Jesus is Everything

Jesus is Everything

it is good to be with you today. I I’m gonna be teaching today from Second Corinthians 5, 14 and 15. So if you have a Bible turn there, we’re gonna read that in just a minute. Um, yeah. So most important things you need to know about me is, uh, I’m married. Um, my wife, Debbie. She’s, um, can’t be with us today. We live in Papillion, Nebraska. Um, she is remarkable. We have five kids, and they are mostly amazing. Um, they’re, like, 1 to 13. And so it just depends on the day. Probably like me on dso Um it’s really good to be with you this morning. Um and so if you would stand with me, this is kind of my tradition. Um stand with me and reverence of God’s word. As I read it this morning, eso were again second, Corinthians 5, 14 and 15 reads for the love of Christ controls us because we have concluded this that one has died for all. Therefore, all have died and he died For all that, those who live might no longer live for themselves, but for him who for their sake died and was raised. Father would you Would you teach us this morning from your word Lord, we believe your word is true. Um, that lord, your your word forms us into your image. And so, Lord, would you today, um, dive us deeper into that who you would have us to be. And, Lord bless this time, Lord, use me in any way you see fit. I ask in Jesus name. Amen. I mean, you may be seated. So, um, as we as we look at this passage this morning, maybe do a little bit of context into the passage that we’re dealing with eso Here’s some rules of engagement with me. Um, I know that, um, if you’re at home, you can do this to just It’ll be weird because they’ll be doing it to the TV. But, um, I love for people just to give me a little bit feedback when I’m preaching, so you can say amen. You could say right on. You could say I could get down with that. You can say Shut up. You can say whatever you wanted you like, just a little bit if you’re falling with me. All right. So, um so So as we think about this text. Maybe just quick. Do a big overview of where we find this text in the whole of Scripture. And so if you go all the way back to the Old Testament at the very beginning on this is sort of my argument that Jesus is everything and Jesus is the true and full threat of all of Scripture. Um And so when you look at the Book of Genesis, what happens is that God made us, created us in his very image and making us in his very image. He created us in such a way that we lived at peace. Adam and Eve lived at peace with God. And this was like perfect piece, right? Like the kind of peace that you don’t wake up in the morning and wonder what you look like And what people are going to think about you kind of piece, right? Like there’s no, there’s no, there’s no discord. There’s no harmony with you or with others. Adam and Eve rebelled against God, and in their rebellion against God, sin entered into this world. And when sin entered into this world, what happened to separation became between God, man but instantly. God says like humanity. I love you and I’m going to send one to pay the penalty for your sin. He says that I’m going to crush the serpent’s head, right? He’s gonna crush The serpent’s said that his heel would be bruised, that he would crush the serpent’s head. And what I argue is that all throughout the rest of the Old Testament, what we’re going to see is the Brokenness of humanity and the promised healthy anticipation that there is one coming who is going to take away the sins of the world. And it’s kind of like a drumbeat all through the book, right? It’s a drumbeat all the way through the Old Testament that there’s one coming now, the Brokenness we see. And it’s pretty profound. Reno Brothers Killing Brothers, parents favoring a child over another child, causing nations to split and pretty significant problems. So parents today, if your favorite one kid over you probably should stop it right? So I mean, we see broken has happened at the familial level. We see it happened at a societal level. We stayed happened between nations. We see the profound Brokenness of our world death disease, right? Sin Brokenness. But all through the Old Testament, there’s promises and the promises are There is one coming who will take away the sins of the world. There is one coming who will be pierced and beaten and bruised. There’s one coming who will be born in Bethlehem. There’s one coming. There’s one coming, there’s one coming. And then at the end of the Old Testament, the prophet stop and their silence for 400 years. And then right then Jesus comes. And so if you took all the Old Testament, you could just say the anticipation of savior. And so, in the New Testament, maybe break this out in a few different parts. We have the Gospels, which are the manifestation of the savior. Like Jesus actually came. He walked on this earth. He healed. He like he mingled with people he taught. He did the work of ministry. He came, he said, I’m proclaiming the kingdom of God. The rule of God is available to all humanity. But really what the Gospels air all about is simply this that Jesus would be arrested, that he would be beaten, that he would be bruised, that he would pay the penalty for our sins by being hung and crucified on the cross. And the Gospels proclaimed that what God said would happen in the Old Testament. His anticipation. It is fulfilled. Jesus came. He bled. He died. He was buried. He rose. He taught. He commissioned. He ascended, He sat down. He completed the work that was prophesized that would be completed. Now we could just stop there. Right is at the end of the story. It’s not the end of story because he commissioned right in the Senate. He sat down and he launched the greatest movement that would ever be the book of acts of Old Testament and temptation. Gospels are gospels. Uh, sorry. Anticipation. Gospels are manifestation. Proclamation is the book of acts that from acts 1 to 28 What we see is the proclamation of the gospel right. His movement of the church start and continue right throughout the known world. The gospel would be expanded. So what, Jesus said go into all nations. They actually did it in the book of acts. And we’re continuing to participate in that to this day. So we see the proclamation of the gospel go out to the known world. So then we have the letters right? And the letters were kind of like within this history, there’s these letters were written to the churches that were planted in the Book of acts. Corinthians was right. Where we’re at today is the letter that was sent now, 1st and 2nd, Corinthians, Romans orbit of the longer letters. But Paul’s typical letter is written Kind of like this. Um, it’s about five chapters along. And what Paul do is say this like, you know, to the Ephesians, he’ll say, Hey, just so you know, Jesus came, he bled. He died for you on the cross. He has everything and he bled and died and was crucified on the cross for you. And by the way, don’t forget. Please, Please. You so easily forget we so easily forget Jesus came, bled and died for you on the cross. That’s the first two chapters, three chapters of every kind of those smaller letters. And then it will transition and the transition happens. And he says, in light of Jesus, coming and bleeding and dying for you on the cross. This is how you parent, this is how you love your spouse. This is how you’re single. This is how you act as a citizen. This is how you live this out in the day to day of life. So we have anticipation All testament manifestation Gospels Proclamation, Book of acts, right explanation of how to live the Christian life in the letters And then last right, the consummation of all things. The Book of Revelation When Jesus will come back, right? We know how the book ends. No matter what happens this week, which could be crazy or next week or the next week we know that Jesus will return and there will be no more tears. There will be no more pain. There will be no more suffering that he will set all things right in his return. So right, diving back like where do we find ourselves in this text? Well, it’s in the explanation. What does it look like to live out the Christian life? So a lot of times, what we wanna dio and a church or evangelical life is we sort of have, you know, right, you churches sort of. We push people. That’s like you need toe repent of your sins and place your faith in Jesus. And if you do that, you got your ticket to heaven. Now go live however you want. Like we don’t ever say that to people. Right. But we kind of live that out. Anybody ever nobody with me? Yeah, that. I mean, that happens, right? So this happens and we sort of don’t know what to do because, like, I know Jesus, I’m not in heaven. And I got this thing called my life right now, Like, how do I live it out? And this is what Paul is going to write about. The explanation is right now, if you have confessed, Jesus is your lord. This is what it means. This is what it looks like. Toe live for him. And I believe that this text it’s sort of Paul’s way of saying to us, It’s not just like this. Like in Galatians 2 20 he’s going to say almost the exact same thing. I’ve been crucified with Christ. It’s no longer I who lives but Christ, who lives with me in this life. I live in the flesh I live by faith in the one who loved me and gave himself for me that was in first person, right? But now this is like tow us for the love of Christ controls us because we’d So this is to the church. This is sort of the big, like driving statement. Fundamental motive of what it looks like. Toe love, Jesus. Like in my society, in my neighborhood, in my marriage, in my singleness, in every part of my life If I can get this right, everything else will sort of play out. So let’s dig into the text. So it says for the love of Christ controls us. And we’re going to do this real simple, kind of today. So we’re just going to use the words, right? So the first point for the love of Christ controls controls. This has to do with the will. So love of Christ, right? This directed love of Christ toward me. The word and there is a gap A hail crystal, right that this the self sacrificing love of Christ toward me that he and so that words like love it has more to do than just like like an acquaintance, kind of love. This is a deep and passionate, self sacrificing sort of love. So he says this love of Christ directed love of Christ toward me. But Paul’s also offering here to like this love of Christ that I have for him because he’s had this for me now. I grew up with three older brothers and so kind of a joke. I’ve had most of my life, which is sadly not a joke is that I didn’t know I had feelings or emotions till I was 21 years old because I grew up in this like hyper masculine home, and so, like, we all wrestled and like, we’d wrestle my mother and like, I mean, it was just all like, dude stuff and she’d like, run away from anyway. So and so when my brothers like they were older and they were kind of leaving the house and then come back from college and Christmas, you know, it’s that good bye. When you like, you know, you do the man hug where you slap hands, you get a little space because this is too much. And so we’re doing this and, you know, I feel like I should probably now, like I’ve never really told them I love them, but they’re gonna be gone from or for months, I should say, like, Hey, dude, love you. And so it always end up like this wrestling match because we’d be like, because it just gets awkward. And so what do you do if your dude and so awkward, just, like, punch a guy, right? Like, just wrestle and give this stuff. And so this is what we did. And and I don’t know if this is true for all of you, but but saying I love you to someone. It’s a bit of ITT’s risky. It can be awkward. I mean, how many, like, remember when Deb and I started dating? It’s like I think I love her. Should I say that to her? I’m anybody been there with you? Maybe you’re dating somebody in the room right now, and you’re like crap. Why do you say that? This is on the table right now, right? So? So it can be awkward, but but church here, this, like might might us saying to Jesus on a regular basis. Jesus, I love you not being awkward thing for us. I mean, this is the very like. This is the very core of the Christian life is I love Jesus. And in this text, what is going to argue throughout? And the Bible is gonna argue throughout us. Supreme love of Jesus is the Onley thing that can truly fuel the Christian life to a place that honors Christ in life and a supreme love for him and him alone. So it says the love of Christ. Now there’s this weird word for this, right? He says it controls us for the love of Christ controls us now strong language, right? Controls me in my life. So other words constrains directs. There’s an irresistible power. The literal word in this is it impels us to action. So the love of Christ like it impels me to action. I have to do something when I truly see the love of Christ for me in my life. It makes me right When I see his love. I have to Now, Now we don’t live in a day that, like people have sort of casual loves, right? Like our culture is so hot right now. Um, I’m what I’m about to do is explain to you all the political issues of our age. Just kidding. Not doing that right But we have. We have some excessive love and and it’s loud loves of all kinds of things in our culture right now. And what we do know, too, is love can make us do crazy things. Um, so example. So like when I met my wife, Debbie, then just a girl on campus at Wayne State College, the Harvard of the Midwest, And that’s what I call it if you didn’t know that. And so, uh, eso eso I met Debbie and I was like, She’s really pretty. I really like her. I’d like to spend more time around her. So I started doing weird things, right? Like I would walk a very long way to a class to catch a glimpse of her and be like, Oh, my goodness, I didn’t know you had a class here, Wake up early. I’d like I would wake up before 10 and like, do these weird things. Some people call that stalking someone, but that’s what I did. Loves causes us to do crazy things, and I could give 100 other examples. You’ve done some really weird things because of loves in your life, and that’s just not people or romance that’s loves of stuff. Love of people, waiting lines for like overnight with tents to get phones. And these things right? They there’s these crazy things we do for love, not not dogging you like that’s what if that’s your thing, do it. But but love causes is to do crazy things are loves arm or controlling than we realize and are, and like your loves arm or controlling thing. We realized there’s there, but what this text is saying is there’s a supreme love for us that is now are driving motive. The love of Christ controls us. And so what this means is I do things I wouldn’t normally do because of my love for Jesus. So I begin to act. And I began to behave, and I began to say, and I began to do, and I begin to live in different ways because there’s one that I love more than I love me. So the second thing. So the love of Christ controls us because we have concluded this so because we have concluded this. So second point concluded, this has to do with the mind the first had to do with will. I’m controlled by his love right? Love can control us because we have concluded we have to get our thinking right. So having become convinced of so I have right. So I’ve concluded this having become convinced of so that kind of Fraser has to do a settled truth. So there’s some settled truth that I have my life. Like my name is Ryan Johnston, right? Settled truth been called that pretty much my own life my whole life except for a few people have called me other things right, Like I have been like like that settled truth. I have five kids settled truth like empirical like have five kids that that is actuality. My wife is amazing, right? Settled truth, uh, having become convinced of the settled truth And so what it said I have concluded this or we have concluded this. So here’s the Here’s the deal. Settled truth in my heart in life. What is it? So it’s gonna follow right? That one have died for all. Therefore all have died. Now what’s that saying? So one jesus died on behalf of all that Through faith, all have died to self and descend. So when people when we come to faith in Jesus, right? We repent of our sins. We place our faith in him. Then after this, like the Bible teaches us that we should be immersed in baptism, right? And when were immersed in baptism, this is what this picture is way. Say this from baptized people buried with Christ. Yeah, right. You go under the water, raised toe, walk in newness of life. It’s a picture of death to self life in Christ. I remember when I was baptized, I was in the Baptist tree with the pastor and he said, You know, Ryan, like you want to say a word Like why you’re doing this today? And I said, I just want everyone to know that Ryan Johnston no longer lives. But Christ now lives in me, right? Like very my simple testimony of my baptism. So ah, lot of times, what will dio with with things like baptism or, you know, the Bible is we say Okay, So what do I have to dio to be saved? What do I have to these questions like, what do I have to do to really be a follower of Jesus? What if I told you that. I think that’s just like a really bad question. Like Do you have to be baptized to be saved? Do you have to pray this to be the same? Do you have to do that? Do you have to go to church? Do you have to read your Bible? Do you have to pray? Here’s the deal for me. I don’t have to do any of it, but I want to do all of it like I want to stand before people. I wanted to be baptized that day because I wanted everyone to know that there was one who came and bled and died for me on the cross that my sins were my no more. They were. They were nailed to the cross with him and I was a free man and I was a different man. There was no longer living for me, but I was living for Jesus. I had truly been set free from my sin, and I was super excited about it and I still am. And so for us in our lives, right, we kind of deal with these minimum entrance requirement questions when I don’t really think here in the Scriptures we were ever dealing with that kind of thinking. I think what Paul is saying here is that when we truly catch a glimpse of the one who died on behalf of us that we willfully give up self and send to live for him. Now, that’s kind of like the imperative underneath this is that I recognize my need, right. I recognize my need to be rescued, right. The wages of sin is death. But the gift of God is eternal life in Christ. Jesus our Lord, Romans 6 23. What this section is really is like Paul is talking about is the theological word called Substitution Eri Atonement and substitutiary Atonement sense that that one had to die in place of me. So again, here’s the real definition of substitution. One died for all as a replacement and brought undeserving benefit to those who believe so. Meaning that he bore the shame took the punishment on behalf of instead of me. So right coming to the conclusion in my life, right? I deserve death. I deserve judgment. I deserve health, Right? God took it in my place. So it’s like our kids, you know, we’re driving down the road and they say That’s not fair, That’s not right, right? They say these things and then I say, Hey, girls, what’s fair? And then they say to me like Sin, death, judgment and hell just kidding. They actually, they do say that because I’ve taught them to say that like, What’s fair is you get like you get punished, right? But what Grace is is Jesus took it on our behalf, right? And so So maybe think about this like a little bit more right? We have some barriers to concluding these things. I think in our lives, barriers in the church and out of the church. So one of the barriers is rationalization. What we do with our sin is we say, like my sins, really not that bad, right? Like what I’m doing isn’t as bad as like this, like really bad sins, like to put people in jail minds just like a minor offenses. And honestly, in North America right now, like minor offenses, ain’t a big deal to God because he’s looking at some folks. There’s very crazy, right? And so we rationalize our sin. We rationalize our lives. We rationalized well, like I’m really protecting. I’m really helping. And so we don’t We’re not truth tellers. We’re not like we rationalize all this away. Another would be regression. Like at one point in my life, I was I was I was living this way. I was like, I really love Jesus. I really wanted to honor and obey him, but I regressed. And I’m gonna place where I don’t hunger for him. I don’t long for him. When I tell stories about him really moving in my life, it was, like, 5, 10, 15 years ago rather than, like, right now, today has come through things of me disregarding things I shouldn’t have become cold. Others is retaliation just simply saying I’m not going to do it. I’m not gonna I’m not gonna tell others about Jesus. I’m not gonna teach. I’m not gonna pray. I’m not gonna be baptized. I’m not gonna do this. I’m not gonna do that. Like we just sort of stiff arm it and push it away. Sometimes that comes because, right, something has happened. We’ve been wounded, we’re scared, we’re confused. And that sort of take root takes root to a place where we’ve just been stiff arming God. Maybe not as a whole and everything, but in certain areas of our life, rather than choosing to be obedient. Why? Because we love him or redirecting right? I’m pretty good. This one. Let’s just change the subject and not deal with this, right? I mean, have you ever do that with stuff like in relationships were really good at this. Like we just keep trucking on. Let’s just change the subject. Let’s push this to the side. Let’s not deal with this right now. We’ll deal with it in a couple weeks, a couple weeks. Becomes a couple of months, a couple months, becomes a couple of years. A couple years becomes a couple decades right. And at some point we have to resolve these things in our heart and life, these air barriers. But it says having concluded this, that one has died for all. Therefore, all all have died. Have you concluded? Settled truth that Jesus died for me on the cross. The love he showed me gives me eternal life, and I want to live for him because of how and what he has done for me. So the third thing that we see in the text. So we see controls, right? This has to do with our will concluded. This has to deal with our mind and it says who live might. So it says Who lived this has to do with our body. Are doing so that the one who has died for us or for all have died and he died. For all that, those who live might raise your hand if you’re living right. Alright, Praise God, Nobody’s dead today. Listen to me. Preach that those who live might no longer live for themselves but for but for him who for their sake died and was raised. Okay, just we can’t really deal with this until we just all come to like a common agreement on one thing. Do you believe that inside of you is a little bit of selfishness? Just raise your hand, if that’s their right, all right, there’s a couple of you that don’t think so. But most of you are down with that, right? So there’s a selfishness that’s inside of us, and we see it in weird things, like as a parent. I see it. There’s times where I discipline my kids, and it’s straight up because I don’t want him to embarrass me, right? It’s all about me. Like you better shut your mouth. Don’t you embarrass your mom and dad right now like I don’t. It’s not about them being like lovers of God. It is not about them being holy people. When they get older, it’s like, just shit. You better shut it or I’ll put your shoulder through your ear, right? Like And so don’t turn me in and so right, so no longer s o right. So those who live might s So we have the selfishness in us, so there’s a positive and negative that he writes system. So the pot, the negative is no longer live for themselves. This is that we might not Don’t be this way so no longer live for themselves. So this has to do what the day to day of life live like living has to do with when I wake up. And when I go to bed like the day to day, hour by hour, minute by minute that I’m not living for me, the me myself and eye of this world. And again, we just all agree to this. But the depths of me is far deeper than I realized. So years ago, Deb and I, we became thought. We were living in Memphis, Tennessee, and we became foster parents and we had kids living in our house and a 21 point in time. We had a two year old. We had two of our own kids and to foster Children living with us at the time there, all our kids. And so we had a two year old one year old, a six month old in a two week old. We lived in this little house, and so we had a baby sleeping in the closet, a baby sleeping in our room, two babies and bedrooms. The closet was well ventilated, so don’t eso so. And if you don’t have kids, everybody does it. And so just just get put them somewhere where they someone might not wake them up. Basically, when you have small Children, the first four years of your life, like the greatest offensive you could do in the houses, wake a sleeping child. It’s like the death penalty and at a house and so on, and I’m very loud, and I’ve done it often And so So we had Children’s have been all over house. And so the middle of the night, my wife s my baby started crying in the house. Somewhere on Guy was sort of dragging. It was like which kid is crying where they at? And so the child began to cry. My wife said, It’s your turn and we rotated nights feeding bottles And I said, No, it’s your night, right? And we began this argument half awake in our bed of whose turn it was to feed a bottle. And I like, I I would say, I mean, I really felt like I had a strong argument that it was her night, Um, and she had a very strong argument. That was my night. But she had stronger legs than me because she pushed me out of the bed with her legs and I’m laying like I’m on the floor and I’m, uh I don’t think anger is the fullness of the word. I was so mad at her, uh, I was thinking about my I had a big day ahead of me, You know, I’m a pastor. I had the Lord’s work to do the next day I preach. And like she, it was her turn. And so I was developing this court case of my brain of how terrible of a human being she waas and and so in Oddly, the next day, I was gonna preach a sermon called Preach the Gospel to yourself. And it was basically how to kill sin in your life and on Colossians three. And so I walked through the door frame of the bedroom to get a bottle and pure anger, and I preach the gospel to my own heart. Like what my sermon has said. E said Jesus, right? Jesus, you came, You bled. You died for me on the cross. You have served me in a way that I could never serve you back. And I said, Jesus, how you have served me. Help me serve Debbie tonight, right? And now it really wasn’t serving Debbie. We were co. I mean, we’re both parenting these kids, so that was not even fully the right way to say it. But that’s what I did and what was crazy. And I say this, it might be a silly story to you, but it was profound to me because I think it was the first time I ever had a pure motive in my whole life because I didn’t. I didn’t feed a bottle because good Christians are supposed to feed kids, and good dads were supposed to do that wasn’t moralistic. Um, it wasn’t like, Well, if I If I feed the bottle tonight, then I’ll score points with Deb. And that’s good, right? I did it. I love you, Jesus. And you have served me Help me surf And it sounds super simple. Maybe a year like that, like but for me that night, that anger in about a second turned to joy. And according to Galatians five, what happened is the fruit of my flesh was killed by the gospel that night, and the fruit of the spirit was brought to life. Those who live might no longer live for themselves. That was me. But for him, Jesus Christ, who for their sake died and was raised, so died. Let’s not just get past this word. Jesus died for you and me on the cross. He was arrested and he was spit on, and he was marked that his flesh was torn from the back of his head to the bottom of his heels for my disregard for my love of self, for my pride, for my arrogance A crown of thorns was placed on his head a robe put on his back and spit on and mocked even more And he carried that cross up a hill and he hung and he bled And he died for me, for you He was buried in a tube and from that tomb he got up and he walked out, defeating sin, death and hell He died and was raised. He got up and he walked out of the grave. He taught for 40 days. He commissioned his church to his great mission in this world And I believe kind of in that telling them to collaborate together in this great work right that they would be one is We’re one. He prayed in John 17. There he ascended to on high and he sat down, meaning the work is completed, that the Prophet of profits has come and sat down that the King of Kings has come and sat down that the Lord of Lords has come and sat down that the work is completed that by him and threw him on Lee, might we be saved? So those who live might no longer live for themselves, but for him, Jesus Christ, who for their sake died and was raised? What, Paul, I believe, is arguing. What God is revealing to us through this text is that our motives truly matter and how we live our lives for Jesus. Our motives really matter now. We we know we know what bad motives are, right? So, like, if if me preaching here today, um, you came down to me afterwards and you said Ryan Wow, that was such an incredible sermon. Best sermon I’ve ever heard. You know, maybe something like that. Maybe, I don’t know, say something like that. And I said, I know, right? You’d be like, You’re a horrible person and I never want to hear you preach Preach again, right? Like that is selfish. That is vain. Like what? You what you want What we want someone who preaches from here to say is like like praise God. I like you wanted to know they love Jesus and that they’ve invested time this and what you to know. Jesus and his were like, there’s good motive for that we know it from like so example would be movies. I’ll dio ideo old movie and a new, newer segments. So, like old movies, we see it. So anybody ever seen the movie Sound of music? Yeah. Okay, so my grandma and I, we watched that a lot together. It’s like my favorite movie because she s so she was part of it in that literally got it for Christmas one year. And so So there’s this guy in it named Ralph. If you haven’t seen movie, there’s guy named Ralph. Um, he liked one of the There was a group of Children. He liked the oldest daughter. She was 16, going on 17, and he liked her and and he would throw rocks at her window. And there was this kind of romance and then all of a sudden, not so This is not Cesaire bad. We learned this in sound of music and so that he starts becoming friendly with the Nazis, and then all of a sudden it becomes a part of the Nazis and the end of movie. He pulls a gun on her whole family and, like, if you’re watching the movie like you just kind of hate Ralph, right? Because he just moves toward this really bad place of moving in position and power. Any alliance with Nazis, which is always bad, right? And so that’s like bad motives. Bad dude, we don’t like him. Another would be Thanasis an Avengers, right? Like there’s this thing with a knows that we just sort of like hate about him from how he treats his Children to everything else in life. His motives are all about him, the most self consumed being ever wanting to take over the universe and even like the conflicted characters like Tony Stark, who sort of has bad motives at times we still like him because overall his motives seemed pure because he doesn’t want the universe to be destroyed. And so you’re like that is like, Why would anybody share that in a sermon? Those were terrible examples, so right, But But you know this. If you’re married, single if your parents, but we see this like when you see you begin to date someone you see, man, they’re always motivated by money and, like, they don’t even care about me there vain, like they have these character traits. There’s something that you said, I just don’t think I wanna be around this person anymore, right? We see it in culture and society, like there’s motives that that drive us crazy, Crazy Galatians five. Fertility Rite. The Fruits of the spirit in the fruits of the flesh If you’ve not read that, read through Galatians five. We talk often in the church about the fruits of the spirit, but the fruits of the Fleischer, just his prominent and the fruits of Fleischer. Anger, wrath, envy right there, sexual sins, all these kind of fruits of the flesh, things that come out of us naturally, right. And all of these all of those sins have have to do with vanity, with impure motives and excessive love of self right, the fruits of the spirit. When we lay those things down, we were able to experience joy and peace and love and care. I believe this is why, Jesus said right in his coming out sermon, and we see it in the book of Mark and Mark. 1 14 15, he says, Right, the kingdom of God. Hey came preaching. The Kingdom of God is at hand. Repent and believe in the gospel, right? The kingdom of God meaning the reign and rule of God, The love of God, the peace of God, the joy of God. It could be ours in Christ Jesus, Not just when we die, but right now, right here today in our lives. So our motives, right, they matter. It might be good news, like compel our hearts that his reign and rule could come. And might we might We shed these ideas that the reign and rule of God will somehow constrain us. It will not constrain you. It will free you in your life toe. Love him and to live for him and to live in his piece, in your home, in your life, in your work, in your society and all things. So I kind of rewrote the text. Maybe just to simply explain that this is my version, the Ryan Johnston version. It is not authorized. My love for Christ drives me because I am overwhelmed with gratitude for the one who loved me enough to die for me to pay the penalty for my sin that I could not. Now, in my life, I no longer desire to live for myself, but for him, for him, my savior, Jesus Christ, who loved me and died for me. So in light of this passage, what do we do? Well, I believe that when we give our life to Jesus our soul, right way become alive and awakened to him, right? He brings new life into us once we disregarded God. Now we’re living in connection again with our lord, our savior. Our creator and I believe that when we do this, we allow our mind right our will and our body to come together and worship him. So for the love of Christ, right, my will controls me concluding that one has died for all my mind. Therefore, all have died. That one died on my behalf. Now that in my living that I might live, that I might live no longer for me, myself and I But for him, for my sake bled and died and rose. So the conclusion would be that the doorway to the Kingdom of God is repentance and faith. So if you’ve never placed your faith in Jesus today simply it’s repent of your sense. Jesus, I have sinned against you and place your faith in him, saying, I place my confidence in you to save me and redeem me and make me yours. But I’d also say the way to live the Christian life isn’t sort of to leave repentance and faith, the doorstep of salvation. It’s every day of my life waking up and saying God forgive me of my selfishness and my pride. Forgive me of my once and my desires that are not your once in your desires. Today I’m placing my faith and my trust, and you help me today to live according to your word according to your truth. According Thio, What you want my life to be more than what I want my life to be. It’s in a relationship. There’s certain words that you say if you wanna have a good relationship. And so if you’re married dating This is free advice for you, right? Basically four things If you don’t say in your relationship, probably is not a great place. I love you pretty important, right? Thank you. Help me Forgive me, right? I’d say those four things if you if you say those regularly with your with you know your family, your mom. Dad your spouse, your kids. You’re probably in a you’re in Okay, spot. But I’d say the same thing is true. And as we respond to God’s word that I think from this text today a response could be What? I love you. I love you. Thank you for coming and dying for me on the cross. Thank you for substitutiary told me. Thank. Thank you for dying in my place. Thank you for being present in my life right now. Not forgetting about me, You know I love you. Thank you. Thank you for dying. Help me Help me live this out because I’m not right now and I need your help to do it. God is not sitting in heaven with his arms crossed Being like man. I hope Bill figures it out. Poor do down there, right? God wants to partner with us in this, But sometimes we have not said like, Lord, would you help me toe wake up tomorrow and live a different way? Would you bring people in my life that would help me wake up tomorrow and live a different way? Maybe the last is forgive me. Forgive me for my rationalization for my regression for my retaliation for my redirection. Forgive me and teach me to live and walk in a new way. Here’s the deal. No one could do this for you. There’s not enough church buildings that you could go to, not enough worship services. You can sit in not enough kneeling benches or stained glass in the world that can save you or deal with you and God. That’s something between you and him. I don’t know what God has said to you this morning, but what I would urge you is don’t walk away pushing it away. Don’t walk away with a Ndele. Whatever he’s saying, Might we deal with it? So, yes, the last question is what the Texas have you concluded settled truth that Jesus died for you? Is it compelling you to live for him in the day to day of your life? On whatever your next step is to do that? Might you take it? I’m here to help you. I know the pastors and leaders here would love Thio. Small groups toe have these conversations because there’s really no more important conversation than what is it that I need to do to take my next step with Jesus. Let me pray. Father, We are so grateful for you. Jesus, We do believe that you came that you bled that you died. That you gave your life for us on the cross or help us to respond appropriately. Help us to let loose of our lives. To grab hold of you, deliver you and you alone for the person who has never given themselves fully to you. Where I pray today that you would give them the strength to repent of their sins to place their faith in you. Lord, I pray that you’d save them today for the person in this room for the Christian in this room. That or you’re speaking to when I pray that you’d help them to do whatever it is that you’re saying. What is that saying? I love you. Forgive me. Help me. Thank you. Or I pray that you would help us all toe live our lives humbly underneath your authority. So help us in all these things I ask in Jesus name and then