to boast. on God, maybe you need to repent, maybe you need to just celebrate new life today, but we're going to worship by bringing, by singing, by praying. Let's worship God.